Author Archive
THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
The members of the Musical Theatre Guild are musical theater magicians. How
else could they create musical theater magic in just 25 hours of rehearsal time?
They’ve done it again, with a delightful, tuneful (book in hand and sans sets but
otherwise pretty much fully staged) production of Rupert Holmes’ The Mystery of
Edwin Drood (based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel). Their first of two
performances (at the Alex in Glendale last Monday) happened to coincide with
the mammoth Chess benefit, but I was able to catch yesterday’s reprise
performance at the much more intimate Janet & Ray Scherr Forum in Thousand
Oaks, which was a treat for the ears and the eyes.
(read more)
GOBLIN MARKET
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
Take two of the most phenomenally talented performers on the L.A. theater
scene, add a critically acclaimed director and a superb design team, and give
them an exquisite but little known musical to bring to life, and you have Syzygy
Theatre Group’s remarkable production of Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon’s Goblin
Market.
(read more)
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
Friday, September 21st, 2007NOT RECOMMENDED
The Sight Unseen Theatre Group is one of my favorite local companies. Their
Quarterlife made my “Best of” lists for World Premiere Play, Intimate Theater Play,
and Ensemble. A Year Without Spring, directed by Andy Mitton, was another
fine world premiere drama, with outstanding performances (particularly by Eric
Bloom and Michael Laurino). Then, in a complete turnabout, Sight Unseen put
on a musical, Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, with AYWS director Mitton wearing
a much different hat, as musical director, Quarterlife star Clark Freeman in the
band, and sets and lighting co-designed by Sam Roberts. Once again, a Sight
Unseen production made my “Best of” list, this time for Intimate Theater
Musical, Now, Roberts, Freeman, and Mitton have combined forces again for
yet another challenge, that of fashioning a 99-seat theater production of
Alexandre Dumas’ classic adventure novel The Count of Monte Cristo, adapted
for the stage and directed by Roberts.
(read more)
DURANGO
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
Durango begins on a bare stage, with just a chair and guitar far right. A
young man wearing shorts and a t-shirt enters, sits, picks up the guitar and,
beginning to strum, sings a sadly nostalgic song. “Main Street isn’t busy much
anymore. A neon girl dressed up with nowhere to go.” He seems to be
recalling the past, a past which we begin in the next scene to discover.
(read more)
CHESS
Monday, September 17th, 2007
Those who attended last night’s Chess benefit (for Broadway Cares Equity
Fights AIDS) expecting “just a concert” were in for a dazzling surprise. What
had been advertised as “Chess in Concert” turned out to be a fully staged,
fully choreographed, fully off-book production of the 80s Broadway hit. And
what a production it was!
(read more)
JOURNEY TO DOLLYWOOD
Sunday, September 16th, 2007RECOMMENDED
The small-town diner has proven the surefire setting for numerous movies, TV
shows, plays, and musicals, from Alice, to Pump Boys and Dinettes, to The
Spitfire Grill to…Diner. Add to that list Jessie McCormack’s very funny new play
Journey to Dollywood, now at the Matrix Theatre.
(read more)
HAIR
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
The year was 1968.
16,592 American soldiers lost their lives in Vietnam, the greatest number of
casualties for any year of the war. At home, assassins’ bullets killed Bobby
Kennedy and Martin Luther King. 10,000 or more enraged Americans
protested the Vietnam War outside the Democratic convention in Chicago,
leading to hundreds of arrests and police-inflicted injuries.
(read more)
AND NEITHER HAVE I WINGS TO FLY
Friday, September 14th, 2007
Ann Noble’s heartwarming And Neither Have I Wings to Fly feels like a theater classic that’s been around forever. Hard to believe it’s a fairly recent play which is only now getting its Southern California premiere, in an absolutely gorgeous production at the Road Theatre, directed by award winning Scott Cummins.
(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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