Jason Mannino

TRAGI-COMIC CON Desert Ensemble Theater’s (DET) current production, Eliza Clark’s Future Thinking, closing on April 23, is the final play in their season of “West Coast Originals.” The company dedicated the 12th season to new work by under-produced West Coast playwrights, which included two world premieres, one California premiere and the current play, which appears…

TAKING HOLD OF EVIL Robert Askins’ 2011 two-act Hand to God is both an existential, insightful commentary on religious hypocrisy and a hysterical dramedy about Tyrone, a possessed sock puppet with a raunchy mouth, violent tendencies, and an overactive sex drive. Given the religious right’s current/ongoing tirade against art, books, sensible gun laws, women’s autonomy…

ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE IN THE DESERT Entering the theater at Desert TheatreWorks in Indio (between Palm Springs and the Salton Sea), it sure didn’t feel like the desert. I was greeted by Jimmy Buffet’s Escape to Margaritaville cast members who placed a Hawaiian lei around my neck while at the same time I was awestruck…

A REAL BEAUTY Desert Theatricals’ line-up for next season is exciting, but there was nothing more thrilling than being in an audience filled with awe-struck children to witness this magical production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. It was a smash on Broadway in 1994 and it remains a smash in 2023, as corroborated by…