INTO THE WOODS
posted on March 31st, 2025 at 8:39 AM by Steven Stanley
Over a dozen star turns make Musical Theatre West’s staging of a Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine classic that rarity among Into The Woods revivals, a big-stage, big-talent triumph that captures the magic of the 1987 Broadway original while treating audiences to inspired new interpretations of the fairytale musical’s now iconic roles.
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Tags: James Lapine, Los Angeles Theater Review, Musical Theatre West, Stephen Sondheim
posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Now Playing, Theater Review, WOW!
ONE JEWISH BOY
posted on March 29th, 2025 at 3:46 PM by Steven Stanley
Is love enough to keep a couple together when one of them has been the victim of hate crime he simply can’t get past? This is the question posed by English playwright Stephen Laughton in his gut-punchingly powerful One Jewish Boy, now getting a compelling West Coast premiere at Echo Theater Company.
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Tags: Echo Theater Company, Los Angeles Theater Review, Stephen Laughton
posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Now Playing, Theater Review, Two-Hander, WOW!
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
posted on March 25th, 2025 at 10:44 AM by Steven StanleyThe audience greeted curtain calls with cheers, but for this reviewer at least, Musical Theatre Guild’s one-performance-only concert staged reading of the 2006 Broadway hit The Drowsy Chaperone failed to live up to the company’s next-best-thing-to-fully-staged standards.
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Tags: Bob Martin, Don McKellar, Greg Morrison, Lisa Lambert, Los Angeles Theater, Musical Theatre Guild, The Broad Stage
posted in Concert Staged Reading, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls
THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
posted on March 23rd, 2025 at 11:11 AM by Steven Stanley
Wisteria Theatre makes it two hits in a row with their completely captivating take on the 2005 Broadway hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, impressively directed by Brayden Hade.
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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Rachel Sheinkin, William Finn, Wisteria Theater Company
posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Now Playing, Theater Review, WOW!
DRAT! THE CAT!
posted on March 22nd, 2025 at 11:03 AM by Steven Stanley
Sixty years after it flopped big time on Broadway, the largely forgotten Drat! The Cat! has been given fresh new life by director Bruce Kimmel in a delightful, six-decades-postponed West Coast Premiere at the Group Rep Theatre.
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Tags: Ira Levin, Los Angeles Theater Review, Milton Schafer, The Group Rep
posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Now Playing, Theater Review, WOW!
LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!
posted on March 19th, 2025 at 8:39 AM by Steven StanleyThere’s some very good work being done on the Westchester Playhouse stage in Kentwood Players frontal-nudity-free staging of Love! Valour! Compassion!, Terrence McNally’s three-and-a-half-hour-long celebration of gay love and friendship in the time of AIDS.
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Tags: Kentwood Players, Los Angeles Theater Review, Terrence McNally, Westchester Playhouse
posted in Drama, Now Playing, South Bay, Theater Review
ONE FOR MY BABY
posted on March 18th, 2025 at 8:09 AM by Steven StanleyA musical can have hit potential where songs, dances, performances, and production design are concerned, however without a compelling, coherent book to grab an audience, it can still end up a miss, case in point the 3-plus-hour-long retro jukebox musical One For My Baby, now getting its World Premiere at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre.
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Tags: All Roads Theatre Company, El Portal Theatre, Fred Barton, Harold Arlen, Los Angeles Theater Review, Scott Thompson
posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, World Premiere
CABARET
posted on March 15th, 2025 at 12:16 PM by Steven Stanley
Even constrained by the limitations of a rented set, master director Michael Matthews and an absolutely superb cast deliver a 5-Star Theatricals Cabaret resplendent with Matthews’ unique brand of brilliance.
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Tags: 5-Star Theatricals, Fred Ebb, Joe Masteroff, John Kander, Ventura County Theater Review
posted in Musical, Theater Review, Ventura County, WOW!