Matthew Brian Denman
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
I’ve always admired Celebration Theatre for its expert staging of technically demanding plays in tiny venues. The company’s musical productions — last year’s Cabaret, the Boy from Oz (2016)and Women of Brewster Place, the Musical (2010) — have been especially impressive.
Now comes The Producers, Mel Brooks’s wacky stereotype-laden show about an unethical Broadway producer…
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Now running through August 12
It was a great night at the 50th Annual Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards at Pasadena Playhouse on Monday, April 8th. Congratulations to all of the award recipients and to everyone whose outstanding work received a nomination. We are proud to recognize your accomplishments. Thank you to everyone who attended the show and thanks to photographer Meredith Adelaide for capturing the excitement. For additional photos, visit our Facebook page.
Yvonne Bell, our inaugural Theater Angel Award winner
Brian Kite, Cathy Rigby, Tom McCoy and B.T. McNicholl celebrate their Joel Hirschhorn Award
Jean Bruce Scott and Randy Reinholz representing Native Voices at the Autry, winner of the Gordon Davidson Award
Artists representing Celebration Theatre’s win for their revival of Cabaret
Jennifer Chang, award winner for her direction of East West Players’ Vietgone
Daisuke Tsuji, outstanding Featured Performance in Cambodian Rock Band at South Coast Rep
Padraic Duffy, Aviva Pressman and Bruno Oliver celebrating Sacred Fools Theater Company’s Margaret Harford Award
Jim Steinmeyer, winner for Illusions, Stagecraft, and Magic Carpet in Aladdin at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre
John Iacovelli, Set Design winner for Antaeus Theatre Company’s The Little Foxes
Jeff Gardner, Sound Design winner for Native Son at Antaeus Theatre Company
Stephen Gifford, Set Design winner for Cabaret at Celebration Theatre
Thomas McCurdy, Thomas Isao Morinaka and Aaron Aoki, Fight Choreography winners for Vietgone, East West Players
Janet Roston, award winner for her outstanding choreography for Cabaret at Celebration Theatre
Rob Nagle, award winner for his Featured Performance in The Little Foxes at Antaeus Theatre Company
Artists representing the winning ensemble of Antaeus Theatre Company’s The Little Foxes
Echo Theater Company’s Chris Fields, Lindsay Allbaugh, Rachael Zambias and Molly Smith Metzler celebrate receiving the Polly Warfield Award
Jessica Hird from The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles accepts Tom Hanks’ award for Lead Performance in Henry IV
Rithy Hanh and Pita Huot accept the Ted Schmitt Award on behalf of Lauren Yee and her new play Cambodian Rock Band
Kasey Mahaffy, Paul David Story, Geoff Elliott and Wesley Mann celebrate their award for A Noise Within’s revival of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Allison Dillard, double winner for her Costume Designs for Celebration Theatre’s Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Moving Arts’ BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!)
Alex Nee, award winner for his Lead Performance in Cabaret at Celebration Theatre
Kaitlyn Pietras and Jason H. Thompson, CGI winners for their work in Vietgone at East West Players
Anthony Zediker celebrates his award for Music Direction for Celebration Theatre’s Cabaret
Molly Smith Metzler, Writing award winner for Cry It Out at Echo Theater Company
Kasey Mahaffy, award winner for his Featured Performance in A Noise Within’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Matthew Brian Denman
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw
By now, Kander and Ebb’s 1966 musical Cabaret is as much a part of the American musical theater canon as Oklahoma. While it’s much darker than most of its Rodgers and Hammerstein counterparts (save, perhaps, for Carousel), it now feels like an old standby, performed by regional theaters and colleges nationwide. Read more…
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way
Christopher Isherwood’s 1945 novel Berlin Stories was turned into a Broadway play called I Am A Camera in 1951 and later filmed, both starring a young Julie Harris as the desperate to be decadent cabaret performer Sally Bowles in 1930s Berlin. Read more…
Ellen Dostal – Musicals in L.A.
Kander & Ebb’s political musical Cabaret captures a horrific period in history. Set in 1929-1930 as the Nazis were coming into power, it is an unsparingly direct window into the deterioration of a country systematically brainwashed by the lunacy of a madman. It could never happen here, right? Read more…
Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen
“There was a cabaret, and there was a master of ceremonies, and there was a city called Berlin, in a country called Germany, and it was the end of the world.” Read more…
Harker Jones – Arts In LA
Based on the play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten (itself based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel The Berlin Stories/Goodbye to Berlin), Cabaret is a legendary musical: both the eight-time Tony-winning 1966 Broadway production and the eight-time Oscar-winning 1972 film adaptation.
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Now running through August 17
Mat Hayes
Terry Morgan - Stage Raw
There’s little that chills the blood of a theatre critic more than the three words “one-man show.” When these things are bad, they tend to be especially so, and unlike a usual play, there’s nothing else to distract one from the spectacle. On the other hand, when they’re good, they place the focus squarely on great writing and performance and can be very satisfying.
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Now running through March 25
Photo courtesy of Celebration Theatre
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
In Byron Lane’s shtick-drenched comedy at the Celebration Theatre, a flamboyant figure claiming to be actress Tilda Swinton (Tom Lenk) shows up on the doorstep of a suicidal man named Walt (Lane) and inspires him to accept himself and get on with his life. Read more…
Terry Morgan - Stage Raw
There’s a special subset of shows that parody or examine a particular celebrity, such as Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers’ Matt & Ben (about the titular Good Will Hunting creators), or Jonathan Tolins’ examination of life in Streisand’s home mall in Buyer and Cellar. Read more…
Now running through August 31
Photo by Russ Rowland
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
Humor is subjective.
In this case the show in question is writer/performer Drew Droege’s Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, directed by Michael Urie at the Celebration Theatre. Urie wowed L.A. audiences in Buyer & Cellar at the Ahmanson in 2014. Droege is a comedian known on the Internet for his drag impersonations of Chloe Sevigny.
Now running through November 14
Photo by Matthew Brian Denman
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
Robert O’Hara’s Lambda Award-winning comedy is the first production by Celebration Theatre in its new home. It’s largely a fictionalized, semi-autobiographical tale satirizing the trials and tribulations of growing up Black.
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly
In some ways Robert O’Hara’s Bootycandy is like a confounding road trip: you get where you’re going eventually, but not before encountering a bunch of bewildering detours. Read more…
Now running through December 20.
Photo by Sean Lambert
Les Spindle – LA Stage Times
The show must go on for the currently homeless 31-year-old Celebration Theatre, and it will.
Celebration’s season is opening belatedly, as the veteran GLBT-focused group is offering the West Coast premiere of Philip Dawkins’ ensemble drama The Homosexuals at Atwater Village Theatre. Read more…
Photo by Michael Lamont.
Justin Love — Book by Patricia Cotter and David Elzer, Story by David Elzer and Bret Calder, Music by Lori Scarlett and David Manning, Lyrics by Lori Scarlett.
Sharon Perlmutter – TalkinBroadway.com
Justin Love gives an old plot a modern twist, shines it up with with a bright and upbeat score, adds genuinely clever dialogue and lyrics, and wraps it all up in a Hollywood that only exists in fairy tales. The result is a feel-good musical in the very best sense of the phrase—a show which (even if just for a couple hours) makes you think that dreams can come true, there are no real villains, and maybe, just maybe, barriers to equality aren’t as insurmountable as they seem. Read more…
David C. Nichols – L.A. Times
Tinseltown tunefully outs itself in Justin Love, triumphantly opening the Celebration Theatre’s 30th anniversary season. Though not without its still-gelling aspects, this witty, full-hearted musical fable about an idealistic Hollywood assistant and the A-Lister he un-closets is as endearing an item as any in the venue’s history. Read more…
Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA
Fresh and fun, the marvelous new musical about gay closet-life in Hollywood, Justin Love, was eight years in development, and the dedication shows. The storyline is sweet and not-too-predictable, the songs are snappy, upbeat and enjoyable and the direction and staging by Michael Matthews is fluid. While it could be read as a sly dig at a certain high profile actor who adamantly refuses to ‘come out,’ the plot is far more interesting and original than easy satire. Sure, it does poke fun at certain Hollywood archetypes – opportunistic gayboys, harridan bosses and sleazy tabloid journalists – but what keeps you engaged throughout is its sweet romantic core. Read more…
Dany Margolies – ArtsInLA.com
As with any fairy tale, we know the story but eagerly await the manner of its telling. The hero must make a difference, must battle demons, and probably should end up “the winner.” And likely if you have decided to see this production, you’d approve of the outcome. So, how is the telling? Read more…