Author Archive
THE HAPPY ONES
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
It’s 1975 in sunny Garden Grove, California, and Walter Wells is one of The Happy Ones. With his own business, a home in the suburbs, and a wife and two young children, things couldn’t be better for Walter, a man living the quintessential American Dream. “Beautiful women. Beautiful children. Great neighbors. Fantastic jobs. Gorgeous weather.” Walter and his fellow Garden Grovians could hardly imagine a world any different from the one in which they live such perfect lives.
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SAMMY
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
Say the name Sammy to anyone over a certain age and the first (and perhaps the only) person to come to mind will be the one and only Sammy Davis Jr. It’s therefore entirely fitting that Davis’s musical biography, now playing to audience cheers at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, should be titled Sammy. Just Sammy. Simply Sammy. A name that is synonymous with entertainment.
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SWEENEY TODD
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
Anyone in need of proof that theatrical miracles can indeed take place in our fair city need look no further than The Production Company’s miraculous new revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd—miraculous because who could possibly imagine Sondheim’s big-stage, big-cast musical scaled down to a stage area about one-tenth the size of the Ahmanson’s with a cast totaling only ten—and having it work to near perfection?
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MY FAIR LADY
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
When My Fair Lady opened on Broadway in 1956, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times called it “one of the best musicals of the century,” quite a proclamation for a century that still had 44 years left to go. Still, looking back these 53 years later, it’s clear as crystal that even if My Fair Lady had opened in 1999, Atkinson’s rather bold statement would have been as spot-on as it was mid-century. In fact, as Downey Civic Light Opera 2009-2010 season-opening revival of the musical theater classic proves, there may indeed be no better 20th Century musical than My Fair Lady.
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THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
Begin as your inspiration with Alfred Hitchcock & Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca. (A young woman arrives at a grand and stately manor, the second wife of its handsome owner, only to be surrounded by memories of wife number one, particularly those brought up by the mansion’s housekeeper.) Add a smidgen of The Werewolf. (Among the household staff is a hunchback swineherd who turns half man/half wolf whenever there’s a full moon.) Spice with a dash of Dracula. (Another household worker is rumored to be one of those “beings who never die,” and we all know what that means.) Sprinkle in a tad of The Mummy. (Our widowed, remarried hero journeys to Cairo where his presence brings a long-dead Egyptian you-know-what back to life.) Mix all this together and the resulting soufflé is Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery Of Irma Vep, a hilarious homage to 1930s/40s Hollywood melodrama.
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BIG RIVER
Sunday, September 27th, 2009
Actors Co-op + Richard Israel + Big River = Theater Magic.
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THE SEAGULL
Saturday, September 26th, 2009RECOMMENDED
The award-winning Chance Theater takes on Chekhov’s The Seagull with admirable results, the production featuring excellent performances, astute direction, and a gorgeous design. Then again, what else would you expect from Orange County’s finest intimate theater?
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NAKED BOYS SINGING
Friday, September 25th, 2009
It was just over ten years ago that theater-maker extraordinaire Robert Schrock was struck with quite possibly the most brilliant idea of his lifetime. If nudity, particularly of the male variety, filled theater seats, why not create a show in which every single actor performs naked, and not just brief blink-and-you-miss it full frontal flashes, but for virtually the entirety of the production? And since the gays love their musical theater more than just about any other genre, why not make this new show a musical revue? Finally, why not make this a revue about nudity, so that the naked bodies would be integral to the show and not simply gratuitous?
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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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