Los Angeles

A WHISPER THAT ECHOES There are plays that knock you over with intensity. And there are those that seep in, settle under your skin, and stay there long after the lights come up. Adam Szymkowicz‘s Such Small Hands falls firmly in the latter category. This quiet but devastating meditation on memory, mortality, and devotion opened…

A MENAGERIE GONE MAD–IN THE BEST WAY Boston Court has never been a company to play it safe, and John Anthony Loffredo‘s world premiere of Frou-Frou: A Menagerie of Sorts is no exception. Inspired by The Glass Menagerie, it starts with Tennessee Williams’ delicate world of longing and repression—then gleefully smashes it to bits, rebuilding…

OPEN FIST’S BAT BOY SINKS ITS TEETH IN — AND DOESN’T LET GO Bat Boy: The Musical has returned to Los Angeles with a vengeance. This outrageous comedy/horror Off-Broadway musical, which originated right here in L.A. at The Actors Gang in 1997, is a campy, off the wall delight. And in the claws, er, hands of…

A SKETCHY, SPREAD OUT SEND-UP SAGS WITH SLUGGISH SATIRE I like to go into shows completely blind. Sometimes that backfires, but usually not before the show even starts. On Thursday, I walked into the opening-night performance of 44: The Obama Musical—a show framed as Joe Biden’s hazy recollection of Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency….

The Nocturne Theatre’s West Side Story proves that “professional community theatre” can still hit you in the gut like a Broadway-caliber production. With a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, this reimagined staging of the 1957 classic was innovation on steroids, making full use of its in-the-round setup,…

I COULD’VE LOVED YOU BECAUSE Chromolume Theatre’s production of I Love You Because at the Zephyr Theatre tries to charm, but struggles under the weight of a broad acting style and a perplexingly monotonous book. A modern musical twist on Pride and Prejudice set in New York City, this 2006 show boasts delightfully bouncy 1980s-style…

RUMINATING ON RUMINANTS As a way to heal from recent tragedies, Alice (Erin Pineda), a big-city photographer, visits June (Virginia Newcomb), a reclusive artist on a small farm in Alabaster, Alabama. June has answered Alice’s call for externally scarred women willing to be photographed for an upcoming project (not a coffee table book, she insists)….

THE SHOW WITH A BEAT TO A PULP You walk in, and boom! You’re hit with this electric vibe, like stepping into a Tarantino flick—one minute, you’re feeling cool, the next minute, you’re questioning if you’ve just stepped into a fever dream. It’s sleek, it’s gritty, and it’s dripping with style. The show you’re gonna…

WHAT PRODUCTION, FRIENDS, IS THIS? After a ship wreck, Viola and her twin, Sebastian, land on different shores, each fearing the other has perished (consider them separated at surf). And by the time they are reunited, love, pranks and much romantic confusion will have played out in Shakespeare’s fleet comedy about passions, mistaken identities and…

FURFECT Peter Pan never grew up. Likewise Alice in Wonderland, the Hardy Boys, Freddy the Pig, Nancy Drew, or Huck Finn. It’s a pity that people do: Why must grown-ups leave behind innocence and imagination after we mistakenly blunder into adulthood? You can take it with you—when it’s Avenue Q. This 2003 musical is, of…

GET READY TO ENBOY YOURSELF Jersey Boys has been around long enough that you might assume it’s just another jukebox musical, cranking out hits for an easy nostalgia trip. But that’s never been the case. Since its Broadway debut in 2005, the show has stood out by weaving a real, sometimes messy, behind-the-music story into…

A SHAKESPEAREAN WESTERN MUSICAL? DON’T WORRY, IT MEASURES UP The wild west sizzles with song and chaos in Desperate Measures, the rootin’-tootin’ Wild West musical shinin’ bright at International City Theatre in Long Beach. Peter Kellogg (book and lyrics) and David Friedman (music) convert a Shakespearean problem play into a hootenanny of moral quandaries, mistaken…

WHAT A RELIEF: OKLAHOMA! IS OK WITH VOPA The real stars of Oklahoma!, presented for two weekends only by Valley Opera and Performing Arts (VOPA) at the El Portal Theatre, are—no surprise—Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Hammerstein’s 1943 book remains solidly funny and sweet, avoiding the pitfalls of age with its lack of overt sentimentality,…