TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE at the Sierra Madre Playhouse

Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review In Mitch Albom’s memoir “Tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson,” Albom details his mid-life reconnection with a favorite Brandeis sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz. Now running through March 31

THE JUDAS KISS at Boston Court Pasadena

Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw  The human desire for love is one of the main glues that holds the world together — along, of course, with greed, the lust for power and chocolate. Without love, there would be no rom-coms, no Valentine’s Day industry, and significantly less adorable tots bopping about.Read more… Frances Baum Nicholson … Read more

JEWS, CHRISTIANS AND SCREWING STALIN at the Matrix Theatre

Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Holidays tend to bring out the drama in families, sometimes even to the point where one person ends up beating another with a thawed chicken. In Jews, Christians, and Screwing Stalin, a world premiere comedy by Mark Lonow and Jo Anne Astrow currently playing at the Matrix Theatre in Hollywood, … Read more

SCREWBALL COMEDY at Theatre 40

Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review The classic screwball comedy films of the 1930s and 40s have remained popular from that time on because of four basic elements: the ridiculousness of the essential storyline, the crisp and evocative dialogue, the quality of and apt casting of the performers, and timing – always the fast-paced, … Read more

PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES at the Sierra Madre Playhouse

Ellen Dostal – BroadwayWorld One thing’s for sure – country musicals are an awful lot of fun. There aren’t very many of them and, if you can name one at all, it’s most likely THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS or THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM. But there is another rarely produced gem that is just as … Read more

KING CHARLES III at the Pasadena Playhouse

Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw Mike Bartlett’s play King Charles III is, in many ways, a snapshot of an earlier era. Given that the whole thing is written in iambic pentameter, you might think it’s a throwback to Shakespeare’s time. Instead, it depicts an alternate history that diverged from our own in late 2015. This is a … Read more

OUR TOWN at the Pasadena Playhouse

Jonas Schwartz –  TheaterMania In Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, the Stage Manager guides audiences through the fictional New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners. She confides in the audience, shares secrets, and points out revelations. Which is why the casting of Jane Kaczmarek in Pasadena Playhouse‘s production makes sense. Read more… Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review When … Read more

HEAD OF PASSES at the Mark Taper Forum

Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review Every once in a while one comes across a performance which may outweigh the play it takes place in. In this case, a good play becomes greater because of one person who takes a playwright’s words and their own and their director’s understandings and makes of them something … Read more

THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT at A Noise Within

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Jean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot (translated by Maurice Valency) has always been one of my favorite plays. Written in 1943 and premiering after the playwright’s death in 1945, it’s a witty whimsical takedown of perfidious capitalism and a paean to the artists and free spirits who oppose them.Read more… The Stage … Read more

HEISENBERG at the Mark Taper Forum

Hoyt Hilsman  –  Huffington Post In the finest tradition of the theatrical two-hander, British playwright Simon Stephens (adapter of the Tony-award winning Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night) has imagined a random encounter between a forty-something eccentric woman and a very ordinary seventy-five year old butcher. Read more… Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly British playwright Simon … Read more