Love, Actually at Theatre West

Review: Musical Theatre West Brings MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET Back to Life in Long Beach

April 19, 2024

More like one elongated impromptu jam session than a typical musical, Musical Theatre West's new production of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET doesn't involve a complex storyline, but instead focuses on imagining what it must have been like to be in the room where music history happened. The resulting concert-like jukebox musical is a rollicking good time.

FUNNY GIRL & More Lead Los Angeles's April 2024 Top Theatre Shows

April 01, 2024

Los Angeles is never lacking outstanding theatre, whether epic Broadway shows, engrossing dramas or bold fringe offerings. BroadwayWorld is rounding up our top recommended theatre every month. Selections for April 2024 include Funny Girl and more!

Review: Musical Theatre West Revisits Classic 42ND STREET in Long Beach

February 13, 2024

For the most part, MTW's brand-new, admirably plucky 2024 production—now on stage through February 25—succeeds as an entertaining, visually cheerful show, filled with strong performances, a rousingly robust orchestra, and dynamic, zestfully tap-tastic dance numbers. Despite its lack of any real, serious stakes, the show itself is still a fun time.

SO MANY STARS Comes to Theatre West in December

October 31, 2023

'So Many Stars' is a musical event celebrating the joy of life itself. Directed by Victoria Lavan, this show features a talented cast and musicians, and will be performed at Theatre West in Los Angeles from December 2-10, 2023. Don't miss your chance to see and hear 'So Many Stars.'

Interview: Writer/Director/Musician David P. Johnson on Creating Sally Spectre: The Musical at Theatre West

October 26, 2023

Each Halloween Season, many horror and science fiction offerings hit our stages. This year, David P. Johnson is bringing his Sally Spectre: The Musical back to Theatre West weekends through October 29. A combination horror and morality play, it centers around the ghost of a 5-year-old girl trying to escape from her locked bedroom where she was brutally murdered. But is this musical really for children? To find out, I decided to speak with David P. Johnson who not only wrote the book, music, and lyrics but also directs and co-produces it, and appears onstage accompanying the cast on keyboard during every performance.

Interview: Lloyd J. Schwartz' Currently Between THE RIGHT IS OURS! & Storybook Theatre

September 11, 2023

The multi-tasking Lloyd J. Schwartz’ The Right is Ours! world premiered at the Sierra Madre Playhouse last week. Not content to only be writing and directing The Right is Ours!, Lloyd’s also the creative force behind Storybook Theatre at Theatre West (with his wife Barbara Mallory Schwartz). Lloyd managed to carve out some time between multiple responsibilities to answer a few of my queries.

Interview: Playwright Garry Michael Kluger on the World Premiere of WALKING IN SPACE at Theatre West

August 27, 2023

Prolific writer Garry Michael Kruger is bringing the world premiere of his latest play, Walking In Space, to Theatre West for a five-week run beginning September 8, directed by Arden Teresa Lewis. It centers on a family in crisis with a drug-addicted single mother needing the assistance of her children to overcome her demons.

Interview: Writer/Performer Romy Nordlinger on GARDEN OF ALLA: The Alla Nazimova Story at Theatre West

June 28, 2023

During the Roaring 1920s until its closing on July 27, 1959, West Hollywood’s landmark Garden of Allah Hotel on Sunset Blvd. hosted the Hollywood elite looking to have a great time socializing and mingling without the prying eyes of the media or autograph seekers in their faces, or their beds for that matter. I decided to speak with Romy Nordlinger, the playwright and performer of Garden of Alla in which she shares the life of Alla Nazimova, a Jewish immigrant from Tsarist Russia who became a Broadway and silent film superstar, visionary Hollywood director and producer, LGBTQIA trailblazer, and creator of the hotel which became world famous on many levels, both famous and infamous.

Review: Musical Theatre West's AN AMERICAN IN PARIS Dances Into Long Beach

April 21, 2023

Though this song-and-dance spectacular first emerged as a lush, hypnotic stage adaptation of a classic movie musical that combined sophisticated ballet with exuberant show tunes, MTW's new 2023 regional production, now performing through April 30, 2023 somehow feels less mesmerizing---particularly during moments when the dancing stops.

Getty Villa Presents SEVEN LOVES This February

January 27, 2023

Getty Villa Museum presents Seven Loves, a Valentine's cabaret that brings together award-winning performers singing songs from Broadway, based on Greek and Roman myths, to explore the full range and complexities of love.