LAWRENCE WELK DINNER THEATRE

by Amanda Callas - September 26, 2024

This is a small-scale, intimate human story that feels like a slice of life, entertaining, touching, and deftly told with wildly abundant, delicious humor.  Mostly Demolition is a comedy, observant, delightful, laugh-out-loud funny.  There is a thoughtful drama lingering here too — slowly, astutely,...

by Michael Quintos - September 26, 2024

Now having its So. California Regional premiere production at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts thru Oct. 13, 2024, this funny, endearing, and ultimately empowering show is easily, hands-down, this critic's favorite iteration of this musical—in no small part thanks to Desi Oakley's return to...

by Michael Quintos - September 24, 2024

Blessed with jawdroppingly gorgeous vocals, Tony Award winner Joaquina Kalukango—accompanied by music director Michael Orland—wows in her West Coast solo concert debut at OC's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa to kick off their 2024-2025 Cabaret Series....

by Amanda Callas - September 23, 2024

The Skin of Our Teeth is an astonishing production of the classic play at A Noise Within through September 29th.  It is insatiably alive with sharp-fanged wit, whimsical thoughtfulness, and improbable wonder.  The Skin of Our Teeth is audaciously satirical, but also earnest its incandescent meditati...

by Andrew Child - September 22, 2024

For all the device’s delicious successes, framing complicated shots of singers through the geometric slats of Ezio Frigerio’s behemoth set in ways that conversely evoke the opulence of a work by the Freed unit or the subtle asymmetry of a Mizoguchi movie, both the live performance and the filmed ver...

by Evan Henerson - September 21, 2024

Martin Crimp’s free adaptation – first staged in 2019 with James McAvoy in the title role -  is as urgent and beguiling as it is contemporary, a classic with a fiery heart and not an inch of dustiness or quaintness. In the revival directed by Mike Donahue at the Pasadena Playhouse, CYRANO bursts wit...

by Harker Jones - September 19, 2024

A little more nuance to both the characters and the script would have given the show more weight. As it is, it’s quite broad, which, yes, is part of the point, but that point would be sharper if it were toned down a bit....

by Evan Henerson - September 18, 2024

In its L.A. premiere at the Geffen Playhouse directed by Andrew Russell, DRAGON LADY is every inch an homage to Maria Sr., who died in 2022, but also to resilience. Watching Porkalob crawl inside the skins these two little boys who are playing the part of super heroes ... is to take a wicked cool jo...

by Amanda Callas - September 09, 2024

Pascal & Julien is the US premiere of a magical play about childhood and friendship at the award-winning 24th Street Theatre in West Adams running through October 27th.  Written by Australian playwright Daniel Keene, Pascal & Julien is the tale of two quirky, annoying loners who discover the tender ...

by Amanda Callas - September 11, 2024

TH IR DS is the world premiere of a new dystopian drama, a messy play with a lot of interesting things on its mind. ...