Author Archive
THE BEST OF ENEMIES
Friday, September 25th, 2015
A Ku Klux Klan leader and a black Southern civil rights activist go from sworn enemies to best friends in Mark St. Germain’s truth-is-indeed-stranger—a whole lot stranger—than-fiction The Best Of Enemies, a West Coast Premiere that is also one of the finest Colony Theatre productions in years.
(read more)
ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015
The year’s most brilliant physical-comedy performance is but one of many reasons not to miss the West Coast Premiere of the West End/Broadway smash One Man, Two Guvnors, now inspiring more laughs per second than any play I can recall seeing at South Coast Repertory.
(read more)
BONNIE & CLYDE
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015
Bonnie & Clyde may have featured as fine a score as any of its 2011-12 Broadway competitors (including Once and Newsies), but that didn’t stop critics from making sure that Frank Wildhorn’s latest musical bit the dust after a mere two months, previews included, just one reason SoCal audiences haven’t been granted the fully-staged professional production Bonnie & Clyde so richly deserves, just one reason Angelinos can rejoice that at the very least, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow returned to life last Sunday for one night only thanks to Musical Theatre Guild.
(read more)
FIRST DATE
Monday, September 21st, 2015
First impressions, no matter how dismal, do indeed merit a second glance when boy meets girl in First Date, the smart, funny Broadway musical romcom now getting an absolutely Grade-A Southern California Premiere at the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts.
(read more)
HIT THE WALL
Sunday, September 20th, 2015
“I was there!” roar the eclectic band of 1969 Greenwich Village People who populate Hit The Wall, Ike Holter’s slice-of-Stonewall now getting a daringly staged, thrillingly visceral West Coast Premiere that is, simply put, the next best thing to having actually been “there.” (Take that, Roland Emmerich!)
(read more)
THESE PAPER BULLETS!
Friday, September 18th, 2015
The Bard meets The Fab Four in Rolin Jones’ exuberantly entertaining These Paper Bullets!, now getting its West Coast Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse, and while audience members lacking either a soft spot for iambic pentameter or a familiarity with Beatles legend might just end up tuning out, at least during the show’s overlong first act, by the time Act Two rolls around with its Monty-Python-meets-Benny-Hill delights (and with Billie Joe Armstrong’s songs the absolute next best thing to Lennon-&-McCartney circa 1964), it’s hard to imagine anyone not ultimately falling under These Paper Bullets!’ magic spell.
(read more)
CHINGLISH
Thursday, September 17th, 2015
East West Players continues its two-year-long 50th-anniversary celebration with Chinglish, David Henry Hwang’s hilarious, perceptive, eye-opening look at Chinese-American relationships (including one of a particularly romantic/sexual nature), a Los Angeles Premiere that could well prove one of EWP’s most popular productions ever. It’s certainly one of the finest I’ve seen onstage at the David Henry Hwang Theater.
(read more)
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
COPYRIGHT 2026 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY