HOT CAT by Theatre Movement Bazaar at Theatre of Note

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HOT CAT by Richard Alger Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA Throughout its first half, this production is a fun and intellectual reworking of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Where Williams “told” us, writer Richard Alger and director-choreographer Tina Kronis “show” us.Read more… Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Choreographer-director Tina Kronis and her husband, playwright … Read more

THE FANTASTICKS at Segerstrom Stage, South Coast Repertory

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THE FANTASTICKS – Book and lyrics by Tom Jones, music by Harvey Schmidt. David C. Nichols — L.A. Times The delicate theatricality of “The Fantasticks” has weathered countless editions worldwide since its off-Broadway premiere in 1960. But Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s “Les Romanesques” has perhaps never before enjoyed the elevated insight of … Read more

THE CRUCIBLE at the Antaeus Company

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THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller. Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Arthur Miller’s play, first produced on Broadway in 1953, was Miller’s impassioned response to McCarthyism and the witch-hunts launched by the House Un-American Activities Committee. But the fact that it has become an oft-produced American classic and the basis for two films (including a French version with … Read more

CHESS at East West Players

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CHESS  – Book by Richard Nelson, lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus Mayank Keshaviah – LA Weekly Like the 1980s, this revival of the Cold War-themed musical that produced the hit song “One Night in Bangkok” is kitschy, colorful and full of spectacle. Yet its return also reveals the contrived, confusing … Read more

DYING CITY at Rogue Machine Theatre

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DYING CITY by Christopher Shinn. Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly When Peter (Burt Grinstead) unexpectedly shows up at Kelly’s (Laurie Okin) Lower Manhattan apartment, the mood is prickly and awkward. It’s understandable; Peter is the identical twin of her husband Craig, a hard as nails soldier who recently died in a military accident in the Gulf. But … Read more

THE BALD SOPRANO and THE CHAIRS at the Garage Theatre

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THE BALD SOPRANO and THE CHAIRS by Eugene Ionesco. Shirle Gottlieb – The Gazette Newspapers Written in 1948 shortly after World War II, “The Bald Soprano” was Eugene Ionesco’s first play. As the transplanted Romanian struggled to write in French (the language of his adopted country), he realized how banal everyday communication had become. He had … Read more

JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE at the Mark Taper Forum

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JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE by August Wilson. Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly For this critic August Wilson has always been eloquent on the page, a bit wordy on the stage. This second in his 10-play chronicle of the African-American experience takes place in 1911, a bare 46 years after the Civil War ended. Wilson’s vibrant characters … Read more

FALLING FOR MAKE BELIEVE at the Colony Theatre

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FALLING FOR MAKE BELIEVE by Mark Saltzman David Nichols – LA Times Though the late Lorenz Hart stands near-peerless among Broadway lyricists, his tortured private life remains largely untitled. That is, until “Falling for Make Believe” at the Colony Theatre, wherein a grand cast and 21 classic songs propel Mark Saltzman’s musical study of Hart and his … Read more

PARADE at Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton

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PARADE – Libretto by Alfred Uhry, Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Les Spindle – Edge on the Net As daily news flashes are dominated by reports of crippling political divisiveness, accusations of governmental manipulation and heinous acts of violence and bigotry, the masterful 1998 musical “Parade” has never felt more pertinent.Read more…