Americans Akimbo
Don Shirley – Angeles Stage American Idiot,’ ‘Kimberly Akimbo,’ ‘A Girl Grows Wings,’ ‘Heading Into Night,’ two classics, notes on eight new plays. Read more…
LADCC Critics
I’ll Be With You Shortly @ LOFT ENSEMBLE THEATRE
F. Kathleen Foley – Stage Raw Becker efficiently orchestrates over a dozen actors, most of whom play multiple roles. It’s a logistical feat — still, she can’t quite smooth over the shortcomings of an uneven cast, or the feeling that the sum of the play adds up to less than its clanking moving parts. Read … Read more
The Civil Twilight @ THE BROADWATER
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Shem Bitterman’s eerie new thriller is a totally unexpected eleventh-hour diamond in the rough that tops off our dynamic 2024 season with a bare-boned yet gleaming gem of extraordinary theatrical brilliance. I wanted to go home and take a shower and, in this case, that was a good thing. Read … Read more
JOAN @ SOUTH COAST REPERTORY
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Someone as delightfully unpredictable as the legendary comedian Joan Rivers deserves a delightfully unpredictable show. The new biographical play Joan by Daniel Goldstein, now having its world premiere at South Coast Rep, however, is a pleasant but by the numbers program. Read more… Patrick Chavis – The Orange Curtain Review South … Read more
Murder on the Links @ INTERNATIONAL CITY THEATRE
Anita W. Harris – LA Theatrix Under the direction of Todd Nielsen, the actors are meticulous both in their deliveries and intricately timed movements, so the audience is always clear as to what’s going on amid the surprising twists and turns. Read more…
The Importance of Being Earnest @ ANTAEUS THEATRE COMPANY
Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA Although new plays can be exciting and are crucial to the continuing vitality of theatre, I’m especially fond of older works, the more obscure the better. It’s cheap time travel, immersing oneself in a long-past culture, and a reminder that in many ways we’re not that different than those artists in … Read more
The Second Death of a Mad Wife @ OPHELIA’S JUMP
Martín Hernández – Stage Raw Playwright Kelly McBurnette Andronicos’s muddled world premiere work critiques a patriarchal and class-based society that punishes women for actions that men merely receive a mild reprimand for — or walk away from scot-free. Read more…
Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors @ ENSEMBLE THEATRE COMPANY
Philip Brandes – Stage Raw A rowdy, bawdy, over-the-top production of the Off-Broadway hit spoofing Bram Stoker’s seminal 1897 gothic horror novel. Imagine a theatrical love child between Charles Ludlum’s flamboyant gender-bent, cross-dressing antics and Mel Brooks’s spot-on genre parodies and you’ve got the general idea. Best of all, it doesn’t suck. Read more…
Kimberly Akimbo @ THE PANTAGES
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Anyone who’s been privy to my usual grumblings concerning the dated nature of traditional musical comedy as opposed to the innovation of contemporary musical theatre will appreciate my excitement about David Lindsay-Abaire’s multiple-Tony-winning 2021 musical adaptation of his also award-winning play. To me, it’s the quintessential paradigm of how such … Read more
Rent @ JAXX THEATRE
F. Kathleen Foley – Stage Raw As for the production itself, director/choreographer Jeremy Lucas and a vigorous cast remind us of why Rent remains an important theatrical milestone, even after the shadow of AIDS has been largely dispelled by life-saving medical advances. Read more… Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld The Jaxx Theatre is an intimate location, … Read more