Costa Mesa Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 8

Review: MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET Shares an Incredible Recording Session in Rock and Roll History
by Shari Barrett - February 15, 2018

It ended too soon is all I can say. I could have kept dancing for hours to the music being celebrated from the stage in MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET, now being presented by 3-D Theatricals in Redondo Beach and Cerritos. For those like me who have always been a fan of wild child Jerry Lee Lewis and the se...

BWW Review: OC's Chance Theater presents Touching Musical VIOLET
by Michael Quintos - February 15, 2018

A quieter, more down-to-earth musical-but done so with a bellowing musical prowess thanks to book writer and lyricist Brian Crawley and composer Jeanine Tesori-VIOLET explores the multiple layers of feelings associated with being and living life as an 'other' within an environment that promotes (and...

BWW Review: KINKY BOOTS Tour Struts Into Segerstrom Center for the Arts
by Michael Quintos - February 09, 2018

For the most part, the brief Orange County return of the Tony Award-winning musical smash KINKY BOOTS---which continues its quick week-long stop at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through February 11---pretty much preserves its hard-to-escape fabulousness. Its current incarnation as a n...

BWW Review: Tony-winning Superstar Kristin Chenoweth Triumphantly Returns to OC's Segerstrom Center
by Michael Quintos - February 06, 2018

Luckily for some of us who don't have the luxury or the time to simply catch every show that Tony Award-winning musical superstar Kristin Chenoweth does in New York City, she is a prolific touring artist, opting often to bring her sweet and sassy singing self to audiences around the world via enjoya...

BWW Review: SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE Stage Adaptation Romances at South Coast Repertory
by Michael Quintos - February 01, 2018

Witty, enchanting, and joyously self-referential, the original film version of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE fantasizes a story involving a young, virile William Shakespeare in his prime, who quells a bout of writer's block by secretly romancing an engaged lady named Viola---which apparently becomes the inspi...

BWW Review: THE HOT LIST! What's Hot on Stage Now
by Ellen Dostal - January 30, 2018

So many productions are happening all over the city. Here's what made the Hot List: Bugaboo & the Silent One, The Hothouse, Cabaret, Pirates of Penzance, Shakespeare in Love, Disney's Aladdin. Go see a show!...

BWW Review: THE CAR PLAYS Makes Its Highly-Anticipated Return Trip to Segerstrom Center
by Michael Quintos - January 26, 2018

Still one of the most the most unique and thrilling live theatrical offerings you will ever experience, THE CAR PLAYS has once again parked themselves at the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza at Segerstrom Center for the Arts for another highly-anticipated round of claustrophobic, stopped-in-traffic...

BWW Review: Flashy New Production of CABARET High-Kicks Into La Mirada Theatre
by Michael Quintos - January 23, 2018

Despite my well-earned affection for the Tony-winning 1998 Roundabout Theatre Company production of the classic Kander and Ebb Broadway classic CABARET, I still found myself vigorously entertained by McCoy Rigby Entertainment's flashy and buoyant new 2018 regional production of this theatrical stapl...

BWW Review: Powerhouse Vocals Celebrate 100 Years of Leonard Bernstein at Segerstrom Center
by Michael Quintos - January 19, 2018

Filled with one amazing powerhouse vocal performance after another, ONE HAND, ONE HEART: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF BERNSTEIN is a musical theater lover's treat of a concert, celebrating the legacy of one of music's most influential musicians and composers of the last century, Leonard Bernstein. Featuring...

BWW Review: Laguna Playhouse Stages Gripping Pulitzer Prize winning I AM MY OWN WIFE
by Michael Quintos - January 16, 2018

Featuring a remarkable, awards-worthy, tour-de-force performance by actor John Tufts that will easily win you over no matter what your personal tastes or beliefs or politics may be, this admirable new regional production of Doug Wright's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play I AM MY OWN WIFE---beauti...

BWW Review: ALADDIN AND HIS WINTER WISH Panto Makes Laguna Playhouse Merry
by Michael Quintos - December 12, 2017

The silly, family-friendly fun of those British-borne Pantos are back for a third holiday season in row at Orange County's Laguna Playhouse, this time with a story wrapped around the infamous tale of a smart-aleck street urchin (Jason Gotay) who discovers a magic lamp hiding a genie that grants wish...

BWW Review: A Lovely Night! Rodgers And Hammerstein's CINDERELLA Is Must-See Musical Magic At The McCallum!
by David Green - November 25, 2017

Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is sumptuous and fanciful and bursting with all of the ingredients necessary to make up the perfect family musical . The score is timeless and emotionally stirring. The costumes and scenic elements are candy for the eyes. The dancing ensemble is impeccable and t...

BWW Review: McClure & Pascal Bring the Hilarious High-Jinks of SOMETHING ROTTEN! to OC
by Michael Quintos - November 14, 2017

In a rarity that doesn't happen too often here in Southern California, a brand new national tour of a recent hit Broadway musical has arrived first in Orange County in advance of a much longer sit-down engagement in Los Angeles. And, boy, is this one a marvelous gift from the comedy gods! Behold, la...

BWW Review: August Wilson's GEM OF THE OCEAN Gets Exquisite New Staging at South Coast Repertory
by Michael Quintos - November 06, 2017

Riding the wave of renewed interest in August Wilson's 10 play, American Century Cycle, South Coast Repertory has one particular Wilson drama on their sonar at the moment: GEM OF THE OCEAN, the riveting, epic-sized 2003 drama now continuing at the Costa Mesa theater through November 11. An exquisite...

BWW Review: Powerful Lead Performance Elevates END OF THE RAINBOW at La Mirada Theatre
by Michael Quintos - November 02, 2017

Peter Quilter's unfiltered, devastatingly intense play, END OF THE RAINBOW, recounts the final months leading up to the death of one of the world's most iconic, treasured stars, Judy Garland, in her lowest depths of despair as she attempts a 'comeback' on the London stage. Now back in Southern Calif...

BWW Review: Musical Theatre West Presents Vibrant New Production of IN THE HEIGHTS
by Michael Quintos - October 30, 2017

Lin-Manuel Miranda's first Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical, IN THE HEIGHTS is now on stage in a brand new Broadway-caliber regional production presented by Musical Theatre West at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach through November 5. Told as a series of interweaving vi...

BWW Review: South Coast Repertory Presents Engaging World Premiere Play CURVE OF DEPARTURE
by Michael Quintos - October 16, 2017

In Rachel Bonds' beautifully-acted and cleverly written new play CURVE OF DEPARTURE---now finishing up its too-brief World Premiere run at Orange County's South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through October 15---characters are confronted with unexpected events that forces them to make such choices f...

BWW Review: OC's Chance Theater presents Thought-Provoking Play TRIBES
by Michael Quintos - October 09, 2017

In its admirable Orange County premiere production directed by Marya Mazor, Chance Theater presents an intimately-staged version of Nina Raine's thoughtful, award-winning 2010 play TRIBES, now playing through October 22, 2017. This comedic drama which centers around a young deaf man caught between h...

BWW Review: MASTER CLASS at Garry Marshall Theatre, or What Becomes a Legend Most?
by Ellen Dostal - September 26, 2017

In 1970, Maria Callas posed for Blackglama's iconic What Becomes a Legend Most ad campaign. The famous black and white Richard Avedon photographs shot against a simple gray background captured the glamour and allure of black mink featuring some of the most iconic faces in the world. It was indeed ...

BWW Review: Rousing Revival of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' Roars at La Mirada
by Michael Quintos - September 25, 2017

In a new, incredibly enjoyable regional revival of the Tony Award-winning AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' - THE FATS WALLER MUSICAL SHOW, La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts is presenting one of the most rousing, rip-roaring iterations of this musical treat, under the informed direction of one of the show's...

BWW Review: BENNY AND JOON, A Breath of Fresh Air for your Musical Senses
by Ellen Dostal - September 24, 2017

The Old Globe has opened a window and let in a beautiful breath of fresh air in its latest world premiere musical, BENNY AND JOON, by bookwriter Kirsten Guenther, composer Nolan Gasser, and lyricist Mindi Dickstein. Based on the 1993 MGM film starring Johnny Depp, Mary Stuart Masterson and Aidan Qui...

BWW Review: South Coast Repertory Raises Hopeful, Exquisite New Production of ONCE
by Michael Quintos - September 21, 2017

Though the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of writer/director John Carney's well-liked indie film ONCE is a musical that this reviewer has liked quite a bit from past productions, it took seeing South Coast Repertory's brand new regional production---now on stage in Costa Mesa through Septembe...

BWW Review: Recontextualizing Architecture as Art in Pacific Standard Time LA/LA's CONDEMNED TO BE MODERN
by Ellen Dostal - September 15, 2017

While watching Crystal Sep lveda perform during the opening of Pacific Standard LA/LA's Condemned To Be Modern exhibit, I couldn't help but think of a quote by Frank Lloyd Wright: 'Space is the breath of art.' Poetic in its simplicity, it is an observation that is particularly eloquent when consider...

BWW Review: Theatrically Inventive CURIOUS INCIDENT Tour Captivates at OC's Segerstrom Center
by Michael Quintos - September 15, 2017

A cross between a murder mystery and a psychological drama told with a high-tech showmanship flair, the intriguing touring production of Simon Stephen's Tony Award-winning play THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME now in Costa Mesa at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts throu...

BWW Review: The Pure Joy of MUSE-IQUE's Summer of Sound: GLOW/TOWN
by Ellen Dostal - August 31, 2017

It's official. I have a new favorite thing, and it is called MUSE/IQUE. You would too if you'd been in the audience for GLOW/TOWN, the third in a 3-part series celebrating Motown and its roots Saturday night at Caltech. From the structure of the program to the sophistication of the environment, Arti...