Jason Mannino

THERE’S A BRIGHT, GOLDEN HAZE IN THE DESERT As the audience sat under a gorgeous golden sky with incessant desert winds, Jordan Killion sang “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” in his stunning, Broadway-worthy baritone as Curly: “There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow … the wind is so busy it don’t miss a tree.”…

GET A PARKER TICKET Michael McKeever’s newest play Mr. Parker, under Randy Brenner’s sublime direction is Dezart Performs’ final production this season running through April 21. McKeever, (Daniel’s Husband) has written a well-acted, swift, 90-minute portrayal of domestic life. Terry Parker, a 54-year-old gay writer residing in the condo building Ansonia on the Upper West…

NICE WORK! CVRep is closing its 23/24 season this month with a bewitching production of Nice Work If You Can Get It running through April 28th. Like other “new” Gershwin musicals including Crazy For You (a reimagining of Girl Crazy) and My One and Only (derived from Funny Face), Nice Work is crafted from remnants…

DAMN, IT’S GREAT Desert Theatricals hits another home run this weekend with their contagiously joyful production of Damn Yankees at Rancho Mirage Amphitheater running through Sunday, April 7th. I must confess, I never fully embraced the Damn Yankees phenomenon. Up until last night, I had not seen a full stage production. I had only seen…

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul. — George Bernard Shaw With Avenue Q, Mid-Century Moderns, and The Boy Band Project, Palm Springs’ newest professional theater group, Revolution Stage Company (RSC), has been knocking it out of the ballpark since it launched its inaugural…

NEW PLAY ELLIE SHOWS ITS UNDERBELLY Desert Ensemble Theater (DET) is one of the boldest and few Coachella Valley companies committed to creating new work and producing envelope-pushing plays. At the end of DET’s current season — it’s thirteenth — DET  executive director  Shawn Abramowitz and artistic director  Jerome Elliott Moskowitz will have commendably produced fourteen world premieres….

A CASE OF GREAT THEATER It is rare to see intimate, loving friendships between straight and gay men both in life and on stage. In A Case for the Existence of God, running at Dezart Performs through March 10, playwright Samuel D. Hunter masterfully crafts a narrative that defies stereotypes and societal norms, portraying a…

ALTERNATIVE FACTS This past weekend Desert Ensemble Theater kicked off 2024 with The Lifespan of a Fact, a poignant and funny play by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Jordan Farrell. Based on a book by Jim Fingal and John D’Agata, who detailed their personal experience preparing a magazine essay for publication in 2003, the play’s…

HEARTBREAK AND HILARITY IN FULL DISPLAY Palm Canyon Theater has launched into 2024 with a revival of Del Shores’ uproarious and heartfelt Sordid Lives. The playwright himself introduced the show on Saturday evening, graciously acknowledging Palm Springs and recognizing the city’s integral role in the tremendous success of both the play and the movie adaptation….

WHAT A GREAT SHOW CAN MEAN TO YOU Dezart Performs kicked off 2024 this past Friday with a compelling production of Heidi Schreck‘s What the Constitution Means to Me. When I saw the direct-from-Broadway production at Mark Taper Forum in 2020 it stood as a profoundly relevant tour de force. Astonishingly, since then, we have…

IT IS, INDEED, ONLY A PLAY; IT’S THE ENSEMBLE THAT MAKES IT MORE The Bent, in partnership with the Palm Springs Cultural Center, runs Terrence McNally’s It’s Only a Play for its final weekend this Thursday through Saturday. Go see it. The play unfolds on the opening night celebration for the Broadway premiere of Peter…

IS THIS ENSEMBLE GREAT? YOU BETTIE BELIEVE IT Desert Ensemble Theater (DET) launched its 23/24 season tonight, November 10, with Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties, a play so provocative that some publications won’t publish its full title: Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties; In Essence, A Queer and Occasionally Hazardous Exploration; Do…

THANKS, BUT NO THANKS Dezarts Performs (Dezarts) has opened their new season with a fine production of Larissa Fasthorse’s The Thanksgiving Play, which runs just two weekends, ending this Sunday, November 12. The Thanksgiving Play had its world premiere in 2018. As of April, 2023 it is the only Native American play written by a…