Interview with director MICHAEL SHEPPERD About Celebration Theatre’s Production of The Boy from Oz BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO This April (2016) Los Angeles’ very own Celebration Theatre at the Lex in association with Nicholas Caprio, Michael C. Kricfalusi, Todd Milliner and Jack Morrissey will present, under the artistic direction of Michael Matthews and Michael Shepperd, the […]

REVIEW: NEXT THING YOU KNOW BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Intimate theater is thriving all over Los Angeles and the Chromolume Theatre at the Attic is one of the quintessential hot spots to take in a show with a mere fifty strangers. Currently running at the Chromolume is the West Coast premiere of Joshua Saltzman and […]

REVIEW: CHILDREN OF EDEN BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Before Wicked, Stephen Schwartz created Children of Eden, a contemporary retelling of the Biblical stories of Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; and Noah and the flood. Cabrillo Music Theatre brings the community this epic show with a fresh and inspiring production that is sure to amuse. […]

REVIEW: LA OLLA BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO What would you do if you found a pot of gold? How would you be changed? These are the questions answered in the Latino Theatre Company’s world premiere of La Olla by Evelina Fernandez based on the Latin play by the early Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. What […]

REVIEW: THE REVISIONIST BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Most know actor Jesse Eisenberg for his memorable roles in The Village, Zombieland, and The Social Network, but what most are not aware of is his second career as an American playwright. The Wallis Annenberg’s West Coast premiere of Eisenberg’s third play The Revisionist, which premiered in February 2013 […]

REVIEW: DREAMGIRLS BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The Dreamgirls phenomenon continues at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts this spring. Opening in 1981 at the Imperial Theatre, and winning six Tony Awards, this showbiz musical follows the story of a young female singing trio from Chicago called “The Dreams” as they navigate the murky waters […]

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 […]

INTERVIEW: JOHN BOLEN BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO I remember sitting at a Conundrum Theatre Company play committee session in January to read the over twenty original plays that were submitted. The rule was: We’ll read only the first ten pages to get a sense of the work, then we’ll move on to the next play. Before […]

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, […]