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BEST OF BEST OF THIS WEEK THIS WEEK, Open Fist Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre

Photo by Chris Phipps
March 22, 2023Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Following in the satirical footsteps of Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, this Open Fist Company production takes the past year’s cream of the crop of its Thursday night comedy sketch show, This Week This Week, and skewers our calamitous society with mostly hilarious results. Creator and director Ron
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TWELFTH NIGHT At The Broadwater Studio Theater

Photo courtesy of Foolish Production Co.
March 22, 2023Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld Notwithstanding that they fell into many textbook Shakespeare traps, and that there was zero chemistry between any single one of the characters, the Foolish Production Company cast actually knew what they were doing. And mostly their 1-hour rendition of TWELFTH NIGHT (playing in rep with MEASURE FOR MEASURE at The Broadwater)
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CARDENIO at City Garage Theatre

Photo by Paul Rubenstein
March 22, 2023Rob Stevens – Haines His Way City Garage, the resident theatre company at Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station Arts Center, built their thirty-plus year reputation for doing heavy lifting with productions of Greek tragedies and the works of Brecht and Beckett among other dramatists. With their latest offering, Cardenio, they prove they can let down their
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THE THIN PLACE, Echo Theater Company at Atwater Village Theatre

March 22, 2023Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld Tony-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath’s THE THIN PLACE is an eerie meditation on grief, regret and the need for closure, though it is undermined by the lack of a satisfying conclusion… Obie Award- and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Hnath (“Red Speedo”; “A Doll’s House, Part 2″) carefully delineates each character with precise
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ONCE at Laguna Playhouse

Photo by Jason Niedle
March 22, 2023Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw In Dublin, a struggling Irish musician bumps into a young Czech woman and his life changes forever. This is the premise of the 2007 musical film Once, and likewise the stage musical of the same name, both featuring songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (including the infamous “Falling Slowly”),
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TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES, 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum

Sabina Zúñiga Varela. Photo by Craig Schwartz Photography.
March 22, 2023Dana Martin – Stage Raw Center Theatre Group meets the moment with Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, conceived, written and revised by Anna Deavere Smith. The original production premiered on Broadway in April, 1994. Smith wrote it as a solo piece, which she developed from hundreds of interviews following the 1992 L.A. uprising. This updated version
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THE LONELY FEW at Geffen Playhouse

Lauren Patten. Photo by Jeff Lorch.
March 18, 2023Patrick 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
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Archive for La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

1776 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Sunday, January 20th, 2019
Jason Niedle

Jason Niedle

Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze

The musical “1776” is quite a piece of writing. Indeed, the story is the indisputable star in this La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts’ production, even while the performances engage and the staging enchants.
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Jonas Schwartz -  Arts In LA

We hold these truths to be self-evident about the musical 1776. Truth one: Even an American audience member with a D- grade point average knows how this play will end. Truth two: Due to Peter Stone’s glorious libretto, what conclusions may be inevitable to everyone will still seem for most of play to be impossible…….Read more…

Now running through February 3

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WEST SIDE STORY at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

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Tuesday, April 25th, 2017

West Side Story (musical) by McCoy Rigby, April-May 2017

Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen

Are there any opening notes in musical theater more iconic and instantly recognizable than those of West Side Story? No matter the iteration, the story and music are classic enough to have endured the test of time, resulting in a rare musical where you can hear a ripple of excitement in the audience at the beginning of almost every song. Read more…

Jonas Schwartz -  TheaterMania

West Side Story — Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents’ reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet — is known for its deft staging that showcases energetic choreography as executed by a talented and youthful cast. While this latest production of the iconic show, presented by La Mirada Theatre, features two excellent performances, sloppy dancing and chaotic staging ultimately sabotage the powerful text. Read more…

Now running through May 14

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THE LAST FIVE YEARS at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Tuesday, February 7th, 2017
THE LAST FIVE YEARS - LA MIRADA - 1

Photo by Michael Lamont

Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen

Cathy stands center stage, in the spotlight, singing at yet another audition. That is, until Jamie wordlessly steps in front of her and sits on a stool to begin reading from his novel. Cathy, her spotlight now literally and figuratively occupied by her more successful husband, silently retreats, defeated once again. Read more…

Now running through February 12

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THE LITTLE MERMAID at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Saturday, June 18th, 2016

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Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA

Walt Disney’s legacy is more than just a mouse or an amusement park. He set in motion a juggernaut that includes films, both live, animated, or a combination of both; award-winning music; television programming; radio programs; and theatrical productions, mostly based on his animated films. McCoy Rigby Entertainment’s newest offering is The Little Mermaid, directed by Glenn Casale, who was charged with enriching and enlivening the original Broadway production with special effects. Read more…

Margaret Gray – LA Times

It shouldn’t shock anybody to hear that McCoy Rigby Entertainment’s new production of “The Little Mermaid” at La Mirada Theatre is a treat for the eyes and ears. Read more…

Now running through June 26

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DREAMGIRLS at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Thursday, March 31st, 2016
Photo by Michael Lamont

Photo by Michael Lamont

Bob Verini  -   Stage Raw

Let’s start by talking about the song, and if you’re reading about Dreamgirls you already know what song I mean. It’s the one that everyone’s always waiting for, the one that practically single-handedly justifies a revival of the Tom Eyen-Henry Krieger-Michael Bennett 60s pop musical in and of itself. It stands as America’s national anthem of the love that dare not say “get the f— out, you bastard.”    Read more…

Jonas Schwartz -  TheaterMania

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts pulled a 42nd Street and unleashed an understudy who roars as Effie White. Amma Osei is a dream as the volatile singer. Because she is an alternate, she may have been more polished had she performed more often with the cast, but her raw energy is fiery, and she is the diamond of an already accomplished production. Read more…

Now running through April 17

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EMPIRE THE MUSICAL at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Tuesday, January 26th, 2016

 

empire-musical (2)

Photo by Michael Lamont

Bob Verini  -   Variety

The stunningly appointed “Empire The Musical,” world premiering at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts (and no relation to the hit Fox series), gains strength from the entire company’s shared desire to erect the unprecedentedly tall Empire State Building, in stubborn defiance of the Great Depression. Alas, authors Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull willfully betray their storytelling judgment and taste…

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Margaret Gray – LA Times

New evidence suggests it’s easier to build the world’s tallest skyscraper than to create an original American musical. Read more…

Jonas Schwartz -  TheaterMania

The new musical Empire pays homage to the musicals of the ’20s and ’30s. The original score by Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull contains snappy songs and captures the bubbly effervescence of the classic age. Read more…

Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA

On May 1, 1931, the Empire State Building was completed as the world’s tallest skyscraper, at 102 stories. That it was successfully done during the difficult days of the Depression was a testament to the vision of its creators and, more important, the hardworking builders who erected it. Read more…

 

Now running through February 14

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RENT at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Thursday, October 29th, 2015
Photo by Jason Niedle

Photo by Jason Niedle

Jonas Schwartz -  Arts In LA

When Rent arrived at the Nederlander Theatre in 1996, a block from New York City’s famed 42nd Street, it was revolutionary. Never before had a musical brought punks, drag queens, gays, lesbians, and AIDS patients to the mainstream. Read more…

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FIRST DATE at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Monday, September 21st, 2015
Photo by Jason Niedle


Photo by Jason Niedle

Jonas Schwartz -  Arts In LA

Experiencing theater—or any form of entertainment—is similar to the sensation of a blind date. Apprehension, as past disasters or boring evenings flood the mind, mix with exhilaration of a history of joyous surprises. In the opening moments, one can sense confidence in the conversation or a desperation to be adored.

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Now running through October 11.

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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Monday, April 27th, 2015

 

Photo by Michael Lamont
Photo by Michael Lamont

Melinda Schupmann – Showmag.com

Garnering numerous awards at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2011, it has been re-worked as a full-scale production and is McCoy Rigby Entertainment’s first world-premiere musical. Fresh and imaginative, it takes the finest features of Jane Austen’s classic novel and musically highlights the love stories of its principal characters. Read more…

Jenny Lower – LA Weekly

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a story in possession of a built-in fanbase must be in want of a musical adaptation. But even to Jane Austen fans, the notion of reworking Pride and Prejudice with a score may seem ill-advised, if inevitable. After definitive film renderings, modernist updates, and Austen-flavored concoctions, must we suffer the indignity of Darcy, master of Pemberley, singing and capering about? Read more…

Now running through May 10.

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CARRIE THE MUSICAL at the La Mirada Theatre for the Peforming Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Friday, March 20th, 2015
Photo by Jason Niedle

Photo by Jason Niedle

David C. Nichols – LA Times

Never underestimate the power of stagecraft. Case in point: ”Carrie: The Musical,” now receiving a mind-blowing immersive production at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Read more…

Jonas Schwartz -  TheaterMania

Few musicals are as infamous as the 1988 Broadway bomb Carrie. That notoriety was enhanced by the bootlegged CDs and videotapes of the original cast that made the rounds for years in the days before YouTube. Utilizing the major rewrite for the 2012 off-Broadway production, La Mirada Theatre performs the show for its intimate “On Stage” series where audiences sit on the stage in bleachers, making them practically players in the proceedings. Read more…

Myron Meisel – Stage Raw

Probably no musical has ever been more maudit than this adaptation of the Stephen King novel, Carrie The Musical (the material perhaps best known from the 1976 hit Brian De Palma movie starring Sissy Spacek, also fashioned, as here, by writer Lawrence D. Cohen). Read more…

Now running through April 5.

 

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BILLY ELLIOT at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Thursday, January 22nd, 2015
Photo by Michael Lamont

Photo by Michael Lamont

Myron Meisel – Stage Raw

During the notoriously doomed 1984 coal miners’ strike against Maggie Thatcher’s determination to destroy the union and its jobs, motherless 11-year old Billy Elliot (Mitchell Tobin) ditches his 50-pence afterschool boxing classes for ballet lessons, unbeknownst to his picketing father (David Atkinson) and firebrand older brother Tony (Stephen Weston). Read more…

Steven Leigh Morris  – LA Weekly

In one of many striking images in Brian Kite’s staging of Billy Elliot — The Musical, an army of northeast England miners, having had their strike busted by Mrs. Thatcher, descends en masse into a pit, the lamps on their helmets blazing forward, as they sing the rousing “Once We Were Kings”: “The ground is empty and cold as hell, but we all go together when we go.” Read more…

David C. Nichols – LA Times

The sheer joy of musical performance dances through “Billy Elliot the Musical” at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts. Read more…

Jonas Schwartz -  TheaterMania

The musical adaptation of 2000′s sleeper hit film Billy Elliot must survive on the actor hired for the title role. As well as leading nine songs, it’s a heavy dancing part, requiring one to shine in tap, ballet, and interpretive dance. To make it more daunting, the lead actor must be an adolescent. That’s a heavy burden, and youngster Mitchell Tobin makes a winning Billy. Read more…

Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA

After the success of the 2000 film Billy Elliot, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine making the story into a musical. Lee Hall, who wrote the screenplay, created the musical’s book and lyrics, and with the help of Elton John’s music and Stephen Daldry’s direction, turned out a production that is still currently playing in England today. em>Read more…

 

Now running through February 8.

 

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GOOD PEOPLE at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts

By LADCC critics · Comments (0)
Tuesday, October 7th, 2014
Photo by Michael Lamont

Photo by Michael Lamont

David C. Nichols – LA Times

The dilemmas facing the life-battered protagonist of “Good People” are perhaps strategically manipulated, but that doesn’t make them any less relevant, humorous or dramatically engrossing. Read more…

Now running through Oct. 12.

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