All stories by Ernest Kearney on BroadwayStars

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Theater Review: ICE CREAM BLONDE (Actors Company) by Ernest Kearney

DEAD BLONDES TELL NO TALES " EXCEPT THIS ONE Conspiracy theories have surrounded the death of actress and restaurateur Thelma Todd since 1935, when her lifeless body was discovered in a gara…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:36PM[SHARE]

Theater Review: BETSY & PATTY FIND OUT (The Broadwater) by Ernest Kearney

WAITING FOR COWDOT Normally, a surfeit of hyphens in any production assures trouble ahead, but Aaron Francis, the writer-director-designer-producer of this subversive, potent indictment of t…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:02AM[SHARE]
Sunday, July 20, 2025

Theater Review: DOLORES (Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre) by Ernest Kearney

A KNOCK AT THE HEART With her staging of Dolores, Edward Allan Baker's two-woman drama about domestic violence, director Stephanie Feury"at the theatre that bears her name"has placed on disp…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:06PM[SHARE]
Saturday, July 19, 2025

Theater Review: 5:45 (Little Theatre at Actors Company) by Ernest Kearney

OFFTIME Abi Watkinson's one-woman show 5:45 is a poor receptacle for a great deal of talent"one that feels underdeveloped and not fully thought through. The trouble starts with the title. A …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:58PM[SHARE]

Theater Review: DOG OF CARNAGE (Broadwater Studio) by Ernest Kearney

A TAIL OF LOVE ON A LEASH Playwright Benjamin Schwartz and director Natalie Nicole Dressel, in league with actors Callie Ott and Spencer Weitzel, have served up in Dog of Carnage one of the …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:01PM[SHARE]

Cabaret Review: MS. TUCKER WILL SEE YOU NOW (Davidson-Valentini Theater at the Los Angeles LGBT Center) by Ernest Kearney

NOBODY LOVES A FAT GIRL (UNTIL SHE HAS A MIC) Laural Meade has treated the concept of the solo-bio show like an origami master, folding it over and out until it becomes something other than …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:00PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 18, 2025

Theater Review: JUST TO BE CLOSE TO YOU (Broadwater Stage) by Ernest Kearney

DÉJÀ LOUCHE Just to Be Close to You opens with an immaculately coiffed and mustachioed Cam Poter stepping before the packed audience at the Broadwater Studio as his alter ego, the re…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:03AM[SHARE]

Theater Review: NO (Eastwood Performing Arts Center) by Ernest Kearney

SOUNDCHECK FOR SURVIVAL "Aha…sure…uh-huh…yes…ummm…you say…." And so begins NO, dancer/actuation artist Annalisa Limardi's intriguing, minimalistic dissertation on the social pres…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:23AM[SHARE]

Theater Review: NURSING IS MY LIFE (Upstairs @ El Centro) by Ernest Kearney

PAGING DR. DRAMA, STAT! VITALS NOT STABLE Nursing Is My Life was a heart-breaker for me. Charley Karlotta has spent decades as a registered nurse, raising her family, and dreaming of one day…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:20AM[SHARE]

Theater Review: OH, CONSTANTINE! (Zephyr Theatre) by Ernest Kearney

NICAEA TRY Oh, Constantine! at the Zephyr Theatre is an odd nut to crack. Or I should say review. One of the best-produced shows at the Fringe, this is the brainchild of playwright / directo…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:20AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Theater Review: THE DOG LOG (Broadwater Studio) by Ernest Kearney

A DUPLEX THAT'S GOING TO THE DOGS Those who flocked to the "Sunshine State" during the population boom of the 1920s and '30s, were mostly "easterners" who had only known tenement living, cut…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Theater Review: PUMP UP THE VOLUME (Los Angeles Premiere of A New Rock Musical) by Ernest Kearney

A NEW MUSICAL HAS ARRIVED TO PUMP UP PATRONS FOR DECADES TO COME Allen Moyle's 1990 film Pump Up the Volume starred Christian Slater as Mark, a graceless, socially awkward high school studen…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM[SHARE]
Saturday, July 5, 2025

Theater Review: PIPPIN (Jaxx Theatricals) by Ernest Kearney

PIPPIN GOES HOLLYWOOD Pippin, with music and lyrics supplied by Stephen Schwartz,  and book penned by Roger O. Hirson  (who was best known for writing the script to the war flick The B…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:36PM[SHARE]
Friday, July 4, 2025

Theater Review: ONE MAN POE (Stephen Smith on Tour) by Ernest Kearney

A MONODRAMA OF SHADOWS AND SHATTERED SANITY As part of an international procession"a dread march of artistry across borders"Mr. Stephen Smith did, for a grievously brief engagement, alight a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:00AM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 22, 2025

Theater Review: TALES OF THE ANCIENT EAST (Hudson Guild) by Ernest Kearney

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE FATIGUE One must admire Antony Zioni for his aspirations with Tales of the Ancient East, which, regrettably, makes the failure of this production all the more lamentable. …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:19PM[SHARE]

Theater Review: 52 PICK-UP (Broadwater Studio) by Ernest Kearney

A GAME OF HEARTS PLAYED FACE DOWN There is no question that Ann Noble is one of the most talented actresses gracing the stages of Los Angeles. There are moments in her bitter-sweet, two-pers…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:01AM[SHARE]

Theater Review: EXCEPT MYSELF (Broadwater Black Box) by Ernest Kearney

ALL IN ONE AND ONE IN ALL With Except Myself at the Broadwater Black Box, playwright Drew Petriello has achieved a clever, slick, and absolutely entertaining deconstruction of the solo sh…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:00AM[SHARE]
Saturday, June 21, 2025

Theater Review: THE GOOD RUSSIAN (Stephanie Feury) by Ernest Kearney

THE GOOD ANDREW BYRON CREATES A LONG AND WINDING RUSSIAN Andrew Byron frames his one man show The Good Russian within the historical context of 2018, when Sergei Skripal, a Russian expatr…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:52PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Theater Review: THE SECOND COMING OF JOAN OF ARC (The Actors Company) by Ernest Kearney

NOT ENOUGH HEAT The Second Coming of Joan of Arc is the best-known work of American playwright, author, and lesbian feminist Carolyn Gage. Loosely based, scholars will tell you, "very loosel…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, June 16, 2025

Theater Review: WILDS OF SEA (Actors Company Other Space; Hollywood Fringe Festival) by Ernest Kearney

SEA WORTHY Wilds of Sea is an undersea adventure that will leave little ones wide-eyed and utterly captivated. But make no mistake"this all-ages puppet spectacle is as enchanting for the gro…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:00AM[SHARE]
Saturday, June 14, 2025

Theater Review: RAG DOLL ON A BOMB SITE (Hudson Guild Theatre; Part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival) by Ernest Kearney

  I always look forward to the shows of Shelley Cooper at the Hollywood Fringe. They are musical biographies of women who made history not only with their presence but with their voices a…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:26PM[SHARE]
Friday, June 13, 2025

Theater Review: CHARMIN THE MUSICAL (Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre; Hollywood Fringe Festival) by Ernest Kearney

SQUEEZABLE THEATER Those dark days all seem so long ago. The face masks, drive-thru testing, fear of crowded indoor spaces, and some idiot assuring us, "It's going to disappear. One day " it…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:07PM[SHARE]

Theater Review: MIKE BLAHA: INTERNATIONAL JOKE (Broadwater Studio, Hollywood Fringe Festival) by Ernest Kearney

Unlike his previous shows at The Hollywood Fringe " Spank the Monkey and Shagadelic: The Origins of Slang Words for Doing It " Michael Blaha has shed his stage persona of Professor Richar…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:43PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Theater Review: HOLY, HOLY: THE BIRTH OF DISCO (The Broadwater; Part of The Hollywood Fringe Festival) by Ernest Kearney

FEMINIST CLOWNS COLLIDE WITH CAPITOLISM Clownish perfection poses a unique problem for reviewers in that the blend of Da-Da slapstick and rib-tickling existentialism tends to defy easy descr…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:58AM[SHARE]
Monday, June 9, 2025

Theater Review: OH, FUCK! AN ICEBERG! ONE WOMAN TITANIC (Part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival atActors Space by Ernest Kearney

TITANIC SINKS AGAIN Mallie McCown's madcap reimagining of Titanic, James Cameron's $220 million epic, is ambitious beyond words, which is the source for most of the problems that plague this…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:28PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 2, 2025

Recommended Theater: FRINGE BLAST! (42 Offerings from the Hollywood Fringe Festival, 2025) by Ernest Kearney

THEATRE ISN'T DEAD: HOLLYWOOD FRINGE 2025, JUNE 5-29 For those under the impression that creativity begins and ends in LA on the multi-screens of the AMC and IMAX theatres in every mall scat…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:28AM[SHARE]
Friday, May 30, 2025

Theater Review: LEAR REDUX: A QUANTUM FANTASIA (Odyssey Theatre Ensemble) by Ernest Kearney

Redux, adjective From the Latin, returning, from reducere to lead back To be brought back or returned, especially in a new way. When it comes to the re-imagining of Shakespeare's works…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:50AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Theater Review: THE WINTER'S TALE (Play On Shakespeare at Skylight Theatre) by Ernest Kearney

EXIT, PURSUED BY A PRODUCTION In taking on a production of William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, Play On Shakespeare at Skylight Theatre is to be commended. The last of the Bard's plays-"…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:15PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 16, 2025

Theater Review: WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT (Fountain) by Ernest Kearney

HARE FORCE ONE With White Rabbit Red Rabbit by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour currently at the Fountain Theatre, what you encounter is an interesting and provocative theatrical game,…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 14, 2025

Theater Review: STUPID FUCKING BIRD (Blue Pen Theatre) by Ernest Kearney

THIS BIRD AIN'T SO STUPID There is a strange little niche tucked away in the theatre world which, for lack of a better term, could be called "Travesty Theatrics." It's when a classic drama i…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:54AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Theater Review: THE GLASS MENAGERIE (Antaeus Theatre) by Ernest Kearney

A STRIKINGLY RESPECTFUL TAKE WORTHY FOR A MUSEUM The Antaeus Theatre Company first began offering audiences superbly mounted productions over a quarter of a century ago, and for their contin…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:55PM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off