As the Chief Los Angeles Theatre Critic, I watched over 40 theatrical productions in the greater Los Angeles area and in Las Vegas. Here is my list of the most entertaining shows in 2019.

“Christmas: A Season of Love just feels necessary. Stuffed to the brim with lovely recordings of songs everyone knows, with new and fresh new life breathed into them. It’s fun. There’s nothing deductive, tired or cliché, no over-saturated saccharine sentimental nonsense.”

The epic new work penned by Stephen Adly Guirgis entitled “Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven” refers to the vast array of residents in a transitional shelter for women on the upper Westside of Manhattan.

Alexis Sheer’s “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord,” in its final days at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, is deeply disturbing and profoundly important. Co-produced by WP Theater and Second Stage Theater, the play explores the shadowy underbelly of the teenage angst of four private secondary school young women with extraordinary perception and frightening accuracy.

North Texas Performing Arts Repertory Theatre (NTPA) brought a celebrated tradition to life with a lively performance of “Scrooge the Musical.” 

‘“In a Dark, Dark House” was unsettling, compelling, and incredibly well-acted. The relationship between Terry and Drew was more believable as the play went on and by the explosive end, I didn’t know what to think. It was a play that rubbed me raw and kept me thinking. And for a play like this, that’s one of the best things you can do.”

“Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre’s “Little Women” is right on time for the holidays and is guaranteed to warm your heart.”

“High-flying and adored right in time for the holidays, now playing at the New Victory Theater is Cirque Mechanics’ latest colorful circus concoction, “42FT – A Menagerie of Mechanical Marvels.”’

In Act 2, Kaisha Lee’s sultry performance of St. Louis Blues was a knockout, and the sound of the applause at the end of her number reinforced it even further. It has been years since I’ve heard barbershop singing, and ‘I Open My Mouth to the Lord’ was captivating to hear and to listen to every single lyric and word sung.  Heavenly!

The odd thing about the songs in this opening night production is that not one of them has a catchy hook to it that will have you humming the song as you leave the theatre, yet most of the songs work well in their own context for the sake of story development and/or projecting the emotional impact of a situation.

The audience connects to the dystopian vision playing out on stage and recognizes that the threat of fascism is always on some horizon in some part of the world, often closer than one would expect or hope.

There is the moon, the train, smoke, explosions, oversized telephones and a sad and emotional farewell. As Act One ends with a little help from the audience, you are captured by their ingenuity, like a spider drawing you into their web.

Ms. Schmidt has certainly made some odd choices for this production that seem to work against the power of the story. The staging is quite severe and stagnant which intrudes on the romanticism of the plot.

‘“ray gun say0nara”, despite having clearly talented actors and a talented tech team, is unfocused and confusing, trying to do too many things at once and as a result not doing much of anything at all. “

“If you enjoy family dramas, rock music, and entertaining storytelling this is the show for you. This production is high energy and emotionally charged from the opening moment. There are many serious topics, but they are dealt with sensitivity and love from both the writers Tom Kitt (Music) and Brian Yorkey (Book and Lyrics) to the spectacular cast.”

Despite the fascinating nature of the story, the whole presentation could very well land with a thud if Mr. Combs didn’t have the charisma to pull it off…He keeps the story moving along at a fairly good clip, which helps save the show from the fact that it’s a tad longer than it needs to be.

A beautiful evening of Christmas music was delivered to December 15 by The Toronto Consort in the acoustically wonderful Jeanne Lamon Hall at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre in Toronto… The heart of this evening’s fare was a grand telling of the Christmas Story by seventeenth century German composer Heinrich Schutz.

Theatre Three offers the perfect solution to hit the pause button on the holidays for a few hours with their smartly-executed, fully-immersive and downright hilarious production of “Noises Off.”

“HOLIDAY INN is like comfort food in musical theatre form, and, yes, perfectly themed to coincide with this time of the year. Don't miss your chance to bathe yourself in re-envisioned nostalgia, great singing and dancing, and a delightful story that warms the heart and fills your insides with much-needed laughter. “

“What would you do if you felt the world was ending? If you’re a character in Devin Burnam’s new immersive play, “The Catastrophe Club”, the answer is to hang out in a bar and muse over the impending doom, your role in how to stop it, and life in general.”