TURN ME LOOSE at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

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Deborah Klugman – Capital & Main In his powerhouse performance as Dick Gregory, the stand-up comic who rose to fame in the 1960s, Joe Morton tells the following story: He was civil rights organizing in the South with his good friend Medgar Evers, when he received a call informing him that his infant son had … Read more

MICE – Ensemble Studio Theatre at Atwater Village Theatre

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Rob Stevens – Haines His Way If you have a fear/distaste for certain rodents, say mice or their bigger cousin–rats, Mice at Ensemble Studio Theatre might not be your piece of theatrical cheese.Read more… Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Schaeffer Nelson’s Mice is a strange little play in which a man in a mouse costume kidnaps two … Read more

KAIDAN PROJECT: WALLS GROW THIN at East West Players

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Terry Morgan  –  Talkin’ Broadway High-end haunted houses seem to be more popular than ever these days. One can see the appeal—a bit more personal of a scare than simply watching a horror movie, a safe Halloween adventure. East West Players and Rogue Artists Ensemble have taken this trope and put their own unique spin … Read more

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART…/COMB YOUR HAIR (OR YOU’LL LOOK LIKE A SLAVE) at the Arena Stage

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Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw Absence Makes the Heart… — written by Abley, and directed by Chrisanne Blankenship-Billings — is a modern take on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Red Shoes, which deals with a dancer driven to her death by the uncontrollable urge to dance. Read more… Now running through October 29

MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION at A Noise Within

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Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw Though it was written in 1893, George Bernard Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession, now playing at A Noise Within in Pasadena, feels surprisingly contemporary. While Shaw scripted these conversations 124 years ago, the basic arguments the characters engage in have changed little in the intervening years. Read more… Frances Baum Nicholson … Read more

MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY at the Sacred Fools Theater Company

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Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw  After the recent Equity nonsense, wherein said organization did whatever it could to destroy our beloved 99-seat theatres, there was a general sense that L.A.’s theatrical scene was going to stagger backwards and falter.Read more… Now running through November 18

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center

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Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze There’s not much difference between creating a monster and creating a monster hit. Take for example “Young Frankenstein,” the musical currently in the hands of 3-D Theatricals.Read more… Hoyt Hilsman  –  Huffington Post 3D Theatricals offers another solid Broadway revival with Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein…Read more… Now running through October … Read more

TIME ALONE at L.A.T.C.

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Deborah Klugman – Capital & Main This powerful drama by Alessandro Camon delves into the minds of two extraordinarily isolated people: a convict serving a life sentence for a murder he committed as a juvenile, and the mother of a police officer whose only son was shot and killed in the line of duty.Read more… … Read more

ON THE VERGE OR THE GEOGRAPHY OF YEARNING at the Little Fish Theatre

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Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Nostalgia for the future and a droll chiding of the past drive the storytelling in Eric Overmyer’s “On the Verge or The Geography of Yearning,” at Little Fish Theatre through Oct. 19. It’s a smart play. Sorry if that damns it for you, but if you’re thinking of seeing … Read more

WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN at Boston Court Performing Arts Center

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Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Some people go through life with their heart on their sleeve, while others are much more guarded, desperate to protect their hearts from being broken. In With Love and a Major Organ, a whimsical, poignant play by Julia Lederer currently in its west coast premiere at Boston Court Performing … Read more