Heart-Rending Treasure — 'The Baby Dance' at Lounge Theatre, Hollywood

In his "Poor Theatre" treatise, Grotowski spoke of the power of true theatre — live performances so real, so rapturous, they couldn't be matched by the onslaught of the multibillion dollar entertainment combine. Nowhere is the Machine more visible than in LA/Hollywood; and right here, in the womb of it all, at the Lounge Theatre on Santa Monica Blvd., is the living embodiment of Grotowski's greatest hopes. Jane Anderson's The Baby Dance, expertly directed by David Johann Kim, starring a matchless cast of LA theater vets, is the kind of art that transcends time, place, and budget constraints to clutch your soul and remind you why theatre was invented.

Technically Marvelous — A Noise Within's 'Eurydice'

Even as they penned their fantastical, supernatural tales, could the ancient Greek mythologizers have ever envisioned their work being translated and performed thousands of years later? on the other side of the globe? with state-of-the-art lighting and digital projections? I dunno. But what I can say for certain is that A Noise Within's production of Sarah Ruhl's acclaimed Eurydice is a hauntingly beautiful, impressive technological accomplishment.

Deep, Dark Journey — South Coast Repertory's 'The Whale'

Directed by company co-founder Martin Benson, South Coast Repertory's powerful left-coast premiere of Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale is a dark, allegorical plunge into the chasm of human regret, where the pressure of past wrongs and present despair crushes like miles of ocean above the Mariana.

Dreamy, Beautiful Fun — Rancho Cucamonga Community Theatre's 'The Fantasticks'

The Fantasticks, Tom Jones's 1960 musical mashup of Shakespeare's Midsummer and Romeo & Juliet, springs to new, fun-filled life at Rancho Cucamonga Community Theatre. Beautifully envisioned and executed by director Dimyana Pelev and RCCT's crackerjack production team, we are transported into the romantic, chimerical world of a gigantic music box. Mute sprites Ayssa Good and Olivia Spirz crank an over-sized key, the box top flies away, sparking the gorgeous live piano and harp music (by Ronda Rubio and Celia Chan Valerio), breathing life into the trinket's resident figurines.