Costa Mesa Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 11

BWW Review: Disney Premieres Gorgeous FROZEN - LIVE AT THE HYPERION
by Ellen Dostal - May 29, 2016

Frozen fans will be ecstatic with the way Disney has re-imagined its much-loved blockbuster film for the stage, now that the doors to FROZEN - LIVE AT THE HYPERION are open on the Hollywood backlot of Disney California Adventure. And with its stunning state-of-the-art visual technology and heart-ope...

BWW Review: Seize the Stage! Rousing NEWSIES Leaps Over to OC's Segerstrom Center
by Michael L. Quintos - May 24, 2016

Now after more than a year, NEWSIES' North American First National Tour is nearing its conclusion, finally stopping at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through May 29 (the musical will motor down to San Diego the following week). After seeing the original Broadway product...

BWW Review: Opulent AMADEUS Revival Fancies Up South Coast Rep Stage
by Michael L. Quintos - May 23, 2016

To close out its current season, Orange County's Tony-winning regional theater South Coast Repertory has chosen to mount an opulent, high-caliber revival of Peter Shaffer's 1979 play AMADEUS, which continues performances in Costa Mesa through June 5, 2016. The recipient of the 1981 Tony Award for Be...

BWW Review: The Many Charms of I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU
by Ellen Dostal - May 17, 2016

Lovers of the era of Busby Berkeley movie musicals are getting a double whammy of Golden Age goodness this month with a pair of musicals playing only two blocks from each other in Hollywood. I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU is already running at the mid-sized Ricardo Montalban Theatre on Vine and, very shor...

BWW Review: Impressive Smaller-Scale AMERICAN IDIOT Rocks La Mirada
by Michael L. Quintos - May 09, 2016

To be completely honest, my first exposure to the mostly sung-through, modern rock musical AMERICAN IDIOT (during its initial national tour stops in Southern California) was, at best, like seeing a really cool rock concert performed by some incredibly talented musical theater actors, surrounded by s...

BWW Review: Dezart Performs Delivers A Highly Moving and Heartfelt THE OUTGOING TIDE At The Pearl McManus Theatre
by David Green - May 04, 2016

The Coachella Valley is quickly becoming a mecca for exceptional theatre. And Dezart Performs' THE OUTGOING TIDE is no exception. Under Michael Shaw's skilled and measured direction the three actors bring tremendous honesty and poignancy to dialogue that could have easily waded into "made for televi...

BWW Review: Fall Head-Over-Glass-Heels in Love with CINDERELLA at Segerstrom Center
by Michael L. Quintos - April 27, 2016

Adorable, utterly romantic, and thoroughly winsome, this stage adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's CINDERELLA is, admittedly, a wonderful surprise---filled with dazzling stage ingenuity; a dreamy, sweeping classic score by two legendary titans of musical theater; a revised, 21st-Century-tinged n...

BWW Review: Coyote Stageworks' AGNES OF GOD - An Emotional Powerhouse at the Annenberg
by David Green - April 25, 2016

AGNES OF GOD is challenging theatre at every level. It demands a lot of its audience. It demands its audience be engaged and active at every turn. It is both emotionally and intellectually stimulating and provocative. It is ninety-plus minutes of thought provoking dialogue with minimal action. One m...

BWW Review: Sandra Oh Stars in Intense New Play OFFICE HOUR at South Coast Rep
by Michael L. Quintos - April 25, 2016

More than ever, Americans are living in a state of fear. Such is the subject searingly explored in playwright Julia Cho's intensely jarring new play OFFICE HOUR which continues its exceptional world premiere performances at Orange County's Tony Award winning regional theater South Coast Repertory in...

BWW Review: THE FULL MONTY - Still Fun After All This Time
by Ellen Dostal - April 21, 2016

The destination for girls' night out in Southern California this month is definitely Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton. That's where 3-D Theatricals' revival of David Yazbek and Terrence McNally's THE FULL MONTY kicks into high gear for the next two weekends....

BWW Review: Pantages Theatre Welcomes Triumphant Return of KINKY BOOTS Tour to Hollywood
by Michael L. Quintos - April 20, 2016

If it was possible to like... or rather, LOOOVE... the Broadway musical KINKY BOOTS even more so than one already does, the lovable, fresh-faced cast of the musical's current first national tour is certainly making a really good case for it. An all-around spectacular stage show in every sense of the...

BWW Review: SISTER ACT Brings Joyful Noise to Musical Theatre West, Ends 4/24
by Michael L. Quintos - April 20, 2016

Though that comedy device of rewritten song lyrics is (unfortunately) not utilized for the film's musical stage adaptation, still, much of the spirit and basic plot architecture of the original movie remains in SISTER ACT - THE MUSICAL, which features all-original songs by composer Alan Menken and l...

BWW Review: FIGHTING SHADOWS - An L.A. Story of Love and Redemption
by Ellen Dostal - April 20, 2016

We tell a lot of stories in the theatre. Here in Los Angeles, however, we don't often tell stories that are authentically home-grown. FIGHTING SHADOWS is that rare exception, a deeply personal story of a Mexican-American boy who grew up in east L.A., survived abuse, gangs, prison, and drugs, ultimat...

BWW Review: New ComicCon-set Play FUTURE THINKING Blasts Off at South Coast Rep
by Michael L. Quintos - April 12, 2016

ComicCon, the media-saturated annual juggernaut of promotion and sci-fi excess that puts celebrities and their costumed super-fans together in the same breathing space is the setting for playwright Eliza Clark's engaging new play FUTURE THINKING, now having its world premiere performances at Orange ...

BWW Review: These New DREAMGIRLS in La Mirada Will Make You Happy
by Michael L. Quintos - April 01, 2016

Now playing at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, the new McCoy/Rigby Entertainment production of the Tony Award-winning 1981 Broadway musical DREAMGIRLS is pretty much a faithful carbon-copy of the recent 2009 national touring production---which happens to also be directed and choreogra...

BWW Review: Touching New Play GOING TO A PLACE WHERE YOU ALREADY ARE Premieres at South Coast Rep
by Michael L. Quintos - March 22, 2016

What happens to us when we die? Do we all make it to 'heaven,' regardless of our faith? This question is thrust front-and-center in playwright Bekah Brunstetter's pleasing world premiere play GOING TO A PLACE WHERE YOU ALREADY ARE, which continues performances at Costa Mesa's Tony Award-winning Sout...

BWW Review: Musco Center for the Arts Celebrates with a Spectacular Grand Opening
by Ellen Dostal - March 21, 2016

It was indeed an auspicious occasion at Chapman University on Saturday night where over a thousand guests gathered for the much-anticipated official opening of the Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco Center for the Arts. The black tie event featured a concert performance by luminaries of the opera worl...

BWW Review: Tony Winning Star KRISTIN CHENOWETH Returns to OC's Segerstrom Center
by Michael L. Quintos - March 15, 2016

Orange County was once again gifted a compact, intermission-free version of Broadway superstar Kristin Chenoweth's 'Coming Home' concert on Saturday, March 12, 2016 at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts (she performed a version of this concert last year at the Walt Disney Concert Hall). As ...

BWW Review: Top 10 Reasons Why WICKED Is Still Worth Seeing On Tour
by Michael L. Quintos - March 01, 2016

When it comes down to it, trying to convince rabid or even casual fans of the hit Broadway blockbuster WICKED into seeing the show again (and again… and again) when it comes to their town really doesn't take much of a struggle. No matter how many times over the years that the Broadway blockbuster ha...

BWW Review: 35MM: A MUSICAL EXHIBITION Masters the Art of Capturing Moments
by Ellen Dostal - March 01, 2016

No one writes a story song like composer Ryan Scott Oliver. Known for his clever lyrics and the ability to create in a wide variety of musical styles, his is an exciting voice in the current musical theatre landscape. Broadway insiders marvel at the way he plays with musical language and captures a ...

BWW Review: Musical Theatre West Revisits Classic WEST SIDE STORY, Ends 2/28
by Michael L. Quintos - February 25, 2016

Unquestionably one of musical theater's most beloved, iconic classics, WEST SIDE STORY---the stirring Broadway musical that features a book by theater titan Arthur Laurents, music by the incomparable Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by living legend Stephen Sondheim---remains a still-resonant masterpie...

BWW Review: Chance Theater Deploys OC/LA Premiere of DOGFIGHT
by Michael L. Quintos - February 22, 2016

America has had a long tragic history of sending brave young people off to foreign lands to fight in life-endangering wars, only to see those who have survived come home forever changed. This idea lingers over the new engaging musical DOGFIGHT, now having its Los Angeles/Orange County-area premiere ...

BWW Review: Splendid BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Reanimated at 3-D Theatricals
by Michael L. Quintos - February 12, 2016

Leave it to the creative folks over at 3-D Theatricals, Orange County's award-winning Broadway-caliber theatrical company, to be the entity responsible for this splendid new regional production of DISNEY's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST---the 1994 stage adaptation of the studio's gorgeous Academy Award-winnin...

BWW Review: South Coast Repertory Paints Bold Strokes with RED
by Michael L. Quintos - February 09, 2016

Now on stage in an exquisite new regional production at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 21, 2016, John Logan's riveting Tony Award-winning two-character play RED imagines a specific time period in the life of world-renowned abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko (played with...

BWW Review: THE ILLUSIONISTS Bring Their Magic Skills from B'way to Segerstrom Center
by Michael L. Quintos - February 06, 2016

Filled with eye-popping visuals, optical trickery, risky stunts, hilarious audience participation, and lots of hammy showmanship (complete with Solid Gold-style background dancers-slash-magicians' assistants), THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY is a supremely entertaining if occasionally cheesy s...