Mayank Keshaviah

“You’re a writer. You make up stories. That isn’t particularly grown-up.” This critique by young Peter Llewelyn Davies of J.M. Barrie’s profession applies equally to Finding Neverland, a show that seems best suited for children. Set in Edwardian London circa 1903, this musical adaptation of the 2004 Oscar-nominated film is essentially the origin story......

Whether in literature, cinema or theater, we seem to be fascinated by celebrity origin stories: the journeys taken by luminaries to achieve the fame they currently inhabit. In the case of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, the star in question is the prolific singer-songwriter (played by Abby Mueller), who tells......

Dominating the backdrop of the set of The Christians is an enormous, backlit wooden cross, next to which is a wall molded to resemble three more towering, overlapping crosses. The overlapping is key because those three crosses can look like just crosses or they can look like a white picket......

Like a Beckett play with a few more degrees of naturalism, Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj is funny, haunting, and deeply insightful into the human condition. Like his Pulitzer Prize-nominated Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, this play begins with the simple premise of two men guarding something. Humayun (Raffi Barsoumian)......

“What happens next?” This question is the crux of almost any drama — theatrical, cinematic or otherwise — because when we the audience don’t ask that question, we have little investment in said drama. It’s investment that creates engagement that creates enjoyment. Normally, that is accomplished through character, emotions, plot......

The premise of Peter Lefcourt’s world premiere Café Society, like its program's artwork, is attractive. Lefcourt wishes to explore disconnection in a world obsessed with gadgets and social media, especially when it comes to public spaces like cafés, which once brimmed with genuine human interaction. To explore this seems admirable,......

“The most perfect imperfect man I ever met” is the description cub reporter Michael McCormick (Troy Whitaker) gives of Vince Lombardi (Bert Emmett) in Eric Simonson’s play about the NFL coaching legend. The play, which ran on Broadway in 2010-2011, focuses on one week during the 1965 football season during......

More than a decade after it premiered at London’s National Theatre, Martin Crimp's modern translation of Pierre Marivaux’s 1724 comedy The False Servant comes to Los Angeles, but it seems to have left its thrills and chills across the pond. Though serviceable, the production by director Bart DeLorenzo’s innovative Evidence......

The touring production of Broadway's Motown: The Musical, which documents the history of the famous record label started by Berry Gordy, serves as a wonderful trip down memory lane, despite a few bumps in the road. The main stumbling block is that the show’s book is written by none other than the......