Review: South Coast Repertory Presents World Premiere Play JOAN
by Michael Quintos - November 11, 2024
Featuring a remarkable, gutsy performance by Tessa Auberjonois as the legendary comedienne, JOAN is an absorbing and hilarious new work that also feels like an on-going work-in-progress. The world premiere production continues performances at South Coast Repertory through November 24, 2024....
Review: THE STREETCAR PROJECT / A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at Multiple Warehouse Spaces
by Amanda Callas - November 05, 2024
This production feels contemporary and fresh, with an edgy, f-you, punk rock rebelliousness. Yet it also feels profoundly truthful to the original grittiness of A Streetcar Named Desire, how it was received when it premiered — its New Orleans funk and grime, its rough, perverse sexiness and sweatin...
Review: HADESTOWN at Segerstrom Center For The Arts
by Melissa Heckscher - October 31, 2024
In the end, the show is all about seduction, and it has all the dark, gritty sex appeal of a dingy French Quarter speakeasy. That is to say: It’s got the sultry rhythm and blues to sweep you into the fun even if you don’t know exactly why you’re there....
Review: BLOOD/LOVE at The Crimson
by Harker Jones - October 28, 2024
At a brisk 80 minutes, the rock opera flies by in a flash of opulence and sin with an infectious joie de vivre...
Review: THE PIANO LESSON at A Noise Within
by Evan Henerson - October 27, 2024
Barely six months since braving Wilson's KING HEDLEY II, the company and director Gregg T. Daniel are back an impactful - if leisurely – PIANO LESSON. Where HEDLEY was grim, this one is ghostly, rueful and full of music....
Review: DISNEY'S THE LITTLE MERMAID at Lewis Family Playhouse
by Amanda Callas - October 25, 2024
Vibrant, colorful, and charming, this Inland Valley Repertory Theatre production of the Academy Award winning 1989 animated Disney film is a delight. Looking around the enthusiastic opening night audience, I see everyone from seniors and date-night couples to toddlers on laps completely enraptured ...
Review: Eric McCormack and Laura Bell Bundy Reunite for OC Cabaret at Segerstrom Arts
by Michael Quintos - October 24, 2024
Eric McCormick and Laura Bell Bundy recently stopped by Segerstrom Center of the Arts to present the OC debut of their cabaret show “A Blonde, A Brunette, and Some Duets: From Primetime to Sondheim,” a fun and cheeky night of silly songs and even sillier stories for a limited three-night engagement ...
Review: Musical Theatre West Presents Spirited AIN'T MISBEHAVIN'
by Michael Quintos - October 23, 2024
Structured as a non-stop song-and-dance revue without any dialogue, the Fats Waller tribute musical relies on its spunky live band and its crazy-good, five-person cast to sing a songbook filled with (mostly) joyful and (some) sorrowful jazz tunes. The show continues through Nov. 3, 2024 at the Carpe...