California’s Budget is in the Red – Its Arts Programs are Black and Blue
Just two scant years ago, California was sitting plush with a $97 billion budget surplus. The state budget for 2022-23 was a healthy $307 billion and funded a long list...
July 1, 2024
Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Kooza’ is a Return to Its Origins
This vibrant performance, held under the big top, circles back to what made the circus group popular in the first place.
June 14, 2024
Longtime Friends Come Together to Bring ‘Hedwig’ to Life at the Maverick
Dennis Tong arrived around 5 p.m. to Fullerton’s Maverick Theater on a recent Friday to begin his transformation. On his way, he made a stop to buy some tomatoes. “We...
June 12, 2024
Summer Preview: A Look at the Best in OC Arts and Culture
We’ve made it past Memorial Day weekend, so what does that mean? The summer season has officially begun! So instead of falling back on the usual, conventional options – movies,...
May 29, 2024
Four Productions – Two Plays, Two Musicals – Grab the Lion’s Share of O.C. Theatre Guild Awards
Curtis Theatre’s ‘Gentleman’s Guide…,’ Costa Mesa Playhouse’s ‘Clybourne Park’ and Chance’s ‘Ride the Cyclone’ and ‘Curious Incident…’ are the big winners.
May 15, 2024
Classical Music is Booming. Theater? Not So Much.
We look at what ails theater, still struggling to recover four years after the pandemic.
May 10, 2024
SCR at 60, Part 2: The Investment in New Plays Pays Off
Editor’s Note: This is PART 2 of a two-part series recognizing SCR’s 60th anniversary season, which continues through August. South Coast Repertory founders David Emmes and Martin Benson had every reason...
May 6, 2024
With ‘Prelude to a Kiss, The Musical,’ SCR Adds New Wrinkles to the Play it Originated 36 Years Ago
REVIEW: Playwright Craig Lucas and company have, for better or worse, wrought a different theatrical animal, seemingly missing key emotional dynamics. In the opening scene of “Prelude to a Kiss,...
April 21, 2024
Biblical Times, a Musical ‘Prelude’ and More at the Pacific Playwrights Festival
The Costa Mesa company’s 26th showcase unveils two standalone productions of new shows, plus a quintet of staged readings. If new plays are indeed the life blood of theater companies,...
April 19, 2024
St.Clair and Pacific Symphony Find the Heart of ‘La Bohème’
REVIEW: The annual semi-staged opera features a talented young cast in Puccini’s masterpiece. “Is anything in the world more poignant than youth and love and tuberculosis?,” Virgil Thomson once wrote...
April 5, 2024
‘Prelude to a Kiss’ Reemerges in a Whole New Form at SCR
South Coast Repertory originated Craig Lucas’s play in 1988. Now Lucas, SCR and others have created an all-new musical version. The evolution of a new stage musical is always something...
April 5, 2024
Segerstrom Center’s 2024-25 Broadway Series Signals Confidence
The line-up of 10 musicals includes six that have never been presented in Orange County. The Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ 2024-25 Broadway Series, announced today, reflects the growing confidence...
April 1, 2024
