BY RYAN M. LUEVANO In the heart of Los Angeles, the dazzling lights of the theater are set to ignite as the celebrated songwriting duo, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known for their triumphs like the Tony Award-winning “Dear Evan Hansen,” the Academy Award for “La La Land,” and the Golden Globe for “The Greatest […]

REVIEW: THE TEMPEST BY RYAN M. LUEVANO If you like theatre and immersive experiences then you’ve likely seen the ads for The Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theatre Company’s premiere of The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, a fully reimagined immersive performance. A performance where “Guests will find themselves shipwrecked onto the shifting sands of […]

REVIEW: THE SECRET GARDEN BY RYAN M. LUEVANO A revival of the 1991 musical The Secret Garden is now underway at the Ahmanson preceding a national tour. The musical with book and lyrics by Marsha Norman and music by Lucy Simon boasts that its been “developed for a new generation.” In an interview with the […]

REVIEW: 2:22 A GHOST STORY BY RYAN M. LUEVANO Halloween maybe over, but if you’re still craving something spooky, the Ahmanson Theatre is offering the U.S. premiere of 2:22 A Ghost Story play by Danny Robins. The play seeks to answer the question: Is that ghost heard on the baby monitor at 2:22am or something else? The […]

REVIEW: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD BY RYAN M. LUEVANO A new To Kill a Mockingbird play seems well over do even when the first adaptation by Christopher Sergel only debuted in 1990. Since its first publication in 1960, the book by Harper Lee was born to unto the world as an instant classic of modern American literature. […]

REVIEW: THE PROM BY RYAN M. LUEVANO The national tour of the 2019 Drama Desk Award winner for Outstanding Musical The Prom is now playing at the Ahmanson Theatre. The musical takes the familiar notion of a school dance, adds a touching tale of acceptance, then wraps it in a glitzy musical theater bow. It brings new […]

REVIEW: MOULIN ROUGE BY RYAN M. LUEVANO In the ever-growing cannon of jukebox musicals (e.g., Rock of Ages, The Boy from Oz, All Shook Up, Jersey Boys etc.) Moulin Rouge takes the cake—as a matter of fact it is the cake. Moulin Rouge is a jukebox musical of a jukebox musical film. The multi-award-winning musical (including a Tony for Best […]

REVIEW: WHO’S AFRIAD OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? BY RYAN M. LUEVANO Now playing at the Geffen Playhouse is Edward Albee’s 1963 Tony Award Winning play, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? This classic play takes place in the living room on the campus of a small New England college in 1962 in the wee hours of the morning. […]

REVIEW: PARADISE BLUE BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The Geffen Playhouse’s latest offering takes us into a world of smoky blue notes and noir milieu set in a jazz club in 1949 Detroit. Tony Award-nominated playwright Dominique Morisseau’s play Paradise Blue takes the stage in a production that is as vivid as it is a vital piece of […]

REVIEW: THE LAST SHIP BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Like a ship lost at sea, the Sting musical, The Last Ship has resurfaced at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles following a UK national tour and a brief run in Toronto. The musical opened on Broadway in 2014 and ran for 105 performances. Now five years later […]