LA Theatre Bites Podcast

Reefer Madness @ THE WHITLEY

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Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Reefer Madness, The Musical has risen from the grave in the city where it first slayed for over 18 record-breaking months. Director and choreographer Spencer Liff and a stellar cast make this revival at the Reefer Den in Hollywood a winner, delivering an intoxicating high as potent as the original. Read … Read more

Misalliance @ A NOISE WITHIN

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Deborah Klugman  – Stage Raw As with the staging of any classic, Misalliance comes with its particular set of challenges —notably, rising above the period conventions, literary language, and, in Shaw’s case, a plethora of lengthy monologues that deal with a host of paradoxes about love, gender roles, the freedom of women, parents and children, … Read more

American Mariachi @ LATINO THEATER COMPANY

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Deborah Klugman  – Stage Raw In American Mariachi, José Cruz González’s new play directed by José Luis Valenzuela, a group of Mexican American women rebel against the macho mindset of their husbands and fathers when they strive to form a mariachi band, an enterprise traditionally reserved for men. Read more… Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre … Read more

The Body’s Midnight @ BOSTON COURT PASADENA

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Tira Palmquist’s well-meant and occasionally beautifully poetic play could have so much to say and her characters should be people we quickly come to care about but unfortunately, somewhere it completely and glaringly misses its mark. As is, its promise is more a pitch for a future movie on the … Read more

Funny Girl @ AHMANSON THEATRE

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Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA So what makes this old funny girl funnier than ever before? Simply put, Katerina McCrimmon is absolutely the best Fanny Brice I’ve ever seen—and I’m old enough to have seen the original star-making turn by Babs herself before the film version cleaned her up a tad. Evoking Edith Piaf with … Read more

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street @ A NOISE WITHIN

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Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd is my favorite musical. Its combination of a beautiful score, clever lyrics and unusually gruesome subject matter is sui generis. When it’s firing on all cylinders, there’s little in the annals of musical theatre to top its sheer power. And yet it’s a difficult … Read more

Twelve Angry Jurors @ THE GROUP REP

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Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw Seventy years after its first iteration as a television play, Reginald Rose’s work – originally titled Twelve Angry Men – remains a pungent critique of racism and xenophobia. Sherman L. Sergel adapted the teleplay for the stage in 1955 and Rose did the screenplay for the classic 1957 film featuring … Read more