Author Archive
A QUEER CAROL
Friday, December 10th, 2010
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol gets a contemporary gay spin—and quite a good one at that—in Joe Godfrey’s A Queer Carol, now getting its Southern California Premiere at Santa Ana’s Theatre Out.
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THE BLUE ROOM
Thursday, December 9th, 2010NOT RECOMMENDED
When David Hare’s The Blue Room was staged at the Pasadena Playhouse in 2002, it ran about 90 minutes without an intermission. The same play now being presented at The Moth Theatre on Melrose lets out at about 10:50. Even figuring in an 8:10 start time (par for the course in 99-seat L.A. theater) and a 15 minute intermission, that’s a whopping 55 minutes longer—without adding new dialog.
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MURDERERS
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
Jeffrey Hatcher’s Murderers is a theatrical experiment that works, though at first glance you might have your doubts. You might well wonder, for example, if three monologs delivered one each by a trio of actors can possibly be called a play. After all, the actors appear together on stage only twice, first for Murderers’ opening lines (“I am a murderer.” “I am a murderer.” “I am a murderer.”) and second at curtain calls. In fact, the only thing the monologs have in common is their setting—Florida’s Riddle Key Retirement Community—and the fact that each is being delivered by a murderer. Is this really a play, let alone one given thumbs up by the New York Times?
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ALL HAIL THE QUEEN
Monday, December 6th, 2010
There are divas galore in the biz we call show, but none burn brighter than Olivier Award-winning Lesli Margherita, or so she reminds us (tongue decidedly in cheek) throughout her self-lovingly titled dazzler of a cabaret act, All Hail The Queen.
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SANTA CLAUS IS COMING OUT
Sunday, December 5th, 2010
Santa Claus Is Coming Out this Christmas in Jeffrey Solomon’s hilarious, beautifully acted solo-mock-u-mentary now playing at San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre.
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COLD LANG SYNE
Saturday, December 4th, 2010
In college, frat brothers Trevor, Perry, Garth, and Mark were known as the Four Musketeers of Sigma Pi, and since then—once every four years for the past twenty years—they’ve been reuniting to catch up on old times. There’s only one hitch. Trevor, Perry, and Garth can’t stand Mark’s guts, and wouldn’t mind at all if he dropped dead.
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CAUGHT
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
David L. Ray puts a very real face on this country’s gay marriage debate in Caught, the Georgia-born playwright’s absorbing dramedy now getting its World Premiere at the Zephyr Theatre. Incisively directed by Nick DeGruccio and featuring a couldn’t-be-better cast and one of the best design teams in town, Caught is a terrific holiday gift for theatergoers in search of something other than yet another Christmas Carol.
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RENT
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
Cal State Fullerton’s exceptional production of Jonathan Larson’s Rent makes it amply clear why the university’s Musical Theater program is one of the country’s most highly recommended. Performed by a uniformly outstanding cast of future stars and directed with supreme imagination and style by Kari Hayter, this is a Rent that deserves to be seen by Rent aficionados and newbies alike. For the latter, it will prove a terrific introduction to the groundbreaking rock opera which became an honest-to-goodness contemporary classic during its twelve-year New York run. For the former, it will provide proof positive that a director with a vision and a cast of Broadway-bound triple-threats can take a fourteen-year-old show and make it a fresh new theatrical experience worthy of audience cheers from start to finish.
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Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
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