{"id":2192223,"date":"2025-12-09T11:06:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2192223"},"modified":"2025-12-09T11:06:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T11:06:33","slug":"best-theater-of-2025-jesus-christ-superstar-paranormal-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/best-theater-of-2025-jesus-christ-superstar-paranormal-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"Best theater of 2025: ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ ‘Paranormal Activity’"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

Some years you just have to get through.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t pretend that 2025 delivered a banner crop of theater productions. Many of the best shows on this list came from elsewhere. And a higher than usual percentage were seen at the Ahmanson Theatre, which had a remarkably good year \u2014 perhaps the best of any local theater.<\/p>\n

It was so good, in fact, that I left off Michael Arden\u2019s revival of \u201cParade.\u201d<\/a> My self-consciousness about the high number of touring productions persuaded me not to include \u201cShucked\u201d at the Hollywood Pantages,<\/a> which lightened the summer with its country bumpkin merriment. And I also omitted \u201cHere There Are Blueberries\u201d at the Wallis not because it wasn\u2019t one of the best productions but because it was on my highlight reel of 2022, when this Tectonic Theatre Project play, conceived and directed by Mois\u00e9s Kaufman,<\/a> premiered at La Jolla Playhouse.<\/p>\n

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\n
\"Best <\/picture> <\/a> <\/div>\n

Our picks for this year\u2019s best in arts and entertainment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n

The highlight at the Mark Taper Forum this year was Jocelyn Bioh\u2019s comedy \u201cJaja\u2019s African Hair Braiding,\u201d <\/a>which was on its final touring stop. And one of the best musical nights I had all year was courtesy of a concert version of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene\u2019s revival of \u201cFiddler on the Roof\u201d <\/a>in Yiddish at the Soraya. <\/p>\n

Of course, L.A. had the theater world\u2019s attention this summer when Cynthia Erivo headlined the Hollywood Bowl\u2019s revival of \u201cJesus Christ Superstar,\u201d <\/a>a production that seemed to take over Instagram with the clobbering force of the movie campaign for Wicked.\u201d But my own pick for L.A. production of the year would be Jessica Kubzansky\u2019s revival of \u201cThe Night of the Iguana.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

Kubzansky demonstrated by example what\u2019s required. She and Tennessee Williams were an excellent match. But it\u2019s not just about pairing the right director with the right author. It\u2019s also about fielding a well-synchronized artistic company. <\/p>\n

Too many locally grown productions (from our larger theaters especially) seem to leave out one of these elements. To judge by the results, the producing process seems top-down rather than organic. A few times this year at the bigger theaters it seemed as if the principal casting was an afterthought. <\/p>\n

Co-productions can be a smart way to pool resources while spreading the risk. But they aren\u2019t always the answer, as proved by the lackluster revival of \u201cNoises Off\u201d<\/a> at the Geffen Playhouse, a co-production with Chicago\u2019s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, <\/p>\n

The best new dramatic work I saw anywhere this year was Branden Jacobs-Jenkins\u2019 \u201cPurpose,\u201d<\/a> which deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award for best play. La Jolla Playhouse has announced that it will produce the West Coast premiere next year. I won\u2019t hold my breath for an L.A. production. (I\u2019m still waiting for Jackie Sibblies Drury\u2019s \u201cFairview\u201d<\/a> and countless Annie<\/a> Baker<\/a> plays.) But at least Eboni Booth\u2019s Pulitzer Prize-winning \u201cPrimary Trust\u201d <\/a>is coming to the Taper in May.<\/p>\n

The writer who made the biggest first impression on me is a.k. payne, author of \u201cFurlough\u2019s Paradise,\u201d<\/a> which was the best new play I saw in town all year. Plays that I saw in New York that deserve major productions in L.A. include Bess Wohl\u2018s \u201cLiberation,\u201d Kimberly Belflower\u2018s \u201cJohn Proctor Is the Villain,\u201d<\/a> Samuel D. Hunter\u2019s \u201cLittle Bear Ridge Road,\u201d and, if any company is daring enough, Jordan Tannahill\u2019s \u201cPrince Faggot.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still thinking about Toni Servillo\u2019s full-throated performance in \u201cTre modi per non morire: Baudelaire, Dante, i Greci,\u201d adapted from works by Giuseppe Montesano. This solo show, which I saw at Milan\u2019s Piccolo Teatro, offered a passionate defense of how great literature can teach us to live again.<\/p>\n

The theater can and should be a sanctuary from the technology that is encroaching on what distinguishes us as human beings \u2014 our capacity to contemplate ourselves and others feelingly.<\/p>\n

2025 definitely had its high points. But there seems to be a weakening of institutional resolve in the face of unrelenting economic, political and cultural pressures. Let\u2019s pray for a renewal of determination to create the theater \u2014 and society \u2014 we deserve.<\/p>\n

Herewith, in no particular order, are my Los Angeles theater highlights of 2025. <\/p>\n

\n
\"Kasey <\/picture>\n
\n

Kasey Mahaffy and CJ Eldred in \u201cA Man of No Importance\u201d at A Noise Within. <\/p>\n

(Photo by Craig Schwartz)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cA Man of No Importance,\u201d<\/b><\/a> A Noise Within. This revival of a lesser known musical by Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens and Terrence McNally (the team behind \u201cRagtime\u201d) was one of the unexpected treasures of 2025. A tale of a closeted Dublin bus driver with a passion for Oscar Wilde and a yen for amateur theatricals, the show featured a star performance from Kasey Mahaffy that was sublime in both its modesty and flamboyance. Julia Rodriguez-Elliott\u2019s production gracefully depicted a world of ordinary folks looking at the aesthetic stars from their humdrum daily realities. <\/p>\n

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\"Claudia <\/picture>\n
\n

Claudia Logan, from left, Bisserat Tseggai, and Mia Ellis in \u201cJaja\u2019s African Hair Braiding\u201d at the Mark Taper Forum.<\/p>\n

(Javier Vasquez \/ Center Theatre Group)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cJaja\u2019s African Hair Braiding,\u201d <\/b><\/a>Mark Taper Forum. Jocelyn Bioh\u2019s high-spirited ensemble comedy, vibrantly directed by Whitney White, took us inside the lives of the African immigrant women who work at a Harlem braiding salon. While working their fingers to the bone creating the most flamboyant hair designs, these characters reveal the great distances they\u2019ve traveled, the courage that\u2019s been required of them and the vulnerabilities they face in their increasingly hostile promised land. <\/p>\n

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\"Cynthia <\/picture>\n
\n

Cynthia Erivo and Adam Lambert in \u201cJesus Christ Superstar\u201d at the Hollywood Bowl.<\/p>\n

(Farah Sosa)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cJesus Christ Superstar,\u201d<\/b><\/a> Hollywood Bowl. Cynthia Erivo delivered a divinely inspired performance in this revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice\u2019s 1971 musical, directed and choreographed with concert-like brio by Sergio Trujillo. Adam Lambert was the electric Judas to Erivo\u2019s nuclear Jesus, and the energy they emitted was more than enough to power all of social media for a few days in August. This show didn\u2019t just go viral \u2014 it went global pandemic.<\/p>\n

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\"Julanne <\/picture>\n
\n

Julanne Chidi Hill, from left, Dennis Dun, Jully Lee and Riley Shanahan in \u201cThe Night of the Iguana\u201d at Boston Court Pasadena.<\/p>\n

(Brian Hashimoto)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cThe Night of the Iguana,\u201d<\/b> <\/a>Boston Court Pasadena. Artistic director Jessica Kubzansky cut to the spiritual core of one of Tennessee Williams\u2019 lesser major plays and made it seem on par with his masterpieces, \u201cThe Glass Menagerie\u201d and \u201cA Streetcar Named Desire.\u201d Jully Lee was brilliant as Hannah, the itinerant painter who turns up with her 97-year-old poet father at a Mexican seaside inn that is like a refuge for the world\u2019s strays. Julanne Chidi Hill, who played the lusty widow hotel proprietor, Maxine, and Riley Shanahan, who played Lawrence Shannon, the disgraced reverend on the lam from his misdeeds, helped bring the play\u2019s lonely battle for redemption to blistering life.<\/p>\n

\n
\"DeWanda <\/picture>\n
\n

DeWanda Wise, left, and Kacie Rogers in \u201cFurlough\u2019s Paradise\u201d at the Geffen Playhouse.<\/p>\n

(Jeff Lorch)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cFurlough\u2019s Paradise,\u201d<\/b><\/a> Geffen Playhouse. This shape-shifting two-character drama by a.k. payne explores the politically loaded subject of identity through the relationship of two queer Black cousins, who grew up together but whose lives have diverged. Sade (DeWanda Wise) is on a three-day furlough from prison; Mina (Kacie Rogers), adrift in California, has returned home to connect with her roots. Together, they challenge each other\u2019s understanding of the past and sense of possibility for the future. The drama, directed by Tinashe Kajese-Bolden and choreographed by Dell Howlett, routinely escaped the confined realism of the dramatic situation to find freedom in a realm of boundless lyricism.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Wesley <\/picture>\n
\n

Wesley Guimar\u00e3es , left, and Jack Lancaster and in \u201cBacon\u201d at Rogue Machine.<\/p>\n

(Jeff Lorch)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cBacon,\u201d<\/b> <\/a>Rogue Machine Theatre at the Matrix\u2019s Henry Murray Stage. This fierce two-hander by British playwright Sophie Swithinbank, about an abusive relationship between two teenage boys awakening to their sexuality, was all the more combustible for being performed in such an inescapable intimate space. Wesley Guimar\u00e3es and Jack Lancaster brought out the contrasting natures of these characters who are drawn to each in ways neither can fully work out. The production, directed by Michael Matthews, incisively balanced the traumatic push and erotic pull.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Jennifer <\/picture>\n
\n

Jennifer Babiak and Steven Skybell in \u201cFiddler on the Roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Luis Luque \/ Luque Photography)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cFiddler on the Roof,\u201d<\/b><\/a> The Soraya. This fluidly staged concert version of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene\u2019s acclaimed revival in Yiddish of this classic American musical brought a sharp-edged authenticity to the story of Tevye the milkman and his marriageable daughters navigating a treacherous world of pogroms and fraying tradition. Steven Skybell, magnificent in the role of the besieged patriarch, led a superb cast that brought a new understanding to an old chestnut through the force of Yiddish language and culture. The production, directed by Oscar- and Tony-winning actor Joel Grey, spoke as much to our own political and social turmoil as to that of the characters without ever having to press the point. <\/p>\n

\n
\"Rachel <\/picture>\n
\n

Rachel Simone Webb and the company of the North American tour of \u201c& Juliet.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Matthew Murphy)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201c& Juliet,\u201d<\/b> <\/a>Ahmanson Theatre. This jukebox musical imagines with unstinting originality a scenario in which the doomed heroine of William Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d doesn\u2019t die at the end of the play. Granted a theatrical second act, Juliet makes the rollicking most of it. The same could be said of this kinetically entertaining touring production. Tragedy was transformed not just into comedy but into a Max Martin dance party, replete with hits from the blockbuster Swedish producer that were made famous by such pop titans as Katy Perry, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Pragun <\/picture>\n
\n

Pragun Bhardwaj, from left, Taha Mandviwala and the national touring company of \u201cLife of Pi.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Evan Zimmerman)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cLife of Pi,\u201d <\/b><\/a>Ahmanson Theatre. The most visually entrancing production of the year was also one of the most dramatically captivating. This adventure tale of a boy trying to survive a shipwreck with the help of his imagination and a few of the surviving animals of his family\u2019s zoo translated into purely theatrical terms the fable-like enchantment of Yann Martel\u2019s 2002 Booker Prize-winning novel. Lolita Chakrabarti\u2019s smart adaptation rode the magic carpet of Max Webster\u2019s staging, which had the most enchanting menagerie of puppets since \u201cThe Lion King.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n
\"Cher <\/picture>\n
\n

Cher Alvarez in \u201cParanormal Activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Kyle Flubacker)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cParanormal Activity,\u201d<\/b><\/a> Ahmanson Theatre. This impeccably staged horror play by Levi Holloway succeeded in injecting maximum fear without theatergoers having to hate themselves in the morning. The characters, rendered with contemporary exactness by a first-rate cast, were so recognizable that they made the mysterious events unfolding around them terrifyingly plausible. The London house, ingeniously laid out by scenic designer Fly Davis, practically stole the show. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some years you just have to get through. I can\u2019t pretend that 2025 delivered a banner crop of theater productions. Many of the best shows on this list came from elsewhere. And a higher than usual percentage were seen at the Ahmanson Theatre, which had a remarkably good year \u2014 perhaps the best of any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2192225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2192223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Best-theater-of-2025-Jesus-Christ-Superstar-Paranormal-Activity.com2Fbc2Fe02Fa1b8e284429c9b100b3aad41.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2192223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192226,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2192223\/revisions\/2192226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2192225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2192223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2192223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2192223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}