Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA Sweeney Todd is my favorite musical. I’ve seen it onstage several times, watched the film, enjoyed a cast recording (Cerveris/LuPone), and loved the Angela Lansbury/George Hearn version blessedly preserved on video. This breadth of comparisons, however, can make me picky about the show. Can the performers do justice to the songs … Read more
The Los Angeles Drama Critic Circle (LADCC) is proud to announce its 2023 nominees for Theatrical Excellence. This year, because of extenuating COVID concerns, instead of a live event, the Circle awards recipients will once again be announced online – but in a brand-new format. The LADCC is thrilled to introduce a “first” for … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld. Aerosol in the air as Tracy Turnblad, Penny Pingleton, and the teens of Baltimore bring politics and pizzazz to Hollywood with a stunning production of one of the best and beloved musicals of all time… It’s a thrilling, unsinkably upbeat show, gleefully over the top, with colorful characters, costumes, and sets. … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld. Despite the sex comedy aspects of the show, a vein of melancholy runs throughout it, much of it being told through the lens of regret. This isn’t encapsulated any better than in Desirée’s lament “Send in the Clowns,” which is hopeless and hopeful and remorseful and accepting and existential all bound … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Ava: The Secret Conversations, written by and starring Elizabeth McGovern, looks at the life of golden-age movie star Ava Gardner. But oddly, it focuses more on a periphery character, a sycophantic hack writer. This might come as a disappointment to those who want to spend time with Gardner rather than this … Read more
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania. So many shows have issues post-intermission after sparkling in Act 1 that the term “Second Act Trouble” is a cliché. The musical Did You See What Walter Paisley Did Today?, which is having its world premiere at La Mirada Theatre, has the opposite problem. Act 1 lacks flavor and stakes, while … Read more
Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre Bites. World Premiere: The Lonely Few @ Geffen Playhouse – 8 out of 10 – Good Show! LA Theatre Bites Recommended! More… Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania The Lonely Few, a world premiere rock musical at the Geffen Playhouse, does away with conventional narrative. It immerses its audience in rock clubs and then … Read more
Terry Morgan – ArtsBeat LA. Plays in which family secrets are tragically revealed are nothing new – Oedipus and his mom were shocking audiences back as far as 429 BCE. In the U.S., the 500 lb. gorilla of this genre would be Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, and the most influential of recent plays of … Read more
Jonas Schwartz-Owen – Theatermania The final five minutes in Part 1 of Matthew Lopez’s epic Tony-winning The Inheritance, now running at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, are some of the most gut-wrenching moments in theater. At the performance I attended, the entire audience sat connected — some teary-eyed, some crying — but it seemed everyone was … Read more
Margaret Gray – Los Angeles Times As a singer and songwriter, Alanis Morissette has one of the most distinctive voices in rock ’n’ roll. Her raw, quirky, brainy lyrics, idiosyncratic diction and powerfully expressive range mean that nobody in the universe sings quite like her. But if you subscribe to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum … Read more