Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania While it’s not new to end the show with the Emcee in concentration camp, Rhodes uses a simple technique of lifting a scrim to show the coats of countless victims who have lost their belongings for the dehumanizing striped pajamas. Audience members noticeably cried due to this harrowing final gut punch. … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld EVERY BRILLIANT THING is a deeply affecting meditation on grief and mental illness told with humor and a clear-eyed optimism that makes the message that much more powerful. Read more… Patrick Chavis – LA Theatre Bites Podcast 7.5 out of 10! Above Average! Read more… Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania It may … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw “I very much wanted to like Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, but even Pablo Escobar could tell that this package is suspiciously light.” Read more… Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Children shouldn’t play with dead things. But it’s a warning that four high school teens of a banished school club … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Broadway hit Beetlejuice, now running at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre before making more stops on its North American tour, features a delightful score and book along with hysterical performances. It’s the must-see show of the season. Director Alex Timbers and his crew have morphed the beloved film into a fun house … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania The Geffen production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop, a fantasia about the final hours of Martin Luther King Jr., benefits from a stellar cast. Jon Michael Hill personifies the icon most audiences have only seen on the television and sets the stage for a great man’s evaluation of his ordinariness. But … 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