Theater Review: 'Having It All'

Having It All, the new musical now playing at The NoHo Arts Center, is set in a gate area at JFK International Airport and its environs. The show, like the planes that take flight from the airport, encounters very little turbulence.

It is not only one of the best musicals to be featured in North Hollywood in years, but also one of the best plays. Starring five actresses (Lindsey Alley, Kim Huber, Alet Taylor, Shannon Warne, Jennifer Leigh Warren) who compliment each other in talent, style and grace, the musical is a journey through the lives of five women trapped at a boarding area at JFK Airport. When delay after delay forces them to get to know each other, the women find that in attempting to have it all they may have already done so.

Indeed, it is the show-stopping song, Having It All, sung with passion and fire by Warren, that sums-up this heart-breaking revelation.

Each of the actresses has her own original identity and attitude well-crafted by the creative team of Richard Israel (Director), Wendy Perelman  (Book, Conceiver), John Kavanaugh (Music) and David Goldsmith (Book, Lyrics). They sing beautifully and embody their characters with pain, despair and love.

But it is Warren who sizzles and whose stage presence adds luster and substance to the show.

Produced by David Elzer and Peter Schneider, producers of The Marvelous Wonderettes, and Life Could Be A Dream, Having It All was an official selection of the 2006 New York Music Theatre Festival and the 2008 National Alliance for Music Theatre Songwriters Showcase.

iven its impressive roots, it is no surprise the show takes-off like a rocket and takes us with it as it lands slowly, carefully, but oh so surely.

The is located at 11136 Magnolia Blvd. 

Having It All is performed without an intermission and run Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through April 24.

Click here on Patch's for a list of all current theatrical productions going on in NoHo and Toluca Lake.