Author Archive
FACING EAST
Sunday, July 13th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Who is to blame when a gay man kills himself? Is it the “sin of homosexuality” that is at fault, or is it the judgment of those around him who chose to shun and shame, rather than to embrace? Sadly, even in the year 2008, there are far too many who believe the former. Religious faith, instead of being based on love and acceptance, is too often used to judge and condemn, something which author/playwright Carol Lynn Pearson knows all too well.
THE WIZARD OF OZ
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
“We’re off to see the wizard!”
Children of all ages (and that means parents and grandparents too) will be following the yellow brick road from now until July 27 as Musical Theatre West concludes its 55th season with its very first staging of the L. Frank Baum/MGM classic.
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PARADE
Friday, July 11th, 2008
The lynching of Jewish Northerner Leo Frank, falsely convicted of murdering 13-year-old Georgia factory worker Mary Phagan, remains today, nearly a century later, one of the most serious miscarriages of justice (and instances of anti-Semitism) in United States history. Powerful stuff for a Broadway musical, and one that would seem, at least on paper, more than a bit of a downer. Parade (with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and book by Alfred Uhry) was a hard sell on Broadway. If Fosse was the “feel-good” musical of 1999, then a show with such grim subject matter as Parade was pretty much its antithesis, and closed after 85 performances.
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METAMORPHOSES
Thursday, July 10th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Athena Theatre has undertaken its biggest challenge yet in staging an Equity waiver production of Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses.
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LOOPED
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Tallulah.
For anyone over a certain age, there was, is, will always be only one Tallulah.
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MY ANTONIA
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
Willa Cather’s epic 1918 novel has been transformed into an absolutely exquisite memory play by writer/director Scott Schwartz. For those like myself who missed the production’s debut at the Ventura’s Rubicon this past May, Antonia is back, in the more intimate setting of Venice’s Pacific Resident Theatre, and certain to enchant audiences of all ages for weeks to come.
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LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
Downsizing Broadway musicals to fit Equity waiver stages has become an L.A. theater tradition (and challenge) to companies with limited space and budgets. Though somewhat rough around the edges, the Knightsbridge Theatre’s production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage Aux Folles succeeds admirably and enthusiastically, re-imagining La Cage as a Studio City “tranny” bar yet losing none of the original’s laughter, musical dazzle, and tears.
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SPRING’S AWAKENING
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
German playwright Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play Spring’s Awakening was so shocking for its era that when it finally opened in New York 26 years later, it took a Supreme Court injunction to allow the show to go on … and then only for a single performance before closing. With scenes of masturbation, violence, and sex between 14-year-old characters, it is no wonder that pre-Roaring 20s audiences were shocked to the point of outrage.
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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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