Covering the red carpet on the Opening Night of Miss Saigon at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, I was starstruck to see British actor Greg Ellis walk down the carpet. He performed in the original Miss Saigon when it premiered in the West End at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1989. The show was…
Category: Jill’s Theatre Reviews
Theatre Review: “The Play That Goes Wrong” at the Ahmanson Theatre
What I enjoyed about “The Play That Goes Wrong” by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of Mischief Theatre Company is that it’s a play within a play. We are sitting in the audience watching “The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society” perform their newest murder mystery “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” As my daughter and…
Renée Taylor’s MY LIFE ON A DIET
Last night I laughed throughout the autobiographical comedy by Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning writer and actress Renée Taylor. Written by Taylor and her late husband Joseph Bologna, this one-woman show MY LIFE ON A DIET was originally directed by Bologna, and made its New York premiere in 2018. With such critical acclaim,…
Spoken Word & Music (M)IYAMOTO is BLACK Enough
For only two nights at the the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, the National Sawdust Projects dynamic musical social commentary (M)IYAMOTO IS BLACK ENOUGH performs at the Lovelace Studio Theater. The show opens with a lively beating of the drums by Sean Dixon to set the tempo. Soon two more musicians – Andy…
Review: “Lights Out: Nat ‘King’ Cole” at the Geffen Playhouse
Velvety voice Dulé Hill portrays Nat “King Cole during the last night of his televised variety show in Lights Out: Nat “King Cole at the Geffen Playhouse. Taking my seat before the show, I admired Clint Ramos and Ryan Howell’s 50s style television sound stage set with “applause” and “on-air” boxes high up. We feel…
Theatre Review: “Witness Uganda”
Winston Churchill in his 1908 book “My African Journey” said Uganda is the Pearl of Africa. After watching Witness Uganda at The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, I declare this musical is a sparking diamond onstage. The energy and music reminds me of the award-winning 90s rock musical RENT. Instead of watching impoverished young…
Hollywood’s HELLO, DOLLY! is a Show Stopper
Walking up to the front of the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, I noticed a sparkly tiara and bouquet of red roses with petals scattered around Carol Channing’s star. Channing who passed away on January 15, 2019 was the quintessential Dolly Gallagher Levi in the musical “Hello, Dolly!” She brought Dolly to life over 5,000 times. I…
Lin-Manuel Miranda & his father Luis
Sitting center stage at the Geffen Playhouse, Broadway sensation and Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father Luis A. Miranda Jr., enlightened the audience for 90 minutes about theatre, Puerto Rico and Lin-Manuel’s new movie role in Mary Poppins with moderator Soledad O’Brien. Together this father and son team are very entertaining. O’Brien:…
Go See Valley of the Heart at the Mark Taper Forum
As the front doors opened at the Mark Taper Forum, three Japanese style drummers led the audience into the theatre to see Luis Valdez’s newest stage production Valley of the Heart. Sitting in my seat, I looked down admiring John Iacovelli’s exquisite wood floor stage displaying rays of sun, and a mesmerizing thin blue line…
