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,…
Category: Theater
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…
Lackawanna Blues Wins Hearts in LA
Taking my seat during the opening night of Lackawanna Blues, two women named Pam and Sally sat down next to me. They started talking about their friend, writer, performer and director Ruben Santiago-Hudson. They shared with me how Pam is Ruben’s publicist, and that the first reading of Lackawanna Blues was in the living room…
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…
The Bitter Game at The Wallis in Beverly Hills – Rise to the voice of the unheard
Last night my daughter and I entered the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts theatre to see THE BITTER GAME. As we picked up our tickets, we were told to go back outside to the The Wallis’ Promenade Terrace. This was the first time I have ever watched a show outside under bright lights. As we…
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…
Dear Evan Hansen
It was a star studded opening night at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles as I spotted Nia Vardalos, Producer Stacey Mindich, book writer Steve Levenson, and music creators Benj Pasek & Justin PaulKaty Perry and her entourage take their seats right before the house lights clicked to black. Scenic designer David Korins (Hamilton) symmetrical…
BLACK! at the Zephyr Theatre
Sitting in the Zephyr Theatre to watch a touching one man show by British playwright, actor and storyteller Michael Washington Brown, I felt as if I was attending a Black Studies class at a local college. With a simple set, this multimedia experience is enhanced with images and music as Brown examines race from a…
