Stage Raw has assembled a list of stage performances that stand out from the pack. Check back often for our Los Angeles theater recommendations.
Mean Girls Segerstrom Hall Reviewed by Dana Martin Through March 19 RECOMMENDED Mean Girls, a new musical book by Tina Fey, music by Jeff Richmond and lyrics by Nell Benjamin, has landed at Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa. The musical, adapted from the movie of the same name, premiered on Broadway in 2018 and explores […]
Happy Birthday McKenna Reviewed by Martίn Hernández The Hudson Backstage Theatre Through March 26 RECOMMENDED Playwright-director Steven Silverman’s dark yet amiable comedy offers up a multi-ethnic family whose members, despite living or being raised in racially turbulent Chicago, have no apparent animus over each other’s skin colors. No, these folks are dealing with more explosive […]
Love and Information Reviewed by Amanda L. Andrei Antaeus Theatre Company Through April 3 RECOMMENDED I have an ongoing conversation with a colleague who says that plays and computer simulations are essentially the same: you take the code (play script), run the simulation (rehearse and produce), and see the results (audience reaction). Over time, as […]
For The Love of The Glove Reviewed by Martίn HernándezCarl Sagan – Ann Druyan Theatre at the CenterfFor Inquiry WestThrough June 24RECOMMENDEDMix a B-movie sci-fi plot with the life story of the “King of Pop,” add some inventive puppetry and a talented and uninhibited ensemble, and the result is a profane, hilarious, and razor-sharp skewering of […]
The Marriage of FigaroReviewed by Julia StierLA OperaClosedRECOMMENDED You know you’re in for a fan favorite when the pre-show announcement has to remind the audience not to sing along . . . at an opera.LA Opera’s just closed production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro was a feast for both the eyes and ears. Conducted […]
Picasso at the Lapin AgileRuskin Group TheatreReviewed by Taylor KassThrough April 30RECOMMENDED A physicist and a painter walk into a bar. It sounds like a joke, but it’s also the premise of Steve Martin’s 1993 play Picasso at the Lapin Agile. The punchline? The physicist in question is Albert Einstein (Ryan Stiffelman) and the painter is […]
CardenioReviewed by F. Kathleen FoleyCity Garage TheatreThrough March 26RECOMMENDEDFor more than 30 years, theatrical gadflies Frédérique Michel and Charles A. Duncombe have defied theatrical trends, presenting some of the most worthy alternative theater on the Los Angeles scene.That doesn’t mean they don’t know how to whip up a slam-bang crowd pleaser on occasion. Under the […]
Calvin Berger Reviewed by Amanda L. Andrei The Colony Theatre Company Through March 26 RECOMMENDED Oh Calvin Berger, sweet Calvin Berger, sweet and witty Calvin Berger in your last year of high school, pining for the most beautiful girl in school while anxiously saving cash for a nose job in a Mr. Potato Head doll. […]
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord Reviewed by Socks Whitmore Center Theatre Group, co-produced with East West Players Through March 12 RECOMMENDED Back in 2020, actor-comedian Kristina Wong was touring her one-woman show Kristina Wong for Public Office, a solo performance/satirical political campaign based on the premise that it’s all performance anyway. In March . . . […]
Come Get Maggie Reviewed by Socks Whitmore Rogue Machine Theatre at The Matrix Through March 26 RECOMMENDED Content AdvisoryJohn Perrin Flynn, the producing artistic director of Rogue Machine Theatre, states clearly in the program for their latest production: “We don’t do musicals.” And yet, the show itself — the world-premiere run of Come Get Maggie, […]
