Author Archive
LETTING GO
Sunday, October 14th, 2007RECOMMMENDED
Letting Go is a collection of four one-acts about just that, “letting go.” In the first,
a mother must let go of hope and a daughter of lies. In the second, a dying man
must let go of his fragile hold on life. In the third, the mother of a young child must
let go of illusions. In the fourth, an older woman must let go of the past in order to
face the promise of the future.
(read more)
OKLAHOMA!
Sunday, October 14th, 2007
Of all the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical theater classics, their first and oldest collaboration, Oklahoma!, remains their most contemporary. To modem eyes, Carousel’s hero Billy Bigalow may be seen as an abusive husband. South Pacific’s Nellie is so shocked that Emile had married a (heaven forbid!) Polynesian woman and had children with her that she breaks off their relationship. And The King and I’s King (of Siam no less) needs to be “modernized” by a British schoolteacher. There is, however, nothing dated about either Oklahoma!’s characters or its story. Also, unlike the ever-popular Sound of Music, Oklahoma! has its dark side, not only in the character of Jud Frye, but also in Laurey’s conflicted and repressed longings. That’s not to say that the other R&H musicals are anything less than classics. It just that Oklahoma! better than any others has stood the test of time.
(read more)
LOST ANGELES
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
Lost Angeles is the best written, best acted new comedy I’ve seen this year.
Caroline Treadwell has created ten alternately irritating/lovable (i.e.
human) Generation Xers, put them in real life situations, and let the
audience be flies on the wall, watching these very real people experience
the joys and pains of falling in and out of love.
(read more)
JEKYLL & HYDE
Friday, October 12th, 2007
Fullerton Civic Light Opera ends its 2007 season on a high note with the
return engagement of their 2001 award-winner Jekyll & Hyde. Arguably the
most popular “musical thriller” in Broadway history (1523 performances), J&H
boasts a classic storyline (by Robert Lewis Stevenson), a highly hummable
score by Frank Wildhorn, two amazing roles for leading ladies (good girl/bad
girl), spectacle, murder, and above all one of the most challenging
acting/singing roles ever written for a musical theater leading man. FCLO’s
production has been directed with consummate professionalism by Ovation
winning Jan Duncan, with superb musical direction by 35-year FCLO vet Lee
Kreter, leading an orchestra that couldn’t be better.
(read more)
CANNED PEACHES IN SYRUP
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
Seeing a show at the Furious Theatre in Pasadena is a virtual guarantee of a
brilliantly acted and staged production. Dámaso Rodriguez and his furiously
fearless band of thespians invariably pick edgy and topical pieces of writing
which they bring to vivid life upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse, and Canned
Peaches in Syrup is no exception. Set in the not so distant future, in a world
where food and water are so scarce that half the remaining inhabitants of our
planet have turned to cannibalism to survive, Canned Peaches is, as they say,
as topical as today’s headlines. It’s also an outrageously funny comedy, and a
love story a la Romeo and Juliet to boot.
(read more)
HEAT & HOSTILITY
Sunday, October 7th, 2007RECOMMENDED
Kevin Delin’s Heat & Hostility is an amusing look at men and women and sex, in a series of 14 sketches, featuring an attractive and talented young cast of performers. Here’s a preview of some of the “heat and hostility” that’s in store for you:
THE NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME WATCH
Saturday, October 6th, 2007NOT RECOMMENDED
In Craig Alpaugh’s The Neighborhood Crime Watch, a pair of burglars break into a
Canoga Park home. One wears pantyhose over his head, the legs dangling over
his face like long rabbit ears. The other is elegantly dressed. They are brothers,
improbably so as the elegantly dressed one looks thirty to forty years older than the
one wearing the panty hose, once he has removed them. Older brother would
rather die than go back to prison he says. After all, “prisons are filled with
dangerous criminals and elected officials.” The burgling brothers have been
nicknamed “The Brunch Bandits.” Their motto is “We dine and then we steal,”
though all they can find in the kitchen of this house is a boring tuna fish sandwich.
(In an early break-in, there wasn’t a thing to eat, so they ordered pizza.)
(read more)
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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