Author Archive
PLASTIC CRYSTAL
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Michael Miller has lived with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder since the age of seven. He always arranges his shoes “just so” before going to bed, moving them from this position to that one and back again, and then to another, until he is satisfied. He locks his apartment from the outside even when his girlfriend is still inside, even when she has just told him not to. Even worse are his obsessions, most particularly his obsession with blood. Michael once found a small stain on a shirt and soon became convinced that it was AIDS infected blood. The discovery of a band-aid inside a load of laundry washed at a public laundromat sends him into a frenzy, disinfecting everything the clothes may have touched.
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SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
The customary path for a musical to follow is the one from stage to screen, the most recent example being Mamma Mia, in movie theaters (and live on Broadway) even as I write this. Far less usual is seeing an original movie musical adapted for the stage, yet just as MTW’s The Wizard Of Oz closes, Singin’ In The Rain opens at Cabrillo Music Theatre, a veritable bonanza for lovers of MGM musicals of Hollywood’s golden age.
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MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
With eight fully staged productions in a scant ten months, The Production Company (aka TheProdCo) has quickly established itself as Los Angeles’ most prolific new theater company. It is also one of the most consistently reliable, opening one excellent production only days after the preceding has closed, with yet another in rehearsal. Amazing!
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AMERICAN DEAD
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Five years ago, Grace Tisdale, a young Midwestern deputy sheriff and Mark Shawver, a teenage bagger, were gunned down in a grocery store robbery, precisely the kind of crime big city dwellers read about on a daily basis. To the residents of this small American town, however, it was not merely the deputy and the teenager who were victimized. Grace Tisdale left behind a husband and a brother, both of whose lives were forever changed.
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RESPECT: THE GIRL EM-POWERED MUSICAL
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Time was when a woman was nothing without a man, and if she ever made the mistake of throwing the bum out, it was only a matter of time until she took all the blame and begged him to return. Need proof? Just sing a few bars of “Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home?” and you’ll see how true this was back at the turn of the last century:
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YANK!
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre (“The Nation’s 3rd Oldest LGBT Theatre”) has scored a major (and I mean MAJOR) coup in obtaining the rights to present the West Coast Premiere of Yank!, a major hit (and audience award winner) at 2005’s New York Musical Theatre Festival. In fact, Diversionary is only the second theater company in the U.S. to stage Yank! since the Festival, and a WOW! of a production it is, thanks a terrific cast, staging by the original New York director Igor Goldin, and the hands-on presence of book and lyrics writer David Zellnik and composer Joseph Zellnik.
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THE NEXT BIG THING
Saturday, July 19th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Anyone craving an evening of 80s nostalgia will find much to enjoy in The Next Big Thing, a new musical just opened at the art/Works Theatre. Like Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Can’t Buy Me Love, The Next Big Thing features a cast of energetic, attractive teens (or more precisely 20somethings passing as teens) with dreams to fulfill, and adults who occasionally get in their way.
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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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