Los Angeles Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 2

Review: KIMBERLY AKIMBO at Hollywood Pantages Theatre
by Andrew Child - October 20, 2024

The show is vibrant and candy-colored, featuring an earnest cohort of character actors perfectly placed into their roles, but with a stirring score by Jeanine Tesori and witty book by David Lindsay-Abaire, the piece is an instant classic of contemporary musical theatre. ...

Review: AMERICAN IDIOT at Mark Taper Forum
by Evan Henerson - October 16, 2024

With a packed Taper house, a stage full of hot young singer/dancers performing, signing and middle fingering their hopes and disillusionments into an iconic rock score; yeah life doesn’t suck too much. Neither does this production, although ironically, here’s wishing that that the experience could h...

Review: RENT at Jaxx Theatre
by Harker Jones - October 16, 2024

The beloved story of dreamers and lovers in late ’80s New York is marred by poor sound and a band that drowns the players out....

Review: LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Bank Of America Performing Arts Center
by Melissa Heckscher - October 14, 2024

While the show’s darker ending may leave younger audiences a bit shell-shocked, there’s no denying the infectious energy of this production. The songs, the performances, and the fun all come together in a show that will have you humming 'Bop sh-bop' long after the final curtain....

Review: Chance Theater Presents OC Premiere of Dark Comedy GLORIA
by Michael Quintos - October 11, 2024

Offering a sharp and multi-layered commentary on modern workplace culture, unchecked ambition, and the public-stoked commodification of trauma, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' intriguing play GLORIA—a riveting new dark comedy that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—is currently having its OC p...

Review: BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL at Morgan-Wixon Theater
by Evan Henerson - October 10, 2024

From the second we enter the Morgan-Wixon, ushered in by black cowl-clad members of the Cult of Bat Boy; from the moment we see that pointy-eared effigy strung up to the rafters, we’re primed for two plus hours of four alarm horror camp....

Review: South Coast Repertory Presents LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
by Michael Quintos - October 04, 2024

For SCR's impressive, must-see local revival, the show gets a hyper-hybrid treatment that combines nostalgic elements inspired by the original but infused with 21st-century sass and sensibilities. Alongside its visual splendor, the show also features a superb ensemble cast, resulting in a blissfully...

Review: A GOOD GUY at Rogue Machine At The Matrix Theatre
by Evan Henerson - October 04, 2024

Read BroadwayWorld's review of A Good Guy at Rogue Machine at The Matrix Theatre. Learn more about the production! ...

Review: OC's Segerstrom Center Welcomes MRS. DOUBTFIRE Musical
by Michael Quintos - October 02, 2024

As silly and nostalgic as one might expect, the stage musical adaptation of MRS. DOUBTFIRE—based on the beloved 1993 hit film—has finally arrived to say 'hellooooo' to audiences at OC's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, where its national tour stop featuring Tony nominee Rob McClure cont...

Review: CREVASSE at Victory Theatre Center
by Harker Jones - October 01, 2024

Tom Jacobson’s script is a razor-sharp warning of how easy it is for history to repeat itself with long, dark shadows stretching across our country again....

Review: MAMA, I'M A BIG GIRL NOW at The Wallis Annenberg Center for The Performing Arts
by Andrew Child - September 29, 2024

In a meticulously scripted and carefully crafted medley of songs, the performers highlighted the highs and lows of their careers, illustrating their individual paths to Hairspray and sharing anecdotes of their vastly different lives since the closing of the show....

Review: DEMOLITION at Pacific Resident 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,...

Review: La Mirada Theatre Serves Up A Satisfying Slice with WAITRESS
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...

Review: Tony Award Winner Joaquina Kalukango Makes Segerstrom Center Cabaret Debut
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....

Review: THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH at A Noise Within
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...

Review: MADAME BUTTERFLY at LA Opera
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...

Review: CYRANO DE BERGERAC at Pasadena Playhouse
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...

Review: THE POLYCULE: A COMEDY OF MANNERS at Loft Ensemble
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....

Review: DRAGON LADY at Geffen Playhouse
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...

Review: PASCAL & JULIEN at 24th Street Theatre
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 ...

Review: TH IR DS at Zephyr Theatre
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. ...

Review: 3 FACES OF STEVE: SONDHEIM IN CONCERT at Odyssey Theatre
by Amanda Callas - September 08, 2024

Memorable, entertaining and show-stopping, 3 Faces of Steve is a special treat to be savored.  The lavish, luxurious operatic voices and powerhouse emotive performances of Angelina Réaux, Michael Sokol and Bernardo Bermudez shine in the intimate, warm space of the Odyssey....

Review: MEMNON at The Getty Villa
by Andrew Child - September 07, 2024

Though the language is easy to imagine as the foundation for a more ostentatious spectacle, the sweeping narration is deftly relayed by a mighty fistful of actors and a polished trio of dancers in a way that allows grand battles and weighty sociopolitical musings to service the intrinsic poetry of t...

Review: THE HISPANIC/LATINO/LATINA/LATINX/LATINE VOTE at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum
by Evan Henerson - September 02, 2024

The work’s premiere at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum feels like a couple of different narratives – along with a screed or two – stuffed into a single evening. It’s an identity quest! It’s a perilous journey to motherhood! It’s a rumination/condemnation on what it means to be Latino! It’s a…circ...

Review: THE BROTHERS SIZE at Geffen Playhouse
by Evan Henerson - August 28, 2024

THE BROTHERS SIZE, a heart-rending, music-suffused three-hander exploring the strength and limits of fraternal bonds, is being staged in the Geffen’s smaller Audrey Skirball Kenis Theatre, where it fits beautifully....