Los Angeles

SINK YOUR TEETH INTO THIS A gloriously excessive spectacle eventually falls victim to an overdose of songs The Nocturne Theatre in Glendale is quickly becoming one of my favorite venues in the City of Angels. Justin & Melissa Meyer are masters of high theatricality and demigods of over-the-top razzle-dazzle, what I have lovingly dubbed “Kitchen…

GREASE STILL HAS ITS GROOVE Altadena Music Theatre returns after devastating loss with Rydell High, right on schedule The year is 1959. Rock and roll is reshaping American culture, the Sexual Revolution is just around the corner, and Grease captures a generation on the cusp of change. In its original incarnation, the musical was a…

WHEN THE MESSAGE OUTSHOUTS THE DRAMA Keith Szarabajka’s timely war drama is fueled by conviction but overwhelmed by its own rhetoric Slava Ukraini! (Or Waiting for Elon) by Keith Szarabajka presents a reviewer with the worst possible dilemma. Produced by Brad Bentz and directed by Tony Pasqualini, the work is the inaugural production of A…

A TIMELESS TRAGEDY TAKES ON A GILDED GLOW A beautifully conceived update proves Shakespeare’s young lovers lose none of their power in a new era There’s something magical about sitting in the woods at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum as the sun sets, when countless crickets and frogs add their songs to the sounds of nature…

MORE VICTORIAN THAN NEW ROMANTIC Long Beach Shakespeare Company delivers Wilde’s classic with clarity and charm, even if its concept never fully blossoms Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest hardly needs reinvention. More than a century after its premiere, its razor-sharp epigrams, social satire, and exquisitely constructed farce remain as funny as ever. Long…

NO STRINGS ATTACHED? THINK AGAIN Erik Patterson’s provocative world premiere boasts superb performances but mistakes repetition for depth In F**king Strangers, receiving its world premiere from Echo Theater Company, playwright Erik Patterson begins with an arresting image: a terrified young man stranded beside a freeway, begging his mother to stay on the phone until help…

THE PROOF IS IN THE FAMILY Ed Begley Jr. and daughter Hayden Begley bring David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama to the stage for a four-performance benefit supporting Parkinson’s research Jason Jeske presents a special four-performance engagement of David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof at the El Portal Theatre, starring Ed Begley Jr. and his daughter, Hayden…

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARRRR A spirited cast and an unforgettable setting help this classic weather a few rough seas in Ellen Geer’s adaptation Driving up the twisty road along Topanga Creek to Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum for the first time and walking into the sprawling wooded compound, I was already halfway charmed before the…

THE POLITICS OF MARRIAGE Strong writing and performances outweigh a staging that plays it safe The worst that can be said of Ray Richmond‘s Another Distraction From the Epstein Files at Bad Ladder is that it’s not very “fringy.” Richmond’s smart two-hander is a homage to the works of Clifford Odets (1906–1963), a classic kitchen…

THE WAR THAT FOLLOWED HIM HOME Rather than celebrate a legend, Brian Rohan reveals the man still haunted by war At the outset of World War II, Jimmy Stewart (1908–1997) became the first major Hollywood star to enlist. A flying enthusiast from early on, Stewart was already a licensed pilot when he joined the Army…

ONE MAN, MANY TRUTHS An extraordinary performer turns theatrical self-examination into something unexpectedly profound Stefan Marks is a spellbinding storyteller, and My One Woman Show (The Search for a Truthful Moment) at The Hollywood Fringe is far more than a clever send-up of the solo-performance genre. Beginning as a funny, self-aware examination of the agonies of…

LIFE IN A BLENDER A chaotic solo show anchored by an engaging performer. Kelly Mullis‘s solo show Army Brat at the Broadwater Second Stage carries a very accurate subtitle: “The Fever Dream into the Life of a Military Kid.” As penned by the performer, the show is a splattering of her life, her father’s life,…