Author Archive
BOB’S HOLIDAY OFFICE PARTY
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
Hilarious, crazy, zany, drunken Midwest Hell Christmas insanity” is how my friend Marc describes his first exposure to Bob’s Holiday Office Party, and I wholeheartedly agree. No wonder Bob’s Holiday Office Party is celebrating thirteen consecutive years of shocking and delighting L.A. audiences with its particular blend of mirth, drunken shenanigans, and Christmas spirit.
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THE LIFE
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
The pimps and hookers of pre-Disneyfied Times Square are alive and well and still doing business in the much anticipated Los Angeles premiere of Cy Coleman’s last Broadway musical, 1997’s The Life, now in a limited run on the couldn’t-be-more-fitting Hollywood Boulevard, and directed with power and pizzazz by Joe Greene.
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THE DADDY MACHINE
Saturday, December 6th, 2008
Kids with same gender parents finally have a musical about their families–the absolutely delightful The Daddy Machine. Not that this hour-long musical comedy isn’t also great for kids growing up in so-called “traditional” families–or for adults of any age, gender, or sexual orientation. In fact, The Daddy Machine may just be the most entertaining family show around town these days.
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THE LAST FIVE YEARS
Friday, December 5th, 2008
Since discovering Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years about four years ago, I have rarely missed a chance to see it performed. Whether in a large professional theater (The Pasadena Playhouse) or an intimate space (The Chance) or even in concert form (Brown himself opposite Julia Murney), TL5Y is a musical which never fails to move me. Tonight’s superbly directed and terrifically performed UCLA production was no exception.
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Jason Moyer’s fabulous gay adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is back for a return engagement with a new director (Michael A. Shepperd), a slightly tweaked book, a mostly new cast, and a whole new bigger-budgeted look and feel.
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THE BUSY WORLD IS HUSHED
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
Besides being one of the best and most intelligent new plays in quite a while, Keith Bunin’s The Busy World Is Hushed couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. Following a Yes On 8 victory which was fueled largely by so-called “devout Christians,” it is refreshing indeed to see a play which presents a gay-affirming branch of Christianity, and a lead character (and person of the cloth) who not only accepts that her son is gay but actively encourages his quest for Mr. Right.
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WEST SIDE STORY
Friday, November 28th, 2008
Musical Theatre Of Los Angeles follows its much lauded 99-seat production of the mammoth Ragtime with yet another challenge—staging the Jerome Robbins-Arthur Laurents-Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim classic West Side Story with a 32-member cast and a 10-piece orchestra on a stage perhaps ¼ the size of most large theaters’. The result is an intimate yet epic production which rates an A+ for ambitiousness and a solid B for execution, and one which confirms MTLA’s promise as a young and daring new musical theater company.
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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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