posted on August 10th, 2026 at 12:26 PM by Steven Stanley


You know me as L.A.’s most prolific theater reviewer, but did you also know that I’ve spent my entire professional career teaching English as a Second Language?  Continue reading to see how I have segued from the university classroom into online coaching.
(read more)

Tags: , , , ,
posted in Coaching

LITTLE WOMEN THE MUSICAL

posted on November 9th, 2026 at 12:28 PM by Steven Stanley


The wait is over! 20 years after its National Tour stopped for a brief 2 weeks at the Hollywood Pantages, Little Women The Musical finally gets the major regional production it richly deserves, and the result is a superbly staged and performed Broadway-caliber gem.
(read more)

Tags: , , , , ,
posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Now Playing, Theater Review, WOW!

THE LAUGH TRACK

posted on November 9th, 2026 at 10:49 AM by Steven Stanley

Situation comedy groundbreakers Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh deserve to be saluted, and the cast assembled on the International City Theatre stage to salute them definitely give it their all, but the sitcomish approach playwright Wendy MacLeod has taken in The Laugh Track ends up less successful in execution than it might promise to be on paper.
(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Comedy, Long Beach/San Pedro, Now Playing, Theater Review

RECENT ALIEN ABDUCTIONS

posted on November 3rd, 2026 at 10:02 AM by Steven Stanley


A pivotal episode in the sci-fi series The X-Files that may or may not have actually aired in the mid-1990s becomes a metaphor for childhood trauma in Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas’s Recent Alien Abductions, a West Coast Premiere that sets a high bar for Sacred Fools Theatre’s 30th season.
(read more)

posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Now Playing, Theater Review, WOW!

DEAR EVAN HANSEN

posted on November 1st, 2026 at 12:39 PM by Steven Stanley


The multiple Tony-winning Dear Evan Hansen gets its Southern California Regional Premiere at the La Mirada Theatre a whopping ten years after its Broadway debut in a production that reaffirms its status as one of the most powerful and emotionally compelling musicals of this or any century.
(read more)

Tags: , , , ,
posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, Now Playing, Theater Review, WOW!

at the very bottom of a body of water

posted on October 31st, 2026 at 12:07 PM by Steven Stanley


The quiet magic realism that has made playwriting stars of Sarah Ruhl and Julia Cho has found a fresh new voice in Benjamin Benne, whose World Premiere drama at the very bottom of a body of water has arrived at Boston Court to captivate and move audiences in equal measure.
(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Drama, Now Playing, Pasadena, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

THE WHO’S TOMMY

posted on October 30th, 2026 at 10:46 AM by Steven Stanley


Not everything works to perfection in the National Tour of the 2024 Broadway revival of The Who’s Tommy, but a spectacular production design, mesmerizing choreography, and soaring vocals add up to a thrilling theatrical extravaganza at the Hollywood Pantages.
(read more)

Tags: , , , ,
posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, National Tour, Now Playing, WOW!

THE MUSIC MAN

posted on October 28th, 2026 at 12:35 PM by Steven Stanley


Few Golden Age musicals stand the test of time the way Meredith Willson’s 1957 classic The Music Man has for the past 69 years, and if you don’t believe me check out the fabulously entertaining National Tour now paying a visit to the Ahmanson Theater.
(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Los Angeles, Musical, National Tour, Now Playing, Theater Review, WOW!

RORSCHACH

posted on October 26th, 2026 at 12:20 PM by Steven Stanley


Four contemporary Angelinos find their lives intertwined with that of pioneering Swiss psychiatrist-psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach more than a century after his death in Kelly Younger’s Rorschach, a spectacular World Premiere season opener for a Skylight Theatre Company rejuvenated under Cameron Watson’s artistic directorship.
(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, Now Playing, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

Next Page