Stage Raw has assembled a list of stage performances that stand out from the pack. Check back often for our Los Angeles theater recommendations.

#Measure4Measure

#Measure4Measure

Measure4MeasureReviewed by Martίn HernándezCity GarageThrough July 9RECOMMENDEDWith its hashtag retitle alluding to the #MeToo Movement, author/adaptor Charles A. Duncombe’s version of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure offers a timely skewering of sexual harassment, religious hypocrisy, and state repression. Rather than a wholesale adaptation, however, Duncombe maintains the original setting and intersperses contemporary banter and narration […]

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Back Porch

Back Porch

Back PorchReviewed by Deborah KlugmanBluestem Productions at the Victory Theatre Center Through July 9RECOMMENDEDAn old-timey small town in Kansas. A young person chafing at its limitations and longing to see the world. A handsome stranger of uncertain moral character who appears as a catalyst for change. These plot elements appear front and center in William […]

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Starmites

Starmites

StarmitesReviewed by Socks WhitmoreOpen Fist Theatre Company @ Atwater Village TheatreThrough July 8 RECOMMENDEDIn 2023, the demand for nostalgia is higher than ever, Over at the Atwater Village Theatre, the 80s are calling — Open Fist Theatre Company’s production of Starmites, the Tony-nominated musical billed as “a comic book come to life,” has taken the stage […]

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Twelfth Night (Or What You Will)

Twelfth Night (Or What You Will)

Twelfth Night (Or What You Will) Reviewed by Martίn HernándezThe Long Beach Shakespeare CompanyThrough June 17That adolescent boys and young men played the female roles in William Shakespeare’s day surely wreaked humorous havoc on the Bard’s gender-bending comedy. Director Ken Knight has gone a step further, casting women in some of the male roles, and […]

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Cabaret

Cabaret

CabaretReviewed by Socks WhitmoreAltadena Music TheatreThrough June 4 Whether you’re a passionate fan of post-Golden Age musicals or you binged Season 5 of Schitt’s Creek during the pandemic, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Kander and Ebb’s 1967 chaotic whirlwind of song, dance, politics and sex known as Cabaret. The story is set in late […]

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The Darkness: Goddess Revealed

The Darkness: Goddess Revealed

The Darkness: Goddess Revealed Reviewed by F. Kathleen FoleyThe Actors’ GangThrough June 17It’s not a good sign when a critic has to read and reread the advance press materials in an anxious but sincere effort to understand a play.After viewing The Darkness: Goddess Revealed at the Actors’ Gang, I felt as if I had witnessed something […]

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A Soldier’s Play

A Soldier’s Play

A Soldier’s PlayReviewed by G. Bruce SmithAhmanson TheatreThrough June 25RECOMMENDEDA Black sergeant is killed, shot to death with two bullets. His body is found in the woods near the Louisiana army base where, in 1944, a company of Black soldiers is stationed. Yes, Charles Fuller’s A Soldier’s Play, winner of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for […]

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Ain’t Misbehavin’

Ain’t Misbehavin’

Ain’t Misbehavin’Reviewed by Martίn HernándezNate Holden Performing Arts CenterThrough May 28RECOMMENDEDAh, they don’t write them like that anymore, and if jazz composer and pianist Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller had not passed away in 1943 at the all too early age of thirty-nine, there would be more than the four hundred copyrighted songs in his repertoire […]

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The Bottoming Process

The Bottoming Process

The Bottoming ProcessReviewed by Deborah KlugmanIAMA Theatre Company and the Los Angeles LGBT CenterThrough June 12RECOMMENDED What happens when ethnic identity stops being a gift and starts being a curse? In Nicholas Pilapil’s The Bottoming Process, a gay Filipino American man becomes so obsessed with how his Asian-ness —and his sexuality — is perceived that […]

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No Place Like Gandersheim

No Place Like Gandersheim

No Place Like Gandersheim Reviewed by Terry MorganSkylight TheatreThrough June 25RECOMMENDED There have already been films and other works of art concerning the “Me Too” movement, but No Place Like Gandersheim is the first play I can think of that talks about its aftermath. That isn’t even the main subject of the piece, which concerns the plight […]

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