BWW Review: THE OLD MAN AND THE OLD MOON Takes an Epic Journey at The Wallis
by Ellen Dostal
- Mar 6, 2019
Remember the joy of being a kid and spending hours upon hours acting out stories using whatever you could find? When two sticks stood in for a swordfight to save the day or a towel became the mantle of a king? That's what it feels like watching PigPen Theatre Co. in THE OLD MAN AND THE OLD MOON at The Wallis.
BWW Review: The CATS Phenomenon Continues at the Hollywood Pantages
by Ellen Dostal
- Mar 2, 2019
Without a doubt, Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical CATS is of an era. Based on one of Lloyd Webber's favorite books as a child, T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, it was a perfect vehicle for the tastes of theatre lovers in the eighties, the decade of excess. The large-scale production, which opened on Broadway in 1982, was a highly theatrical concept featuring an elaborate light show, impressive dance numbers, and an intoxicating score, exactly what the public had come to expect from the composer of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and EVITA.
BWW Review: A Modern Day OTHELLO Finds Humor Amid the Horror of Revenge
by Ellen Dostal
- Feb 21, 2019
Never has the relationship between Iago and Roderigo in Shakespeare's OTHELLO stolen the show like it does in the current A Noise Within production, directed by Jessica Kubzansky. With an outwardly nonchalant Michael Manuel as the revenge seeking villain, and Jeremy Rabb, an actor who knows comedy like the back of his hand, as his unsuspecting lackey, the situational humor in Shakespeare's tragedy comes front and center. That's right, humor.
BWW Review: RAGTIME Revival Couldn't Come at a Better Time
by Ellen Dostal
- Feb 15, 2019
How do you scale down an epic musical like RAGTIME for a smaller stage and a different time? When it opened at the Shubert Theatre in Century City in 1997, the cast numbered nearly fifty, the same as it would for its Broadway debut later that year. The stage was enormous and the production filled every inch of it. I still remember how the sheer volume of the choral numbers gave me chills.
BWW Review: WITNESS UGANDA, Changing the World One Life at a Time
by Ellen Dostal
- Feb 13, 2019
The need for human connection runs deep in WITNESS UGANDA, a musical by Griffin Matthews and Matt Gould based on Matthews' real-life experiences in Uganda. At its center is the idea that we are all part of a global family - one world, one heart - connected by an invisible thread that never lets go.
Review Roundup: What Did The Critics Think of HELLO, DOLLY! at the Pantages?
by Stephi Wild
- Feb 1, 2019
Here she comes, world! The first national tour of the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival of Hello, Dolly!, starring Tony Award winner Betty Buckley, launched earlier this year from the Stanley Theatre in Utica, New York. The show just opened at LA's Hollywood Pantages Theatre.
BWW Review: Troubies to the Rescue in THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTANA CLAUS
by Ellen Dostal
- Dec 20, 2018
What would Christmas in LA be without the Troubies? A lot less funny.
Happily, artistic director, writer, and head jokester Matt "Mashup" Walker and his coterie of clowns aren't about to let anyone down. Not only are they back with their seventeenth annual holiday show, they're proving just how smart they really are when it comes to delivering a performance that has its finger on the pulse of what's happening now.
BWW Review: Love is Everywhere in LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE at The Wallis
by Ellen Dostal
- Dec 16, 2018
The countdown to Christmas begins and ends with an all-out love blitz this year in For the Record's latest world premiere, LOVE ACTUALLY LIVE, a hybrid entertainment that blends scenes from Richard Curtis' 2003 film Love Actually with live performances of the movie's soundtrack. Co-produced by the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, it is a celebration of love in all its messy, complicated, wonderful glory in a Las Vegas-style vision designed to impress.
LA Drama Critics Circle Announces Officers For 50th Anniversary Year
by Julie Musbach
- Dec 3, 2018
The 2019 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle is excited to welcome in a new season of Los Angeles theatre, the 50th since its inception. Founded in 1969, the Circle currently includes 20 critics covering productions across the Greater Los Angeles area.
BWW Interview: Julie Makerov and the Fine Art of Balancing Music and Life
by Ellen Dostal
- Nov 5, 2018
How does a busy soprano balance career, family, motherhood, and art? If that soprano is Julie Makerov, it's all about scheduling and planning ahead of time. Makerov, who will be appearing as one of four soloists with LA's Verdi Chorus this weekend at First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica, says that's the key to managing all of her commitments.
Theatre West and Artist Levi Ponce Celebrate Judy Garland in New Mural
by Ellen Dostal
- Oct 29, 2018
On Sunday, October 27th, Theatre West presented a beautiful new addition to the urban art landscape in Los Angeles with the unveiling of local artist Levi Ponce's latest mural featuring Judy Garland. Painted in full color and pictured with the Emerald City behind her, the portrait immortalizes one of the most beloved singers of all time in her signature role - Dorothy Gale from the classic 1939 MGM musical, THE WIZARD OF OZ.
A Panel Of LA's Top Critics Take The Stage Today
by BWW
News Desk
- Oct 27, 2018
LA's most talented and prolific Theatre Critics take to the stage to answer the questions that keep us up at night, 'Who are these critics, what do they do, and how do we find them?'
A Panel Of LA's Top Critics Take The Stage 10/27
by A.A. Cristi
- Oct 24, 2018
LA's most talented and prolific Theatre Critics take to the stage to answer the questions that keep us up at night, 'Who are these critics, what do they do, and how do we find them?'
BWW Review: Unbound Productions Rouses the Dead with WICKED LIT: THE CHIMES AND THE CORPSE
by Ellen Dostal
- Oct 15, 2018
For eight of the last ten years, Wicked Lit has created theatre among the dead - quite literally - at Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena. Three stories adapted from classic literature have been the norm most recently, with a fourth story functioning as a framing device to connect the pieces and bring a sense of camaraderie to the crowd. The result is an exceedingly entertaining evening of indoor-outdoor theatre in one of the spookiest venues in Southern California.
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