Jason Mannino

A LUSH, ROMANTIC JOURNEY THROUGH LOVE AND TRANSFORMATION Since Adam Karsten‘s arrival as Artistic Director at CV Rep, the quality and consistency of the theater’s productions have improved exponentially. The current production of The Light in the Piazza, directed by Karsten, takes this progress to the stratosphere. Mollie Vogt-Welch, Daniel Lopez, Logan Graye This 2005…

WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS FAT HAM Dezart Performs solidifies its reputation as one of the premier theater companies in The Valley—and possibly all of Southern California—with its current production of Fat Ham, running through January 26. Given the lack of diversity on Coachella Valley stages, it’s invigorating to see a play featuring a full…

39 STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION Adapted by Patrick Barlow from John Buchan’s novel and Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film, The 39 Steps is a comedic thriller blending spy drama, physical comedy, and theatrical ingenuity. In the outrageous, hilarious spoof, now playing at CV Rep, Richard Hannay (Matthew Floyed Miller), a dashing Canadian visiting England, meets…

LOOT IS A HOOT Loot is Joe Orton’s darkly comic masterpiece that eviscerates societal norms and exposes the hypocrisies of authority figures with razor-sharp wit. Two young men, Hal and Dennis, rob a bank next to a funeral parlor and attempt to stash their ill-gotten gains in the coffin of Hal’s recently deceased mother, Mrs….

ABNORMALLY REAL CV Rep opened it’s 24/25 season this past week with a triumphant production of the rock musical Next to Normal, ably directed by CV Rep’s Artistic Director Adam Karsten.  Groundbreaking in its exploration of mental illness, grief, and the impact these issues have on a family, the show won the Pulitzer Prize for…

OOH LA LA FOR  LA CAGE AUX FOLLES With songs by the incomparable Jerry Herman, bookwriter Harvey Fierstein once again broke ground after his Torch Song Trilogy with La Cage aux Folles. It was groundbreaking as the first Broadway musical to prominently feature a gay couple as main characters along with an ensemble of drag queens,…

HELLO HELLO BIRDIE! Waxing nostalgic about the 1950s is never out of style as Palm Canyon Theatre ably proves with their current production of Bye Bye Birdie running through July 14. Bye Bye Birdie is a classic musical, famous for its satirical take on rock ‘n’ roll and its takeover of pop culture in America…

A REVUE THAT GOES STRAIGHT TO THE HEART AND SOUL This past weekend, one of our boldest theater companies in the Coachella Valley, Dezart Performs (Dezart), launched a new program called Cabaret at the Pearl with the revue Straight to the Heart – A Tribute to the Legacy of Rodgers & Hart at the Pearl…

SEE THE LIGHT Palm Canyon Theatre (PCT) opened a glorious production of The Light in the Piazza last Friday, and it’s sensational. Based on  the  1960 novella by Elizabeth Spencer,  the  musical is set  in 1950s  Florence, Italy, where Margaret Johnson (Se Layne), a wealthy Southern woman, and her daughter Clara (Nicole Kennedy), who is developmentally disabled, are vacationing from  the  US. When…