LADCC Critics 
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania A Transparent Musical is special — more for what it is about than what it actually is. The ambition and sentiment are admirably high, but the execution needs serious work. Director Tina Landau gathers an excellent cast who perform strongly, but the text gives them too little with which to produce … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw With its hashtag retitle alluding to the #MeToo Movement, author/adaptor Charles A. Duncombe’s version of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure offers a timely skewering of sexual harassment, religious hypocrisy, and state repression. Rather than a wholesale adaptation, however, Duncombe maintains the original setting and intersperses contemporary banter and narration with … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw An old-timey small town in Kansas. A young person chafing at its limitations and longing to see the world. A handsome stranger of uncertain moral character who appears as a catalyst for change. These plot elements appear front and center in William Inge’s Pulitzer-prize-winning play, Picnic, and they’re appropriated with … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw That adolescent boys and young men played the female roles in William Shakespeare’s day surely wreaked humorous havoc on the Bard’s gender-bending comedy. Director Ken Knight has gone a step further, casting women in some of the male roles, and thus amping up the gender fluid frivolity of this classic … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Prince Harry Live! at Coachella reviewed by Rob Stevens – This is precisely the kind of show Fringe was created for. Read more…
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Starmites reviewed by Rob Stevens – In what I think may be the LA-area premiere, Open Fist Theatre Company in Atwater is currently presenting a lively production that really rocks the intimate space. Read more… Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw In 2023, the demand for nostalgia is higher than … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way The Lady’s Not For Burning reviewed by Rob Stevens – WorldStage Theatre & Co. is presenting a CliffsNotes version of the play at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The nearly 90-minute version of the three-act verse play is said to be “reimagined for a post-Covid world” but that reimagining … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way American Whore Story reviewed by Rob Stevens – Grossman was charming, funny, touching and so relatable as she shared stories from her life and career to the standing room only opening night audience. Read more…
The 2023 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle has announced its current officers and members for the upcoming 2023 season. Founded in 1969, the Circle currently includes 21 critics covering productions across the Greater Los Angeles area. The new slate of officers consists of returning President Jonas Schwartz-Owen (TheaterMania, BroadwayWorld), returning Vice President Dana Martin (Stage … Read more
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way The Revolutionists reviewed by Rob Stevens – The Revolutionists is a feminist history lesson and a laugh riot and well worth seeing. Read more… Don Shirley – Angeles Stage Four women also are featured in “The Revolutionists” at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills, by the prolific Lauren Gunderson (whose … Read more