Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Few theatres in SoCal engage with global socio-political urgencies as relentlessly or uncompromisingly as City Garage. With their West Coast premiere of this Ukranian drama by Natalka Vorozhbyt, artistic director Frédérique Michel brings a devastating and timely piece of contemporary theatre to Santa Monica. Translated with razor-sharp precision, the … Read more
Dana Martin – Stage Raw Under the clean and precise direction and music direction of Damien Lorton, this Sweeney Todd feels larger than life in the intimate theater. Read more…
Ed Rampell – Hollywood Progressive …in his unyielding crusade to warn his neighbors about the dangers of the “healing” H2O, Tom reveals himself to be quirky and self-righteous. In doing so, he undermines his cause, taking the spotlight off the urgent issue on hand, and putting the focus on his own erratic self instead. … Read more
F. Kathleen Foley – Stage Raw There’s an inherent problem with Love, Loss and What I Wore, currently playing at Sawyer’s Playhouse in North Hollywood. The show assumes women have a near-fetishistic preoccupation with their clothing — the perfect blouse, the slinky skirt, the knee-high boots that tie the whole look together. Read more…
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Talk about a phoenix rising from the ashes. After losing its cherished, longtime venue to the devastating Palisades Fire, this is a deeply heartwarming milestone for the scrappy little company and they could not have chosen a more perfect project (or space) to signal their triumphant return to storytelling. Read … Read more
Elaine Mura – Splash Magazines Skillfully helmed by Tony Pasqualini, SLAVA UKRAINI! is a tight-lipped, grisly moment in a ghastly time of war as the audience shares space in the ravaged bunker with the three battle-scarred soldiers. The cast does an excellent job of conveying the hopeless, heartless, and never-ending stress that is wartime. … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Sunday in the Park with Will! Bright, inventive, and wonderfully physical, this production plays like a seamless blend of classic slapstick and lively cabaret. It takes a truly inspired team to make a 400-year-old farce feel like a brand-new party. Read more… Edward Hong – The Nerds of Color Did … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA What a joy it is to see Charles Mee’s work back on LA stages twice this season after an entirely too long absence. The ambitious fledgling Blue Pen Theatre Company is now presenting this LA premiere dubbed a “kaleidoscope of love stories” which, in classic Mee fashion, eschew conventional linear … Read more
Travis Michael Holder – TicketHoldersLA Some people prefer their musical theatre bright and sunny and filled with corn as high as an elephant’s eye and nuns worrying about the problem of Maria, but give me the strange, the seductive, and sinister and dangerous every time. Seeing Frank Wildhorn, Don Black, and Christopher Hampton’s seldom performed … Read more
Ed Rampell – Hollywood Progressive Multi-talented playwright Bernardo Cubria’s topical The People of Pompeii is among the best original plays I’ve soon in quite a while. The action takes place in 2025 after the Palisades Fire almost wiped-out Topanga Canyon, just like Mount Vesuvius did to the eponymous, ancient Roman city of Pompeii, when that … Read more