REVIEW: CASA VALENTINA BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO A group of men go into the woods and transform themselves into the beautiful dolled-up women they are inside—the West Coast premiere of Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina could not be more timely. Although this play is set in the 1960s the issues addressed are evermore present in our […]

REVIEW: BROKEN FENCES BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The Road Theatre Company continues its 2015-2016 25th anniversary season with the West Coast premiere of the play Broken Fences by Steven Simoncic. The play takes place in a neighborhood on Chicago’s deep West Side where gentrification driven by aggressive capitalism is forcing long-time residents out to make […]

REVIEW: ROMEO AND JULIET BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Of the 37 plays written by William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet is still a household name after 400 years. Everyone knows the plot of this tragic story: boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy loses girl, and boy and girl die, the end. However, […]

REVIEW: FLY BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The Pasadena Playhouse in conjunction with Crossroads Theatre Company presents the West Coast premiere of Fly by Trey Ellis and Ricardo Khan. Inspired by the American heroism of the Tuskegee Airmen, Fly dramatizes the story of four American Air Corp fighters who flew over the skies of Europe and […]

REVIEW: MY SISTER BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Janet Schlapkohl’s play My Sister returns to L.A. after its West Coast premiere at the Hollywood Fringe Festival where it won two awards. This two-person play tells the story of two identical twins, one with a disability, in Berlin during the Nazi rise to power. Schlapkohl wrote the […]

REVIEW: THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY BY RYAN M. LUEVANO L.A. welcomes The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey written by and starring James Lecesne, the writer of the Academy Award-winning film Trevor. This critically acclaimed off-Broadway hit is a fictional mystery based on his young adult novel, Absolute Brightness, surrounding the disappearance and death of Leonard […]

REVIEW: 1984 BY: RYAN M LUÉVANO George Orwell’s seminal work 1984 leaps out of the book and onto The Broad Stage in Santa Monica in this thrilling production by the Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and Almeida Theatre from the UK. This gripping adaptation created by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan recounts Orwell’s dystopian novel conjuring a […]

REVIEW: THE MANOR BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Have you ever noticed the giant mansion that extends westward and upwards into the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains? That’s Greystone Mansion: a 55-room Tudor-style estate on Loma Vista Drive. Built in 1928 by oil tycoon Edward Doheny, Sr., as a wedding gift for his son Ned. […]

REVIEW: WOOD BOY DOG FISH BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Rogue Artists Ensemble’s presentation of Wood Boy Dog Fish is not the familiar 1940s Disney Pinocchio movie, but rather a sublimely dark, freaky and contemporary rendering of Carlo Collodi’s canonic tale. This adult version dares to frighten and haunt audiences taking them down the rabbit hole […]

REVIEW: A FLEA IN HER EAR BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Mistaken identity, miscommunications, physical antics, secret rendezvous, rotating walls and a cleft palate equals hilarity beyond control. A Noise Within Theatre Company’s production of A Flea in Her Ear is a roller coaster of laughter from beginning to end. As the Southern California regional premiere […]