Tracey Paleo

KRISTINA WONG, SWEATSHOP OVERLORD at Kirk Douglas Playhouse, a co-production with East West Players

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Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld. There are defining moments in our lives where we either shrink away in fear or make a stand at all costs. In 2020, at the beginning of a global health crisis, under the order of a shelter-in-place lockdown, Kristina Wong faced such a moment. And in that moment, Kristina Wong became … Read more

COME GET MAGGIE, Rogue Machine Theatre at The Matrix

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Socks Whitmore – Stage Raw. John Perrin Flynn, the producing artistic director of Rogue Machine Theatre, states clearly in the program for their latest production: “We don’t do musicals.” And yet, the show itself — the world-premiere run of Come Get Maggie, a feature-length retro science-fiction/forbidden romance created by Diane Frolov and Susan Justin — is exactly … Read more

THE LION KING at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre

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Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld. From the moment Rafiki (Gugwana Dlamini) Shaman of the Pride Lands, heralded her recognizably famous opening note, the audience was uproarious. And there was nothing that could have prepared me for my slightly teary-eyed response to the splendor of it all. Even as long as it’s been around, THE LION KING … Read more

CLYDE’S at Mark Taper Forum

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Terry Morgan – ArtsBeat LA According to a survey conducted by American Theater magazine, Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s is currently the most produced play in the U.S. It’s not surprising that Nottage’s work is being done; she’s received the Pulitzer Prize twice during her illustrious career. But it’s a little disappointing that this show seems to be her … Read more

MAN’S FAVOR DEVIL’S PLAN by The Robey Theatre Company at LATC

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Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Man’s Favor Devil’s Plan, by Kwik Jones, takes place on the loading dock at the rear of a hotel in Los Angeles in 1938. The story concerns the relationship between the hotel’s White owner, an unmitigated racist and an otherwise cruel and unscrupulous individual, and the hotel staff, who are African … Read more

RADIO GOLF at A Noise Within

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Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld There is a reason why August Wilson is one of the more prolifically produced playwrights in modern American theater. He just gets it. Life. Language. History. Struggle. Desire. People. This can be similarly said for Gregg T. Daniel, one of greater Los Angeles’ well-loved actors/directors. And it shows in his latest … Read more

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre

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Terry Morgan – ArtsBeatLA When Harper Lee wrote her novel To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960, she didn’t think it would be a big success. Sixty-two years later, the book has been taught to millions of students in schools, was the source of a classic 1962 film of the same name, and recently inspired a theatrical version … Read more

THE INHERITANCE at Geffen Playhouse

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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

TO THE BONE by Open Fist Theatre at Atwater Village Theatre

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Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Writer/director Catherine Butterfield’s women-centered dramedy is set in a working-class community south of Boston, where two sisters of Irish-Catholic extraction, Kelly (Tisha Terrasini-Banker) and Maureen (Amanda Weier), share a house once owned and occupied by their grandmother. The place is a throwback to a distant past, its walls replete with … Read more