The Classic Theatre finishes off its 2014-15 season with a well-mounted production of Christopher Durang’s Tony-winning comedy, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Vanya (John O'Neill…
What a long, strange trip Hairspray has taken. Beginning as a shockingly wholesome PG-rated film from Pink Flamingos filmmaker John Waters " the master of trash and camp " Hairspray tr…
The year writer/director J.C. Chandor refers to in the title of his excellent new film is 1981, a time when New York City was literally awash in crime. But in A Most Violent Year, the filmma…
Sam Shepard's iconic tragicomedy is brought to explosive life in AtticRep's gripping new production. Part of a trilogy of confrontational works that AtticRep has staged this season here in S…
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony award-winning musical comes to the screen in a lavish and beautifully mounted version. Sondheim purists always wince when a film adaptation of…
Anchored by a superb central performance, The Theory of Everything is a well-executed and moving portrait of Stephen Hawking, a man who refused to let a debilitating disease stop him from fi…
Ah, L.A. in the mid-1980s " what a magical place. The punk rock scene was going strong, KROQ ruled the radio dial, Elvira’s "Movie Macabre" was a Saturday night must-see on KHJ-TV, and…
In the 1970s and early '80s, Michael Keaton worked his way up the showbiz ladder, paying his dues in such now-forgotten television shows as Working Stiffs and Report to Murphy before soaring…
Jake Gyllenhaal is mesmerizing in this entertaining noir about the sleazy underbelly of the L.A. news business. Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a small-time thief who drives a junkhe…
ArtsBeat LA contributor Kurt Gardner recently exchanged the wilds of Hollywood for the wide open spaces of Texas, and he has generously offered to provide us with a taste of the cultu…
Richard Linklater’s 12-years-in-the-making cinematic gamble pays off in spades, delivering a unique and profoundly moving experience. Requiring an impressive long-term commitment from …
With Buyer & Cellar, playwright Jonathan Tolin and star Michael Urie take on the legend of Barbra Streisand and the cult of celebrity with riotous results. Urie tells us he will be playi…
Four Tree Plays Ray Burley Productions Schkapf When you hear the term "avant-garde," the tendency is to think of someone alone on a bare stage considering a pineapple. Happily, Four Tree …
An electrifying new show premiering at this year's Hollywood Fringe is the Sewer Socialist Production Woof-Woof, written and directed by Paul Hoan Zeidler. It features Brett Donaldson as Jim…
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies' new comedy The Country House makes a stop at the Geffen Playhouse on its way to an October opening on Broadway in a co-production withÅ
I'd never heard Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison's "Linden Arden Stole the Highlights" before I saw Colin Mitchell’s play of the same name. Frankly, it doesn't matter, because Mitc…
My favorite part of the Fringe, and indeed its reason for existence, is giving fresh new voices the opportunity to display their craft, unfettered by restrictions of any kind. Such is the…
Stan Zimmerman and Christian McLaughlin's new one-act comedy, Meet & Greet, is a laugh-filled satire of the television casting process. On a scorching day in the San Fernando Valley, fou…
Most of you will be familiar with the plot of Oscar Wilde's classic novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, from its numerous film and television incarnations, most recently used in Showtime's Pe…
Some of the most memorable films of the '70s and '80s have a dramatic, distinctive look, giving them an immediacy that resonates for viewers even today. And when you think of that look, you'…