EMPIRE PERFORMANCE STUDIO

by Evan Henerson - May 17, 2024

A moody dramatic dive into the life of a violinist whose celebrated waltz got him mistaken for Strauss. As lovely as Alberto Barboza’s production looks on stage at the Los Angeles Theatre Center – and as melodic as it often sounds – GHOST WALTZ’s impact is as fleeting as the spirits who populate it....

by Amanda Callas - May 16, 2024

The Body’s Midnight is a brilliant, meditative, fiercely funny and brutally heartrending world premiere drama at Boston Court Pasadena.  It is a hard play to capture its essence, both explosively hilarious and lyrical, surreal, and profoundly mournful, a ferocious elegy to all the things that are di...

by Melissa Heckscher - May 13, 2024

Nocturne Theatre’s production of Beauty and the Beast hits all the right notes. Fans of the original story will be delighted with the stellar performances of their favorite songs, while fans of Meyer2Meyer’s macabre touch will relish the costumes and the overall ambiance of the Nocturne Theatre itse...

by Harker Jones - May 07, 2024

Every immigrant experience is unique and Guimarães’ story is a deeply engaging rumination on the power of faith and the capacity of hope to see one through....

by Michael Quintos - May 05, 2024

Eleanor Burgess’ brilliant, thoughtful, and often bitingly funny GALILEE, 34—currently having its impressive world premiere production at South Coast Repertory through May 12, 2024—is a humorously insightful, beautifully-performed new play that offers an unreliably revisionist examination of suppose...

by Evan Henerson - May 03, 2024

MONSTERS OF THE AMERICAN CINEMA, a whip smart and heartfelt play by Christian St. Croix produced in its L.A. premiere by Rogue Machine Theatre, argues that in the present, monsters and human beings aren’t easily distinguishable from each other.  Monsters can take human form and vice versa. I guess t...

by Harker Jones - May 01, 2024

The problem with NORA is that in the longer, three-act running time of “A Doll’s House,” Nora’s world and its inhabitants would be fleshed out so that they had depth that is not evident in this adaptation....

by Melissa Heckscher - April 28, 2024

The Palos Verdes Performing Arts' production of A Chorus Line is everything community theater should be: It makes you realize you don’t need a big Broadway house to get a Broadway experience....

by Michael Quintos - April 26, 2024

A brand-new, reimagined regional iteration of the Tony-winning 2005 musical JERSEY BOYS now at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts is exceeding all expectations. Featuring a superb ensemble cast performing The Four Seasons' greatest hits, this spectacular, high-energy, crowd-pleasing produ...

by Amanda Callas - April 25, 2024

Twelfth Night is a glorious example of how to do Shakespeare right.  This production is full-bodied, fresh, cheeky, lighthearted, inventive, imaginative, and flat-out hilarious....