Shakespeare in LA

Reviews

 

The Tragedy of JFK (as told by Wm. Shakespeare)
The Blank Theatre
October 4, 2016
The Blank Theatre opens its 26th season with a new work written and directed by founding artistic director Daniel Henning that explores…

Chickspeare
August 8, 2016
The ladies of Chickspeare are back for another summer of Elizabethan improv, this year indoors in their new home at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood…

Richard III
Independent Shakespeare Co.
July 6, 2016
How many different ways are there to say how much Angelenos love the Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival? Thousands…

Henry V
Kingsmen Shakespeare Company
July 4, 2016
Kingsmen Shakespeare Company’s production of Henry V takes its cue from one of Shakespeare’s most well-known speeches…

Romeo and Juliet
Theatricum Botanicum
July 2, 2016
Not even a wall can keep these lovers apart. This wall happens to be in modern-day East Jerusalem and as Theatricum Botanicum’s play commences…

Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 & 3
The Porters of Hellsgate
May 12, 2016
Attempting to produce all of Shakespeare’s plays would be daunting task for any theatre company but one young group of actors has continued to stay…

Othello
Independent Shakespeare Co.
April 3, 2016
Something interesting happens when you remove race as the primary motivator in Shakespeare’s Othello…

Tempest Redux
The New American Theatre
March 4, 2016
Shakespeare knew the power of conjuring a storm that would turn the world upside down when he wrote The Tempest…

Shakespeare’s Rose Queen
Ensemble Shakespeare Theater
February 27, 2016
While she may not be as recognizable as Beatrice, Viola, Lady Macbeth or many of his more popular leading ladies, Margaret of Anjou…

Romeo and Juliet
A Noise Within
February 23, 2016
In director Dámaso Rodriguez’s version of Romeo and Juliet, a group of actors gathers to put on the play in a graffiti-covered alley…

Four Clowns Presents Hamlet
Four Clowns
September 22, 2015
It’s a little uncanny how easily Shakespeare’s tragedy lends itself to reinvention by a troupe of clowns and still communicates the full measure…

Shakespeare’s Last Night Out
Orgasmico Theatre Company
September 14, 2015
For all its rowdy comedy, bawdy innuendo and drunken delights, Michael Shaw Fisher has written, and performs, a piece that reveals Shakespeare’s…

Much Ado About Nothing
Independent Shakespeare Co.
August 11, 2015
One of the keys to providing great entertainment is understanding your audience. For a theatre company, that means knowing…

Romeo & Juliet
Shakespeare Orange County
July 19, 2015
As an attempt to increase its cultural relevance, involve the community, and expand its audience base, Shakespeare Orange County’s Romeo & Juliet…

As You Like It
Theatricum Botanicum
July 8, 2015
Seeing a play where Shakespeare’s unfortunate characters escape the city and seek refuge in the Forest of Arden is even more enjoyable when…

Bright Swords
Hollywood Fringe Festival
June 19, 2015
Bright Swords has three essential elements that make it one of the most polished, intelligent, and satisfying productions at Fringe…

Breaking Bard
The Porters of Hellsgate
June 7, 2015
This theatrical parody of a TV favorite has Fringe hit written all over it. Get your tickets now because the theater only has about 40 seats…

R&J, a gender-reversed Romeo and Juliet
Mine is Yours Theatre Company
June 7, 2015
I confess to being very confused by the production. In this modern twist on Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet, women play men and…

Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Independent Shakespeare Co.
May 5, 2015
Each summer in Griffith Park, Independent Shakespeare Co. presents fully-produced large scale performances for hundreds of people…

Macbeth
ZJU Theatre Group
April 28, 2015
Director Denise Devin knows how to set a mood. Her one-hour Shakespeare adaptations condense the Bard’s source material into compact…

 Julius Caesar
A Noise Within
April 2, 2015
Betrayal lurks around every corner when a ruler’s ability to rule comes into question.  Whether real or imagined, its weighty presence stands…

Henry IV, Part One
Antaeus
March 17, 2015
A striking image hovers above the action in Henry IV, Part One at The Antaeus Company. It is a partial rendering of the planets orbiting the sun…

Othello
The Porters of Hellsgate
March 3, 2015
Why does Iago hate the Moor? That has always been the great question in Othello and one for which Shakespeare provides no definitive…

Pulp Shakespeare
Combined Artform/Theatre Asylum
January 24, 2015
The stylistic marriage of Shakespeare’s language and Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction reaps heady rewards for linguists and lovers of indie crime drama…

Othello
The Illyrian Players
November 10, 2014
This isn’t the first time the Illyrian Players have taken on Shakespeare. In 2011, the company began its provocative theatrical conversation…

The Winter’s Tale
The Porters of Hellsgate
October 25, 2014
The Winter’s Tale is not the easiest of Shakespeare’s plays to stage. It must believably present a story sharply divided into two parts…

The Tempest
A Noise Within
September 22, 2014
The dueling forces of light and dark are constantly at play in the fantasy-meets-reality world of A Noise Within’s The Tempest…

Equivocation
Theatricum Botanicum
September 11, 2014
Throughout two thirds of Bill Cain’s political thriller Equivocation, a confused Shagspeare keeps asking questions and getting answers that don’t…

Chickspeare
ComedySportz LA
August 28, 2014
One of the best ways to end the stress of a busy work week is with a few laughs. Best place to find those laughs right now is at ComedySportz LA…

Much Ado About Nothing
Theatricum Botanicum
August 14, 0214
What a wonder is love in the hands of a writer like Shakespeare. Through comedy, tragedy, sonnet and poem, the way he captures lovers…

The Taming of the Shrew
Independent Shakespeare Co.
August 10, 2014
It begins with a wager and ends with a food fight and in between the laughs fly fast and furious in ISC’s The Taming of the Shrew…

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Actors’ Gang
August 6, 2014
More laughter, more beauty, more of everything that makes theatre special is what you’ll find in the Actors’ Gang’s…

Andronicus
Coeurage Theatre Company
August 3, 2014
Without a doubt, there are scenes in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus that are difficult to watch. Actions that might…

Antony and Cleopatra
Kingsmen Shakespeare Company
July 29, 2014
It’s all about the love story in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and this one has at its core the epic romance of the ages…

Romeo and Juliet
The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles
July 14, 2014
It is a chilling conclusion when Kimberly Scott repeats the text of the prologue again at the end of Romeo and Juliet while standing…

All’s Well That Ends Well
Theatricum Botanicum
July 13, 2014
In Theatricum Botanicum’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the action begins and ends with a song. At rise it is the somber lamentation of…

The Merchant of Venice
Downtown Repertory Theater Company
July 12, 2014
Within the courtyard of the historic Pico House in downtown LA, the Downtown Repertory Theater Company is in the midst of…

Othello
The Old Globe
July 11, 2014
There is no redemption in Othello. Shakespeare has provided no late opportunity to undo what has been done, no chance to make amends…

A Midsummer Night’s,Dream
Shakespeare Orange County
July 9, 2014
Shakespeare Orange County has pulled out all the stops, and even enlisted a not-so-secret weapon, to accomplish an extraordinarily beautiful debut…

Twelfth Night
Independent Shakespeare Co.
July 7, 2014
Over the past ten years, Independent Shakespeare Co. has staked its claim on the city of Los Angeles with its “of the people, by the people, for the…

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
ZJU Theatre Group
July 5, 2014
It never ceases to amaze me how effectively the members of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group can create an atmosphere…

Hamlet Max
Hollywood Fringe Festival
June 18, 2014
The title of Jacob Sidney’s futuristic Hamlet refers to the Dane’s dead father Maximus, a character who never appears live…

LEAR
Theatricum Botanicum
June 13, 104
A frightening thing happens when a woman plays the title role in a gender-reversed King Lear; the betrayal and revenge between…

Romeo and Juliet
Independent Shakespeare Co.
April 14, 2014
Independent Shakespeare Co. once again showcases its intuitive ability to re-imagine Shakespeare for a modern-day audience…

Shakespeare UnScripted
Impro Theatre Company
April 5, 2014
No one is standing on ceremony in Impro Theatre’s latest comedic invention, Shakespeare UnScripted. On the contrary, …

The Merchant of Venice
City Shakes
March 30, 2014
The young, relatively new, City Shakespeare Company is offering a 90-minute modern take on Shakespeare’s The Merchant of …

Macbeth
A Noise Within
March 20, 2014
The bleak and barren world in A Noise Within’s Macbeth is as much an outward visual of the inner state of Shakespeare’s title character as it is…

The Winter’s Tale
The Old Globe
February 27, 2014
It is one of the most wondrous moments in all of Shakespeare’s plays; the moment near the end of The Winter’s Tale when the statue of Hermione…

Henry V
The Porters of Hellsgate
February 21, 2014
If “all the youth of England are on fire,” as the first speech of Henry V’s Act II declares, then all the Porters of Hellsgate have carried the torch…

R+J Equal Love
Inner Circle Theatre Company
February 18, 2014
Love is love, regardless of who does the loving. That is my belief. If all men (and women) are created equal, what right do we have…

Day Trader
Bootleg Theater
January 19, 2014
All relationships contain a level of uncertainty but we accept their variable nature because, as human beings, we crave interaction…

Villains
California Shakespeare Ensemble
November 10, 2013
Shakespeare’s plays are full of bad guys, or at least plenty of men and women who exhibit bad behavior often enough…

Macbeth
Savage Players
October 27, 2013
When I read this paragraph from Savage Players’ press materials for Macbeth, it had the desired effect. It made me want to see…

Love’s Labour’s Lost
Coeurage Theatre Company
October 18, 2013
Up-and-coming Coeurage Theatre Company makes a practice of including a Shakespeare play on its eclectic schedule each season…

The Last Goodbye
The Old Globe
October 12, 2013
Propelled forward by Alex Timbers’ insistent staging, Sonya Tayeh’s explicit choreography and Kate Waters’ athletic fight sequences…

Henry VIII / Enrique VIII
The Broad Stage
September 29, 2013
I wanted to see Shakespeare’s Henry VIII/ Enrique VIII at The Broad to see if I would be able to follow the play even if I couldn’t…

Pericles, Prince of Tyre
A Noise Within
September 19, 2013
Cue the traveling music and pack up the suitcases, Prince Pericles is going on an adventure. But as Shakespeare’s protagonist will soon …

Hamlet
Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company
September 15, 2013
You will not find a more impassioned version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet than the one Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company is…

Twelfth Night
Shakespeare Orange County
July 29, 2013
Sometimes it’s just a fact – fools rule. Shakespeare knew it and always made sure the fool had a prominent place in his comedies…

HYPERBOLE: bard
Rogue Artists Ensemble
July 27, 2013
The hour-long G-rated show is a fresh, original, and fun introduction to Shakespeare that even the youngest members of the family will enjoy…

The Taming of the Shrew
Theatricum Botanicum
July 15, 2013
Okay, I’ll say it. I haven’t seen a production of The Taming of the Shrew that comes anywhere close to this vivid interpretation of the story…

Lovers
California Shakespeare Ensemble
July 14, 2013
California Shakespeare Ensemble, in partnership with L.A. County Dept. of Parks and Rec, staged a light evening of Shakespearean love scenes…

The Tempest
Kingsmen Shakespeare Company
July 3, 2013
A short drive up the 101 to Thousand Oaks, and located on the campus of Cal Lutheran University, you’ll find the summer home of…

Shakespeare’s King Phycus
The Flynnsmen
June 23, 2013
Shakespeare. It’s not just for highbrows anymore. You can be sure of that when you see The Flynnsmen present Shakespeare’s…

O, Fallen One
curlicue & co.
June 19, 2013
O, Fallen One is the initial concept workshop of a devised play that combines stylized scenes with fragmented language, movement, dance…

A Midsummer Saturday Night’s Fever Dream
The Troubies
June 9, 2013
There are no fewer than nine different productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream playing in theatres around the Southland this summer but…

Rchard III
Zombie Joe’s Underground
May 12, 2013
All of its pieces add up to Shakespeare’s Richard III but Zombie Joe’s version directed by Denise Devin is certainly an oddball mix…

Timon of Athens
The Porters of Hellsgate
May 9, 2013
“How this lord is followed!” exclaims a Painter in reference to Timon of Athens early in Act I of the play that bears his name…

Venus and Adonis
The New Circle Artists
April 26, 2013
Misha Bouvion takes on Shakespeare’s epic poem Venus and Adonis in a one-woman theatrical production presented by The New…

Hamlet
The Broad Stage
November 18, 2012
By stripping away pretense and sentimentality, and trimming the text to come in under three hours, Bill Buckhurst’s Hamlet…

Much Ado About Nothing
Zombie Joe’s Underground
October 30, 2012
Much Ado About Nothing gets the Zombie Joe treatment in director Denise Devin’s 70-minute quasi-Commedia dell’arte confection…

Julius Caesar
Griot Theatre Company
October 26, 2012
Whenever a theater company opens its doors in Southern California rather than closes them, it’s cause for celebration…

Nearly Lear
24th STreet Theatre
October 19, 2012
I was completely charmed tonight by a theater I’d never been to before – 24th Street Theatre in the West Adams District of LA…

Cymbeline
A Noise Within
October 14, 2012
The fairy tale journey that occurs between “Once upon a time” and “they all lived happily ever after” has never been as circuitous as in…

Measure For Measure
The Porters of Hellsgate
Sept 29, 2012
For good or bad, the true measure of a man can be seen in his actions when he thinks no one is looking. It’s a notion that the Porters…

Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare Orange County
August 22, 2012
Shakespeare Orange County closes out its summer season with a sparkling production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing…

Blood of Macbeth
Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre
July 27, 2012
To the uninitiated, Zombie Joe’s Blood of Macbeth may look like merely a mad, manic assault on the senses, but there’s a method…

Something of Silver
Classical Theatre Lab
July 17, 2012
Something of Silver, otherwise known as The Merchant of Venice with Music, is Tony Tanner’s latest adaptation for Classical…

Hamlet
Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre
July 12, 2012
Denise Devin deftly directs a fast-paced intermission-less Hamlet with authority and skill at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre; a risk…

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Independent Shakespeare Co.
July 9, 2012
What revels are in hand in Griffith Park this summer? An abundance of mirth, merriment, mischief, and magic, all part of ISC’s summer…