Author Archive
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Monday, November 20th, 2023Whether you love the entirety of the Porters of Hellgate’s All’s Well That Ends Well, or enjoy some parts of it more than others, will likely depend on how much of a William Shakespeare fan you are where this “problem comedy” is concerned.
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A FAMILY BUSINESS
Saturday, November 18th, 2023
All hell breaks loose when a dating couple and two sets of parents get together for the first time in A Family Business, Matt Chait’s thoroughly entertaining follow-up to Bearings, which won the playwright a 2022-2023 Best Of The Year Scenie.
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70, GIRLS, 70
Monday, November 13th, 2023Its songs may not be John Kander and Fred Ebb at their Cabaret-Chicago best, and its wisp of a book may give them little to write memorably about, but there’s no denying the exuberance of a cast made up almost entirely of performers anywhere from 50something to 93 years young in The Group Rep’s intimate revival of the 1971 Broadway flop 70, Girls, 70.
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BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL
Sunday, November 12th, 2023
“It’s Too Late” “So Far Away” “You’ve Got a Friend” “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman” “I Feel The Earth Move” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”
If these six megahits don’t have you itching to spread the word about Beautiful: The Carole King Musical at La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, then Sara Shepard’s star turn as the woman who wrote and performed some of the mid-20th century’s Greatest Hits most definitely will.
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MAMA MAMA CAN’T YOU SEE
Saturday, November 11th, 2023
Wars past and present merge into an uber-theatrical fever-dream mix of life-or-death drama and mesmerizing modern dance in Stan Mayer and Cecilia Fairchild’s Mama Mama Can’t You See, now blowing audience minds at Studio/Stage.
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RESET
Tuesday, November 7th, 2023Described in press materials as a “sci-fi morality play,” Howard Ho’s Reset, the latest Moving Arts World Premiere, features an intriguing premise, a promising opening sequence, and a particularly appealing lead performance.
Unfortunately, things go downhill, way downhill, once a character known as “Old Man” shows up.
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INHERIT THE WIND
Monday, November 6th, 2023
Inherit The Wind may have made its Broadway debut way back in 1955 and the real-life events that inspired it may have taken place nearly a century ago, but under Michael Michetti’s inspired direction (and given the play’s renewed relevance in today’s ever more polarized America), the multiple Tony-winner’s Broadway-caliber Pasadena Playhouse revival feels as if it could have been written yesterday.
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LINES IN THE DUST
Sunday, November 5th, 2023
Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Nikkole Salter examines inequities in public education in her powerful, thought-provoking, thoroughly engrossing Lines In The Dust, a memorable debut collaboration between Collaborative Artists Bloc and Support Black Theatre at the Matrix.
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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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