Theater Digest - February 19, 2025
New thoughts on Mercury at the Road, Evanston Salt Costs Climbing at Rogue Machine, and Old Friends at the Ahmanson.
Hello theater lovers! I’m Katie, and I see a lot of theater! Currently, I’m seeing 0-2 shows a week, depending on my schedule.
Apologies for the delay since my last missive! I do want to give a brief shoutout to Gwyneth Goes Skiing, a two-person show that ran in Edinburgh, London, and New York, and did a week at the Elysian in LA last month. It was so funny and enjoyable, and seemed like one of the hottest tickets in town, in an “if you know, you know” way. I imagine it will return to LA and other cities; I encourage you to check it out if it’s near you!
Since this newsletter is geared towards people in the entertainment industry, there's a good chance I won't like a show that you or someone you know was involved in. I'm sure that you/your friend put a lot of effort into your/their work! I've been in a few shows, I know how much work goes into putting on a show. But just as you're entitled to dislike TV shows your friends worked on, I'm allowed to dislike theater you/your friends may have worked on. I try not to be vindictive, but I also do make it clear when I don't think a show is worth the price of a ticket or the time spent watching it.
I won't be writing much/any synopsis in these blurbs, but feel free to check out other reviews for synopses! Or just check out other reviews in general! Keep theater journalism alive & well!
Worth seeing:
Sleeping Giant at the Road [LA]. I’m a big fan of Steve Yockey’s work both on stage and TV (I love The Flight Attendant!), and the Road has been staging his shows for a few years now. I really enjoyed this one, which is a series of seven connected vignettes that coalesce into something powerful by the end.
Closes Feb 23 in North Hollywood.
Old Friends at the Ahmanson [LA]. You know, in many ways, I’m a simple girl with simple pleasures: I really enjoy seeing great performers do great material! So there’s plenty to like about this revue of Sondheim songs performed by a large, skilled cast, headlined by Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga. The production is haunted by many ghosts; a few friends and I were caught off guard by how affecting it is seeing “Agony” from Into the Woods on the same stage where Gavin Creel, who died of cancer last year, performed it in 2023. There’s the happier ghost of (still-living) Danny Burstein’s phenomenal “The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues” from the revival of Follies that played the same stage in 2012. Or there’s the ghosts of all the Sondheim roles Bernadette has played, sung here by herself and others (her “Losing My Mind” from Follies continues to astound). But the last ghost to appear, who arrives surprisingly late in the show, is that of Sondheim himself, who died in 2021. The tribute to him at the end of the show is incredibly moving, though I can’t imagine what it’s like for the whole cast, but especially Bernadette to do it every night.
Closes Mar 9 downtown, then opens in NY.
Six on Broadway [NY] and on the West End [London]. Read my thoughts on it here!
Mac King Comedy Magic Show at Excalibur [Vegas]. Read my thoughts on it here!
Magic Mike Live in Las Vegas and London [Vegas/London]. Read my thoughts on it here!
A mixed bag:
Evanston Salt Costs Climbing at Rogue Machine [LA]. I absolutely loved Rogue Machine’s production of playwright Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning in 2023, but I’m less enamored of this one, despite a truly stellar performance by Hugo Armstrong. Arbery’s text is hard to get a grasp of for a while, though it does take the audience to a moving place by the end.
Closes Mar 9 in Hollywood.
Cabaret on the West End [London] and on Broadway [NY]. Read my thoughts on the West End production here.
Back to the Future on the West End [London]. Read my thoughts on it here!
Open-ended run in London.
Mad Apple at New York New York [Vegas]. Read my thoughts on it here!
Hadestown on tour, on Broadway [NY], and on the West End [London]. Read my thoughts on it here!
& Juliet on Broadway [NY]. Read my thoughts on it from when I saw it in London in 2019 here!
The Play That Goes Wrong off-Broadway and on the West End [NY/London]. Read my thoughts on the 2019 tour national tour here, or my full review for Stage Raw here.
On my radar:
Mamma Mia: The Party in London
Oh, Mary! on Broadway
Sunset Boulevard on Broadway
Gypsy on Broadway
Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Pantages
Cambodian Rock Band at East West Players
Noises Off at the Geffen
I Love You Because at Chromolume
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