REVIEW: PILLARS OF NEW YORK BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Fresh on the heels of a new year, the L.A. theater scene is already seeing the influx of original L.A. musicals like Pillars of New York by Michael Antin. This musical tells the story about four couples’ struggles in and around the events surrounding 9/11 told […]

REVIEW: HAM: A MUSICAL MEMOIR BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The word memoir, although French, has been reduced to a dusty term used to describe the dreary lives of old people; but make it a musical memoir about Sam Harris and what you have is something different—Ham: A Musical Memoir is enthralling. Sam Harris, multi-million selling […]

REVIEW: EMPIRE BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Creating and producing an original musical of this magnitude is no easy task, yet co-creators Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull rise to the occasion with Empire the musical. Over 16 years in the making Empire is a tribute to classic musical theater telling the story of the struggle to design 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 […]

INTERVIEW: Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Co-creators Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull began the tall order of writing Empire the musical in 1999, a show recounting the struggle to design and build the world’s tallest Skyscraper during the Great Depression. Since its creation Empire has been performed and work-shopped all over […]

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. […]

INTERVIEW: Janet Schlapkohl, Playwright Last year Janet Schlapkohl’s play My Sister, starring identical twins Emily and Elizabeth Hinkler, directed by Paul David Story, made its West Coast premiere at the Hollywood Fringe Festival where it won two awards. Schlapkohl wrote the play with then-theater department students Emily (Magda) and Elizabeth (Matilde) in mind at the University of […]

REVIEW: BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The 2014 Tony award winning musical Bridges of Madison County, book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, has landed in L.A. with the Mr. Brown conducting the performances. Until now most are only familiar with the Broadway cast recording, but upon seeing […]