REVIEW: HALLELUJAH, BABY! BY RYAN LUÉVANO Making a career in the performing arts has always been a challenge, now imagine trying the same thing as a minority in a time when equality does not exist. That’s the basic premise the 1967 musical Hallelujah, Baby! (music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden, […]

REVIEW: THAT LONG DAMN DARK BY RYAN LUÉVANO It’s not often that a play is able to successfully transcend the limits of the stage and venture into cinematic territory, and even more so in a tiny black box theatre. Ashley’s Rose Wellman’s new play That Long Damn Dark does just that. This West Coast premiere presented […]

REVIEW: THE LAST FIVE YEARS BY RYAN LUÉVANO Imagine witnessing the last five years of one of your failed relationships played out on stage for all to see—that’s what the Jason Robert Brown musical The Last Five Years accomplishes. The show written in 2001 is directly inspired by Brown’s failed marriage to Theresa O’Neill. Audiences […]

REVIEW: ZANNA DON’T BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Step into the topsy-turvy land of the sugary 2003 off-Broadway musical Zanna Don’t, by Tim Acito and with additional lyrics and material by Alexander Dinelaris, now playing at Chromolume Theatre. In this high school musical spoof homosexuality is the norm and heterosexuality is a taboo. So when a […]

REVIEW: URINETOWN BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO L.A.’s ‘pay what you want’ theatre company, Coeurage Theatre Company, returns with an extended run of the satirical musical Urinetown. The musical’s story that centers on a town suffering from a severe drought certainly rings true to California’s recent drought issues. Of course the premise here is magnified as society […]

REVIEW: AMÉLIE BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Pulling from cinema stockpile from abroad, American producers have deemed the 2001 film Amélie as a story worth taking to the musical stage, and not just any stage—Broadway is imminent. After the tryout at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, the show is slotted for an opening on April […]

REVIEW: MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The show everyone’s talking about right now is Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 Broadway flop Merrily We Roll Along. Within weeks of this production opening at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the documentary Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened by […]

REVIEW: A CHRISTMAS CAROL BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO It’s that wonderful time of year once again: A Noise Within Theatre Company’s A Christmas Carol returns in a production that’s as glorious as ever. This classic Charles Dickens tale from 1843 is expertly adapted for the stage by co-director Geoff Elliot, who also plays the title […]

REVIEW: LETTERS TO EVE BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The new musical Letters To Eve by Daniel Sugimoto makes is world premiere at the The Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica. Although the musical is still in its development stage, the stories are powerful and the potential is eminent. This WWII musical follows a Japanese American […]

REVIEW: THE IMAGINARY INVALID BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO Make it a Molière kind of night at A Noise Within Theatre Company as they bring audiences The Imaginary Invalid this fall. Have you ever had a friend, coworker, or family member who always claims to be ill? —or maybe that person is you. Whatever the case […]