Author Archive
WAIT UNTIL DARK
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
The dark is a scary place to be. Just think back on all the movie and TV thrillers with the word “dark” in their title: Dark Shadows, The Dark House, Whispers In The Dark, Are You Afraid Of The Dark, Dark Water, and of course Elvira Mistress Of The Dark—to name just a few.
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IS HE DEAD?
Friday, May 1st, 2009
Straight men in drag have made for sure-fire comedy since long before Milton Berle donned wigs, lipstick, and gowns on TV’s Texaco Star Theater back in the 1950s and Barry Humphries created Dame Edna several decades later. Charley’s Aunt made the first of his/her six Broadway appearances way back in 1893, and only five years after that Mark Twain wrote Is He Dead?.
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PHOTOGRAPH 51
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
In an ironic twist of fate, Dr. Rosalind Franklin, the woman who should have shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure received no recognition whatsoever from the Nobel Foundation. True, the Foundation does not award the prize posthumously, and Dr. Franklin had died four years earlier. No, the real irony is that Rosalind Franklin died without even knowing her part in this world-changing discovery.
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APPLE
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009RECOMMENDED
Theatre 40 offers its subscribers something out of the ordinary in their latest production, the Los Angeles premiere of Vern Thiessen’s Apple. Far more “theatrical” than their customary bill of fare, and rated R for liberal use of the “F” word, Apple is the kind of drama that could easily have become a “Disease Play Of The Week” if not for its unusual structure/staging and a trio of accomplished performances.
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JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
As one of the few musical theater buffs who’d never seen a big stage production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, I didn’t know quite what I’d be in for at Civic Light Opera Of South Bay Cities’ big-cast, big-scale revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber rock classic, though given CLOSBC’s great track record and the sensational lineup of talent in the JCS cast, I knew I’d be in for something special.
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EMILIE
Sunday, April 26th, 2009RECOMMENDED
When South Coast Repertory announced the world premiere of Emilie—La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life At The Petit Théâtre At Cirey Tonight, I had two thoughts. The first was, “What a long title for a play!” and the second was, “Who the heck is Emilie?” Doubtless for those with an inability to remember long titles, SCR’s webside has redubbed Lauren Gunderson’s play a short but sweet Emelie. As for Emilie du Châtelet, a quick Wikipedia search reveals the following: Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet (December 17, 1706 – September 10, 1749) was a French mathematician, physicist, and author during the Age of Enlightenment.
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THE COLUMBINE PROJECT
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Paul Storiale’s The Columbine Project attempts the impossible—to document, explore, and try to make sense of the 1999 massacre of twelve students and one teacher at Columbine High School, outside of Denver, Colorado. Against all odds, The Columbine Project proves a triumph for the writer-producer-director and his cast of twenty-one mostly very young actors. That Storiale has been able not only to explore the hows and whys of that most horrific of days, but that he has also somehow managed to fill his stage with nearly two dozen gifted performers is nothing short of miraculous.
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THE SEAFARER
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
Once in a great while, I see a show which, despite first class acting, direction and design, just doesn’t work for me. This is the case with Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer, now playing at the Geffen. The London Observer called The Seafarer “succinct, startling and eerie, and the funniest McPherson play to date,” and Ben Brantley of the New York Times wrote about the Broadway production, “McPherson is quite possibly the finest playwright of his generation.” As someone who would prefer all his theatergoing to provoke wows, I wish I could understand their enthusiasm.
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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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