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RAGTIME at the Pasadena Playhouse

Nick Agro
February 15, 2019Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw Ragtime has got to be up there with Oklahoma! as one of the most undeniably American musicals of all time, and it has finally come home to Southern California. Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s musical made its U.S. premiere at the now-demolished Shubert Theatre in Century City in 1997, before opening
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ANNA KARENINA at the Actors Co-op

Larry Sandez
February 13, 2019Terry Morgan  -  Stage Raw Artistic ambition should always be encouraged. If artists never attempt greatness, if they never try working on a bigger canvas, we wouldn’t have works like Angels in America or The Iceman Cometh — plays that demonstrate how amazing theatre can be. Read more… Now running through March 17

WITNESS UGANDA at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Kevin Parry
February 13, 2019Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Presumably expelled by his New York City church for being gay, Griffin Matthews gathered his earnings from his then-unfruitful acting career and headed to Uganda for a six-week stay to help build a school. He changed lives there. The Ugandans he met changed his. And from this real-life journey
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MATTHEW BOURNE’S CINDERELLA at the Ahmanson Theatre

Johan Persson
February 12, 2019Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze “Admit passersby!” urged Britain’s wartime instructions. In Matthew Bourne’s dance-theater production of “Cinderella,” we find a reminder to open up our hearts and let the sunshine in. But the story Bourne tells, at the Ahmanson through March 10, is far from the sunny fairytale we might expect. Using Sergei
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ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST at the Actors Gang

Ashley Randall
February 7, 2019Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist premiered in Milan on December 5, 1970. Fo wrote this incendiary farce in response to the suspicious death a year earlier of an Italian railway worker in police custody — an anarchist named Pinelli under interrogation for his role in a bombing that he did
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THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN at Antaeus Theatre Company

Geoffrey Wade Photography
February 5, 2019Jonas Schwartz – Arts In LA Playwright Martin McDonagh has mastered the art of slamming razor-sharp dark humor into sentimentality. The humor is always fierce, but he allows the audience to connect with the characters even in his works’ most perverse moments. Read more… Now running through March 2

SWEENEY TODD at South Coast Repertory

Jordan Kubat/SCR
February 4, 2019Ellen Dostal – Musicals in L.A. Done right, the first notes of a musical will tell you exactly what kind of world you’re stepping into. When it comes to the masters, Stephen Sondheim does it better than just about anyone. Read more… Now running through February 16  

Archive for Kristin Towers-Rowles

NUNSENSE at Crown City Theatre

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Tuesday, December 15th, 2015

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Neal Weaver – Stage Raw

If you’re looking for a fun holiday show that’s free of both sentimentality and Christmas propaganda, the folks at Crown City Theatre have obligingly provided one. Read more…

Now running through January 17.

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SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET at the El Portal

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Friday, April 17th, 2015

Sweeney 2

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw

There’s such an assortment of riches in this stellar rendering of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s operatic musical that I can only begin by commending director Kristin Towers-Rowles. She’s brought together a superb ensemble, equally impressive musically and in dramatic performance. It’s an accomplishment all the more notable for being produced in such a small venue. Read more…

Now running through May 10.

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