Jimmy Cuomo News

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Palm Springs Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

There's just one month left to vote for the 2018 BroadwayWorld Palm Springs Awards, brought to you by BroadwayHD! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers are already setting records as they vote for their favorites. Regional productions, touring shows, and more are all included in the awards, honoring productions which opened between October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2018.

'How I Learned To Drive' took a circuitous route to CV Rep, but the end results are so very, very satisfying.

Coachella Valley Repertory's 2017-2018 season theme is "Romance: Real or Imagined." As with a fine meal, they are wrapping up their season with a frothy dessert, 2 Across. This charming comedy about two people who meet on a train is as light as a souffle, and just as delicious. Like any fine dish, it relies on top ingredients and the cast, direction, and technical details all are delivered at that highly professional level we have grown to expect from CV Rep.

CVRep's production of Albee's THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? is worth seeing for those who don't mind weirdness. However, theatregoers need to be aware that this is a disturbing play.

Coachella Valley Repertory (CVRep) has a winner in ROMANCE ROMANCE, two one-act musicals by Keith Herrmann (music) and Barry Harman (book and lyrics). The superb cast makes the most of the material; it is a pleasure watching these four Equity performers own the stage.

The 2017 awards honor productions which opened between October 1, 2016 and September 30, 2017. Nominations were completely reader-submitted and after the nomination period ended October 31, BroadwayWorld's local editors proofed the list for eligibility and errors.

Coachella Valley Repertory's (CV Rep's) first offering of its 2017-18 season is David Ives' Tony-nominated VENUS IN FUR. Primarily a drama, the play hooks the audience with comedy in the early minutes. Later, as things get more serious and more disturbing the script introduces a mystery, and eventually, a thriller. Towards the end, the plot veers towards the supernatural. The director and the two actors do a top-notch job with the difficult play, which is presented in one long scene, without intermission.

CVRep is currently presenting an engaging production of A.R. Gurney's one-act dramedy, LATER LIFE, directed by theatre veteran Luke Yankee, making his CVRep debut. All four cast members, each of whom has an impressive list of credits, are a pleasure to watch, as they expertly use their voices, bodies, and faces to pull us into their characters' stories.

Coachella Valley Repertory's DISGRACED examines identity and prejudice. It is expertly performed, timely, and searing and will almost definitely leave a lasting impression on theatregoers.

BABY, now playing at Coachella Valley Repertory is a sweet, sentimental musical about a universal topic - pregnancy. Despite what I consider to be flaws in the book (by Sybille Pearson) and lyrics (by Richard Maltby, Jr.), the show is well worth seeing; David Shire's music is engaging and CVRep has mounted an excellent production.

Coachella Valley Repertory's (CVRep's) first play of the 2016-17 season, ANNAPURNA, is a finely acted and directed, intelligent comic drama that generates plenty of laughs on its way to a moving ending. ANNAPURNA, which tackles CVRep's theme for the season, 'love, marriage, and life changing events,' with heart and grit, will satisfy theatergoers seeking a play with intellectual and emotional depth.

Coachella Valley Repertory (CVRep) has been nominated for 29 Desert Theatre League star awards for the 2015-16 season. It has just obtained an option on the IMAX theater on Route 111 in Cathedral City. It has also announced its 2016-17 season.

Coachella Valley Repertory (CVRep), in Rancho Mirage, and its artistic director Ron Celona, have scored another coup with I AM MY OWN WIFE, the slightly fictionalized story of German gay rights activist and antique collector Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Actor Vince Gatton brings her to life, along with more than thirty other characters, in a brilliant one-person show that I consider a must-see.

Rancho Mirage's CVRep is premiering George Eastman's dramedy, HAPPY HOUR. Director Ron Celona, veteran actor Gavin MacLeod, and Los Angeles-based actor John Hawkinson do justice to Mr. Eastman's sensitive and intelligent play about a son's worries over his aging father's safety. The result is another must-see production at CVRep.

CVRep's new production of LA GRINGA is brilliantly acted and brilliantly directed. The set design and other technical aspects of the production are also superb. However, Carmen Rivera's script is mediocre, because this 'comedy' is not funny.

The Coachella Valley Reportory Theatre has scored a coup with HAVING OUR SAY. The top-notch acting of H. Chris Brown and Regina Randolph, the brilliant set design by Jimmy Cuomo, the imaginative props by Doug Morris, and the professionalism of the entire crew make Emily Mann's script sparkle.

The Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre, in Rancho Mirage, California, has mounted a brilliant production of THE CHOSEN as part of its 'American Melting Pot' series. THE CHOSEN examines the lives of two Orthodox Jewish high school friends in Brooklyn during and immediately after World War II. One boy lives in the modern world and one is cocooned in the Hasidic community, but both must deal with their own family concerns, the horror of the Holocaust, and their fathers' estrangement over differing views on Zionism.

Coachella Valley Repertory Theatre's MASTER CLASS, playing through November 10, is the first MUST SEE production of the desert's 2013-2014 theatrical season! It is what you might call a "triple threat" production --- one of Terrance McNally's finest books, a superb (that is putting it mildly) leading lady, and a production that fits CV-Rep's intimate space like a glove. The only real disappointment in the evening was the half full theatre - a tragedy! This production DESERVES an audience and I place it squarely atop my list of "run - don't walk to get your tickets before the final curtain' evenings in the theatre.

Celebration Theatre announced today a special benefit performance of the second show of its 2011-2012 Season, Leslie Jordan starring in the World Premiere of FRUIT FLY, written and performed by Leslie Jordan and directed by David Galligan.