Brian Kite :: LA Drama Critics Circle

BEST OF BEST OF THIS WEEK THIS WEEK, Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre

March 22, 2023Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Following in the satirical footsteps of Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, this Open Fist Company production takes the past year’s cream of the crop of its Thursday night comedy sketch show, This Week This Week, and skewers our calamitous society with mostly hilarious results. Creator and director Ron
Read More

TWELFTH NIGHT At The Broadwater Studio Theater

Photo courtesy of Foolish Production Co.

March 22, 2023Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld Notwithstanding that they fell into many textbook Shakespeare traps, and that there was zero chemistry between any single one of the characters, the Foolish Production Company cast actually knew what they were doing. And mostly their 1-hour rendition of TWELFTH NIGHT (playing in rep with MEASURE FOR MEASURE at The Broadwater)
Read More

CARDENIO at City Garage Theatre

March 22, 2023Rob Stevens – Haines His Way City Garage, the resident theatre company at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station Arts Center, built their thirty-plus year reputation for doing heavy lifting with productions of Greek tragedies and the works of Brecht and Beckett among other dramatists. With their latest offering, Cardenio, they prove they can let down their
Read More

THE THIN PLACE, Echo Theater Company at Atwater Village Theatre

March 22, 2023Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld Tony-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath’s THE THIN PLACE is an eerie meditation on grief, regret and the need for closure, though it is undermined by the lack of a satisfying conclusion… Obie Award- and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Hnath (“Red Speedo”; “A Doll’s House, Part 2″) carefully delineates each character with precise
Read More

ONCE at Laguna Playhouse

March 22, 2023Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw In Dublin, a struggling Irish musician bumps into a young Czech woman and his life changes forever. This is the premise of the 2007 musical film Once, and likewise the stage musical of the same name, both featuring songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (including the infamous “Falling Slowly”),
Read More

TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum

Sabina Zúñiga Varela. Photo by Craig Schwartz Photography.

March 22, 2023Dana Martin – Stage Raw Center Theatre Group meets the moment with Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, conceived, written and revised by Anna Deavere Smith. The original production premiered on Broadway in April, 1994. Smith wrote it as a solo piece, which she developed from hundreds of interviews following the 1992 L.A. uprising. This updated version
Read More

THE LONELY FEW at Geffen Playhouse

March 18, 2023Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre Bites World Premiere: The Lonely Few @ Geffen Playhouse – 8 out of 10 – Good Show! LA Theatre Bites Recommended! More… Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania The Lonely Few, a world premiere rock musical at the Geffen Playhouse, does away with conventional narrative. It immerses its audience in rock clubs
Read More

Archive for Brian Kite

2018 Award Show Photos

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)

Saturday, April 13th, 2019

It was a great night at the 50th Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards at Pasadena Playhouse on Monday, April 8th. Congratulations to all of the award recipients and to everyone whose outstanding work received a nomination. We are proud to recognize your accomplishments. Thank you to everyone who attended the show and thanks to photographer Meredith Adelaide for capturing the excitement. For additional photos, visit our Facebook page.

Yvonne Bell, our inaugural Theater Angel Award winner

Brian Kite, Cathy Rigby, Tom McCoy and B.T. McNicholl celebrate their Joel Hirschhorn Award

Jean Bruce Scott and Randy Reinholz representing Native Voices at the Autry, winner of the Gordon Davidson Award

Artists representing Celebration Theatre’s win for their revival of Cabaret

Jennifer Chang, winner for her direction of East West Player's VIetgone

Jennifer Chang, award winner for her direction of East West Players’ Vietgone

Daisuke Tsuji, outstanding Featured Performance in Cambodian Rock Band at South Coast Rep

Padraic Duffy, Aviva Pressman and Bruno Oliver celebrating Sacred Fools Theater Company’s Margaret Harford Award

Jim Steinmeyer, winner for Illusions, Stagecraft, and Magic Carpet in Aladdin at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre

John Iacovelli, Set Design winner for Antaeus Theatre Company’s The Little Foxes

Jeff Gardner, Sound Design winner for Native Son at Antaeus Theatre Company

Stephen Gifford, Set Design winner for Cabaret at Celebration Theatre

Thomas McCurdy, Thomas Isao Morinaka and Aaron Aoki, Fight Choreography winners for Vietgone, East West Players

Janet Roston, award winner for her choreography of Cabaret at Celebration Theatre

Janet Roston, award winner for her outstanding choreography for Cabaret at Celebration Theatre

Rob Nagle, award winner for his Featured Performance in The Little Foxes at Antaeus Theatre Company

Artists representing the winning ensemble of Antaeus Theatre Company production of The Little Foxes

Artists representing the winning ensemble of Antaeus Theatre Company’s The Little Foxes

Echo Theater Company’s Chris Fields, Lindsay Allbaugh, Rachael Zambias and Molly Smith Metzler celebrate receiving the Polly Warfield Award

Jessica Hird from The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles accepts Tom Hanks’ award for Lead Performance in Henry IV

Rithy Hanh and Pita Huot accept the Ted Schmitt Award on behalf of Lauren Yee's new play Cambodian Rock Band

Rithy Hanh and Pita Huot accept the Ted Schmitt Award on behalf of Lauren Yee and her new play Cambodian Rock Band

Kasey Mahaffy, Paul David Story, Geoff Elliott and Wesley Mann celebrate their award for A Noise Within’s revival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Allison Dillard, double winner for her Costume Designs for Celebration Theatre’s Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Moving Arts’ BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!)

Alex Nee, award winner for his Lead Performance in Cabaret at Celebration Theatre

Kaitlyn Pietras and Jason H. Thompson, CGI winners for their work in Vietgone, East West Players

Kaitlyn Pietras and Jason H. Thompson, CGI winners for their work in Vietgone at East West Players

Anthony Zediker celebrates his award for Music Direction for Celebration Theatre’s Cabaret

Molly Smith Metzler, Writing award winner for Cry It Out at Echo Theater Company

Kasey Mahaffy, award winner for his Featured Performance in A Noise Within’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Comments (0)

Categories : Awards

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED – SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

From an Aborted NYC Mikado to Bloomberg Foundation Largesse to the 20 Most Produced Playwrights of 2015-16

Paul Birchall – Stage Raw

Also making news is the news that Brian Kite, producing artistic director of La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, is stepping down to take over the Department Chair at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Still quite a young artist, Kite has already had an illustrious career, with credits from the Actors Co-op to the French Woods Festival in New York (where he served as director of theater programs for more than seven years) to the Geffen, and he has certainly had played a strong leadership role at La Mirada – not to mention is position of board chair at Los Angeles Stage Alliance. Read more…

Comments (0)

Categories : Feature article

Tags : Bloomberg Foundation, Brian Kite, Film and Television, Paul Birchall, Stage Raw, The Mikado, The New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, UCLA School of Theater

BILLY ELLIOT at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)

Thursday, January 22nd, 2015

Photo by Michael Lamont

Myron Meisel – Stage Raw

During the notoriously doomed 1984 coal miners’ strike against Maggie Thatcher’s determination to destroy the union and its jobs, motherless 11-year old Billy Elliot (Mitchell Tobin) ditches his 50-pence afterschool boxing classes for ballet lessons, unbeknownst to his picketing father (David Atkinson) and firebrand older brother Tony (Stephen Weston). Read more…

Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly

In one of many striking images in Brian Kite’s staging of Billy Elliot — The Musical, an army of northeast England miners, having had their strike busted by Mrs. Thatcher, descends en masse into a pit, the lamps on their helmets blazing forward, as they sing the rousing “Once We Were Kings”: “The ground is empty and cold as hell, but we all go together when we go.” Read more…

David C. Nichols – LA Times

The sheer joy of musical performance dances through “Billy Elliot the Musical” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Read more…

Jonas Schwartz - TheaterMania

The musical adaptation of 2000′s sleeper hit film Billy Elliot must survive on the actor hired for the title role. As well as leading nine songs, it’s a heavy dancing part, requiring one to shine in tap, ballet, and interpretive dance. To make it more daunting, the lead actor must be an adolescent. That’s a heavy burden, and youngster Mitchell Tobin makes a winning Billy. Read more…

Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA

After the success of the 2000 film Billy Elliot, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine making the story into a musical. Lee Hall, who wrote the screenplay, created the musical’s book and lyrics, and with the help of Elton John’s music and Stephen Daldry’s direction, turned out a production that is still currently playing in England today. em>Read more…

Now running through February 8.

Comments (0)

Categories : Reviews

Tags : ArtsInLA, Billy Elliot, Brian Kite, David C. Nichols, Elton John, Jonas Schwartz, La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, LA Times, LA Weekly, Melinda Schupmann, Myron Meisel, Stage Raw, Steven Leigh Morris, TheaterMania

BEST OF BEST OF THIS WEEK THIS WEEK, Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre

TWELFTH NIGHT At The Broadwater Studio Theater

CARDENIO at City Garage Theatre

THE THIN PLACE, Echo Theater Company at Atwater Village Theatre

ONCE at Laguna Playhouse

TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum

THE LONELY FEW at Geffen Playhouse

Archive for Brian Kite

2018 Award Show Photos

PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED – SEPTEMBER 22, 2015

BILLY ELLIOT at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

Review Sites

Archives