Kay Kudukis

What did our critic think of VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Revolution Stage Company?

DIETRICH, written by Willard Manus, starring Cindy Marinangel, Chicago Second City Conservatory graduate, directed by Glenda Morgan Brown and produced by Sea Angel Productions., LLC is based on a true story. Set in May 1960, the play takes place when the actress returned to the Berlin stage for the first time since fleeing the Hitler regime in the 1930’s. Inside her dressing room at the Tatania-Palast Theater, Dietrich weighs whether to go through with the live performance despite threats on her life by Nazi sympathizers who resented her for having spent much of World War II entertaining American soldiers on the front lines. To them, Dietrich is a turncoat; a traitor who deserves to be shot and killed on stage.

Revolution Stage Company proudly presents Christopher Durang’s Tony Award-winning comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike for six performances only, running February 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, and 26 at 7 PM. This production is directed by Trevor Biship-Gillespie, fresh off his acclaimed staging of Spring Awakening at Revolution Stage Company.

Sometimes I get to see a very good production of a very good play, and I go home feeling satisfied. As a reviewer, I sometimes have to see that same play again at another theatre with an entirely different cast and an entirely different directorial approach. It’s a bit like the remake of a classic. At first you wonder why it needs to be remade, and then having already seen what you consider the gold star, the outcome is less satisfactory. 

Dezart Performs will present the profound and gripping play GRAND CONCOURSE directed by Michael Shaw,February 28 - March 9 2025 at the Pearl McManus Theater.

Although Desert Theatricals announced a smaller season of specials at the Rancho Mirage Library, they're coming back strong with three crowd favorites, OLIVER!, HAIRSPRAY, and ADDAMS FAMILY.

I will start off straight away by saying you have to see FAT HAM. And I hope you are lucky enough to see it at Dezart Performs. This cast, in the hands of Michael Shaw, and AD Chuma Gault, form a very realistic, very dysfunctional family coming together at a backyard barbecue in North Carolina resulting in awkward situations and non-stop laughter in the James Ijames play aptly described as “Hamlet at a Southern BBQ”.

Go see it. ​​​​​​​If you check out the history of the musical, Spring Awakening, you will find that it is origins are in a German play titled The Awakening of Spring; underneath that, “A Tragedy of Childhood.” It was so controversial, it make it to stage for 15 years after it was written in 1891.

Revolution Stage Company is thrilled to announce its upcoming production of the Tony Award-winning musical SPRING AWAKENING, running from January 15 to January 30, 2025. With its raw emotion, stunning music, and profound message, SPRING AWAKENING is a theatrical experience which redefines what musical theatre can be.

It’s all in good (and a little naughty) fun at Skippy and Bitsy’s All-Star Christmas TV Extravaganza on “live television”. This is a tv special you might have run across while surfing cable access tv, or in an SNL Christmas skit from the 1980s where it’s live and it’s a trainwreck, and there ain’t nothing you can do about the disaster happening around you except punt and hope for the best.

What did our critic think of THE 39 STEPS at CVRep?

It’s all a big conundrum, isn’t it? Life in general, of course, but specifically, the idea as to whether or not someone will be happier single, or married. And in the musical COMPANY, Bobby’s friends, who are all married to each other, have decided that at the age of 35, Bobby’s getting a bit too long in the tooth to not have a wife. 

In 2015, Vanity Fair published an article about the first super agent in Hollywood, Sue Mengers. Mengers career started where all women agents started in 1961, as a secretary. It was the same year she met the not-yet legendary Barbra Streisand, “before she lost the ‘a’,” quips Cathy Moriarty as Mengers in The Bents staging of John Logan’s play, I’LL EAT YOU LAST: A Chat With Sue Mengers, which premiered on Friday, December 6. 

What did our critic think of NOBODY DOES IT BETTER at Palm Springs Cultural Center?

Described as Hitchcock meets Monty Python, The 39 Steps Runs 12-10 thru 22 at CVRep Theatre in Cathedral City, CA.

Dezart Performs (dezartperforms.org) presents FAT HAM Jan 17 - 26, 2025 directed by Michael Shaw.Critically-acclaimed playwright James Ijamesreinvents Shakespeares' Hamlet with this new drama. Performances are at The Pearl McManus Theater at the historic Palm Springs Woman’s Club, 314 S. Cahuilla Road, Downtown Palm Springs. FAT HAM runs 90 minutes without intermission.

Palm Springs’ THE BENT presents Academy Award® nominee Cathy Moriarty as the ruthless Hollywood powerhouse talent agent Sue Mengers in John Logan’s one-woman, one-act play, “I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers,” directed by Steve Rosenbaum.

Revolution Stage Company is thrilled to present Stephen Sondheim’s iconic musical, Company, running December 6–22, 2024. A landmark in musical theatre, Company redefined Broadway storytelling when it premiered in 1970, offering a witty, honest, and deeply human exploration of love, relationships, and self-discovery.

What did our critic think of HILLARY AND CLINTON at Dezart Performs?

By now, pretty much everyone knows the musical Little Shop of Horrors was based on a 1960s film by Roger Corman with a “cameo” by Jack Nicholson. The film was a cult hit, and in 1982 Howard Ashman and Alan Menken published the musical of the same name.