Author Archive
SECRETS OF A SOCCER MOM
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
You don’t have to be the mother of a budding soccer star to enjoy Stillspeaking Theatre’s latest offering. Still, San Marino’s professional theater couldn’t have picked a better play for the community which surrounds it than Kathleen Clark’s Secrets Of A Soccer Mom. My guess is that the carpool set will love it. After all, even this single male reviewer with no particular interest in raising children, playing soccer, or watching children play soccer had a fine time getting to know its three title characters.
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CITY OF ANGELS
Saturday, September 12th, 2009RECOMMENDED
For a theater company to have been in continuous operation for a record eighty-eight years, it must be doing something right. Whittier Community Theatre certainly is, and their latest production, City Of Angels, the Tony-winning Best Musical of 1989, is a perfect example of why WCT is the oldest non-profit amateur theater west of the Mississippi.
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F*CKING MEN
Friday, September 11th, 2009
With a title like F*cking Men and the promise of full frontal male nudity, the latest Celebration Theatre production will have no problem attracting audiences. Joe DiPietro’s modern gay twist on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1900 classic La Ronde has been filling seats in London for the past two years and counting. What WeHo theatergoers will be getting, however, is much more than merely a sexually explicit title and some briefly viewed private parts. DiPietro’s play, particularly as directed here by the justly admired Calvin Remsberg, is a witty, perceptive, absolutely engrossing look at gay relationships, both sexual and romantic. F*cking Men says much about the way gay men meet and mate, but audiences of either sex or any sexual orientation are likely to recognize themselves in at least one of DiPietro’s diverse cast of characters.
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THE GOLDEN GAYS
Thursday, September 10th, 2009RECOMMENDED
John Patrick Trapper’s The Golden Gays has just opened at Casita Del Campo in Silverlake, and though this men-in-drag Golden Girls spoof runs about half an hour too long (and would do better with a stronger focus on the “girls” themselves), it provides laugh after unsophisticated laugh and is a likely crowd pleaser.
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THE NIGHT IS A CHILD
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Who wouldn’t want to escape the winter cold of Massachusetts for the beaches of Rio De Janeiro? Certainly not 50ish widow-housewife-mother-grandmother Harriet Easton, who’s just arrived in the land of sun and samba. Harriet’s face lights up with joy at the simple fact of being in Brazil, but her smile hides a pain almost too excruciating to live with, the grisly reason for which is revealed pouco a pouco in Charles Randolph-Wright’s magical new play The Night Is A Child, now getting a stunning staging at the Pasadena Playhouse under the nuanced direction of Sheldon Epps.
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I LOVE YOU BECAUSE
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
I Love You Because is one of the funniest and most delightful new musicals of the past few years. It has one of the most tuneful, memorable scores you’re likely to hear this year or next. It’s also the most unabashedly romantic musical comedies ever. Its San Diego premiere at North Coast Repertory is a reminder that yes, indeed, there are times that big city L.A. theater is trumped by its neighbor to the south.
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LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
In my July review of Musical Theatre West’s big-stage, big-budget production of Little Shop Of Horrors, I wrote, “Little Shop Of Horrors is that rarity in musical theater—a show which works equally well in a tiny space and on a Broadway-sized stage, one which can delight and entertain whether performed by teenagers, amateurs, or … A-List professionals,” a comment proved spot-on by the intimate theater revival just opened at the Knightsbridge. Though it doesn’t have the big bucks behind it that MTW’s did, and though its leads haven’t yet starred on Broadway or been TV regulars, under Jaz Davison’s nothing-short-of-inspired direction, this may well be the most exciting Little Shop I’ve seen.
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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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