DOMA Theatre Company presents a mixed bag of vocal talents backed by a bang-up band in Tony Award-winning composer Jason Robert Brown’s “Songs for a New World,” an hour-and-45-minute theatrical cabaret of his songs strung together without dialogue at the MET Theatre.
Standout of the four-member cast, Andrea Arvanigian has the vocal chops, the smooth dance [...]
Ballet dancer Christopher McDaniel was raised from birth by his single grandmother in East Harlem when his drug-dependent mother was deemed unfit. His father was incarcerated during most of McDaniel’s childhood. Though the boy loved to dance, antisocial behavior, belligerence and violence characterized his early years. However, a school field trip to see the Dance [...]
A revival of Charles Busch’s 1987 camp classic “Psycho Beach Party” has been mounted at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre with mixed results.
Busch has a reputation for being a little off-center in his entertainment pieces. He had previously taken upon himself to essay “Psycho’s” lead ingénue role of the virginal Chicklet to great acclaim. “Campy” would be [...]
Based on the 1985 cult classic “H.P. Lovecraft’s Re-Animator,” “Re-Animator: the Musical,” currently at the Hayworth Theatre, takes enthusiastic audiences to a new high, or should I say a new low, as in the best of lowbrow. Think Saturday afternoons in front of the old black-and-white television watching cheesy sci-fi flicks in which you can [...]
Rogue Artists Ensemble brings back last year’s darkly comic sci-fi hit, “D Is for Dog,” for the Hollywood Fringe Festival and beyond — featuring new twists, special effects and an even more startling conclusion. A uniquely theatrical event that melds puppetry, live actors, original music and video, “D Is for Dog” will open as part [...]
As a highlight of its 30th anniversary season, The Actors’ Gang will again remount George Orwell’s “1984,” directed by Tim Robbins, beginning Friday, May 25, and running Friday and Saturday nights only through June 16. In celebration of the show’s recent return from a sold-out South American tour, all Friday nights will include Spanish supertitles [...]
The Pasadena Playhouse should inherit a healthy box office with their current talented-cast revival of the surprisingly delightful “The Heiress.” Having not experienced past incarnations of writers Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s classic on film or stage, I was more than pleasantly surprised that this period drama, suggested by the Henry James novel “Washington Square,” was [...]
Several times on April 28, Benoit-Swan Pouffer, the French-born artistic director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, walked through the lobby of Royce Hall looking like he was nervous. He made eye contact with passersby, stopped to chat with other young, stylishly dressed people, but mostly, he looked as if he couldn’t sit still. That evening’s [...]
“Pieces,” currently at the Complex Hollywood Flight Theatre, ignites with a strong cast of five, tightly reined by director Brian Zimmer in their compelling interpretation of Chris Phillips’ powerful script.
Phillips’ intense script cleverly misdirects your focus with dialogue duplicitous in its meaning and intent. It seems like anything said about one person or group can [...]
The Geffen Playhouse scores a bingo with the West Coast premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Good People,” nominated for a Tony Award for best play.
The strong cast of six is headed and fueled by Jane Kaczmarek as the unapologetic, take-no-prisoners, steamrolling Margie, a just-fired single mother of a grown-up mentally-challenged daughter living in [...]
