Palm Springs
(Coachella Valley)

An Enjoyable Journey Into the Woods Be careful what you wish for. It’s the enduring lesson at the heart of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, the Tony Award-winning musical that opens Desert Theatricals’ eighth season at the Rancho Mirage Amphitheater, running through Sunday evening, October 25. With its brilliant score, clever storytelling,…

AN ARRESTING START TO THE SEASON An intimate staging and several compelling performances give this familiar prison drama new life Desert Theatreworks kicks off its 2026–27 season with The Shawshank Redemption, adapted from Stephen King’s novella by Dave Johns and Owen O’Neill. With a dozen men on DTW’s smallest stage, the production, directed by Lance…

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE PCT A radiant Dorothy leads an enchanting journey down the Yellow Brick Road The 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz is part of our cultural DNA, so whenever it’s brought to the stage, the inevitable question is: How will they pull it off? Miss Gulch on her bicycle, the…

WORKING STIFFS An unapologetically bawdy comedy that delivers laughs with plenty of cheek Palm Springs’ Prism Theatre has selected Ronnie Larsen’s Making Porn as its second production for its permanent downtown home. Larsen first produced his play in 1995, and Palm Springs was one of the stops before its 500-performance Off-Broadway run, which started in…

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP MORMONS A campy musical mashup finds laughs, heart, and the perfect home at Prism Theatre Palm Springs’ Prism Theatre is christening its permanent home with a production of The Book of Merman, and audiences are eating it up. This gleefully irreverent musical comedy spoofs The Book of Mormon while celebrating the larger-than-life…

DINNER SERVED WITH PLENTY OF ANGST An intimate staging and an excellent five-person cast make this unsettling dinner party worth attending Like restaurants, new theatre companies come – and most times go. The most recent company in the desert, Inspiration’s Edge, is actually centered in the Joshua Tree/29 Palms area. A couple of months ago…

THE GOLDEN BOYS A sitcom-worthy comedy finds surprising heart beneath the laughs The Palm Springs stage has long been fertile ground for stories about reinvention, friendship, and chosen family. Silver Foxes, receiving its West Coast premiere at Revolution Stage Company, embraces all three with a sitcom veteran’s knack for punchlines and a playwright’s understanding that…

A LITTLE SHOW WITH A VERY BIG HEART The Bent’s first musical proves this company is ready for anything The Bent, Palm Springs’ queer theatre company, closes its fourth season with its first musical, A Man of No Importance — and what a debut it is. This intimate chamber piece proves the company’s trademark excellence…

WHEN LEGENDS READ, YOU LISTEN A star-studded staged reading proves craft, not spectacle, is the real event Some nights in the theater feel important before they even begin. rePLAY’s closing-night presentation of Better Late at the Plaza Theatre this past Saturday was one of them—not just because of Larry Gelbart’s sharply observed script, but because…

THIS SHOW BUGS ME A Southern Gothic that hints at something deeper but never quite gets there For all its promise, Cockroaches, the 2024 Del Shores Foundation Best Play winner by Emma Schillage, leaves you grasping for clarity—and, at times, patience. Set in a decaying Southern home, the play centers on three sisters—Charlie (Leilani Baldwin),…

ICE, LOVE, AND LOOP PEDALS A technically dazzling two-hander that charms with ingenuity Coachella Valley Repertory closes its season with the inventive two-hander Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, a production that reflects the company’s recent pivot toward more musical offerings; it’s a shift that’s paying off. On the surface, the show—with a book by Joe DiPietro—seems…