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 […]

REVIEW: ANTIGONE BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO A Noise Within Theatre Company brings this “tranquil” Greek tragedy to the people in their production of Antigone, based on Jean Anouilh‘s play inspired by Greek mythology and the Sophocles play of the same name from the fifth century B.C. What makes this version even more rare—it is the world […]

REVIEW: REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO The Pasadena Playhouse revival of the Josefina Lopez play Real Women Have Curves is a production that touches the soul and encourages self-reflection. There are many important themes wrapped up in this play about a group of five Latina, curvy women working in a tiny sewing […]