CASA VALENTINA at the Pasadena Playhouse

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Myron Meisel – Stage Raw I remember, back when young and impecunious, sneaking into the house during first intermission to catch the last two acts of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy, only to be so smitten that I returned the following day to buy a ticket to see the first act and stay again for the … Read more

DIRT at the Raven Playhouse

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Myron Meisel – Stage Raw While Alejandro G. Iñárritu customarily and pretentiously inflated the purported weight of the soul in his 2003 movie 27 Grams, Bryony Lavery more tangibly measures the palpable bulk of a dead human body in her insightfully written Dirt, a West Coast premiere presented by Rogue Machine Theatre with SRS Production Wing. Read more… Now running … Read more

A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER at the Ahmanson Theatre

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Pauline Adamek  – ArtsBeatLA There are numerous delights to be found in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder — the raucously hilarious musical play that opened last night at the Ahmanson Theatre. The ingenious and lavish puppet theater-like set, designed by Alexander Dodge; the gorgeously detailed period costumes, designed by Linda Cho; the clever book and … Read more

THE ANDERSONVILLE TRIAL at the Grove Theatre Center

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Paul Birchall  – Stage Raw When the assignment comes down the pike that you are going to be sent to review a production of Saul Levitt’s courtroom drama, The Andersonville Trial, it is hard not to give into the temptation to heave a large sigh. After all, this is the quintessential, super old-fashioned, pre-Aaron Sorkin trial … Read more

A SHRED OF EVIDENCE at Theatre 40

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Not so much a ‘whodunit’ as a guilty cover-up, Sheriff’s stuffy old mystery A Shred of Evidence plays like a trip back in time to quaint 1950s England. Sheriff begins with a small action — the switching on of a radio — that completely alters the course of his central character’s life. A morning news report of a nearby … Read more

Winners announced for 47th Annual Awards

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The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle named the multi-nominated Hit the Wall and Mojada: A Medea in Los Angeles as 2015’s Outstanding Productions at the organization’s 47th annual awards event, held on Monday evening, March 14 at the Moss Theatre of New Roads School in Santa Monica. Hit the Wall, playwright Ike Holter’s immersive recreation of the 1969 Stonewall Inn … Read more

THE 39 STEPS at the Torrance Theatre Company

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Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Richard Hannay is world-weary. At 37 years old, returning to prewar London after traveling, he fears there’s nothing left of life. Suddenly remembering the one place that could brighten his outlook, he dashes out — and heads to the theater. Read more… Now running through April 17.