ANNE FRASER THOMAS
Monday, June 7th, 2010
Tall, dark-haired, and gorgeous, Anne Fraser Thomas is one of our finest, and most unique, musical theater talents—as Monday’s standing room only crowd at Hollywood’s Magic Castle can certainly attest to. Over the course of an eclectic hour of song and magic (of the musical sort), Anne took her devoted family, friends, and fans on a musical journey through her life from her early years as a multi-ethnic wunderkind (there wasn’t a lesson or class young Anne wasn’t taking) up through her present day bicoastal life.
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JANET KRUPIN RHAPSODY IN NEW
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
The sky’s the limit for Janet Krupin, superstar in the making, who followed her L.A.’s Next Great Stage Star 2010 victory with a sensational cabaret debut that people will be talking about in years to come.
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THE VILLAGE VARIETY PACK
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009RECOMMENDED
In the 1950s and 60s, TV variety shows like The Hollywood Palace and The Ed Sullivan Show brought pop singers, standup comedians, comedy sketch artists, and other assorted talents into living rooms across the country. Co-hosts Dennis Hensley and Michael Anthony have updated this format to the 21st Century and given it a decidedly gay twist in their popular twice-a-month variety show, The Village Variety Pack, delighting audiences of every sexual persuasion on alternate Mondays at The Davidson/Valentini Blackbox Theatre @ The Village.
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DAVID BURNHAM CABARET
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
From Fontana farm boy to CLO favorite to Broadway star. That’s the journey David Burnham has been on since his growing-up years spent halfway between San Bernardino and Rancho Cucamonga, and quite a journey it has been. A little less than six years ago, Burnham was starring down in Long Beach in Musical Theatre West’s production of Hot Mikado, following appearances in MTW’s La Cage Aux Folles and Children Of Eden. He then strutted his dramatic stuff in The Woman In Black at NoHo’s The Road Theatre, one of a long list of pre-Broadway credits. The Great White Way came calling in 2005 when Burnham appeared in the original cast of the multiple-Tony-winning The Light In The Piazza, and when the National Tour played the Ahmanson with Burnham as Fabrizio, it was a fanfare-worthy homecoming for the local boy turned Broadway star. Then came Burnham’s year as Fiyero in the Broadway production of Wicked, all of the above adding up to more than enough reason for Fontana’s favorite son to headline his very own cabaret show at L.A.’s Upright Cabaret.
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MATTHEW MODINE SAVES THE ALPACAS
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
When a celebrity’s career has gone to pot, there’s nothing like a little humanitarian work to get him or her back on the A-List, or at least that’s what Matthew Modine has decided in Matthew Modine Saves The Alpacas, Blair Singer’s marvelously silly (and entertaining) mockumentary now diverting audiences at the Geffen.
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STEPHEN SCHWARTZ
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
Upright Cabaret’s Wicked Summer Nights came to a smashing conclusion with a star-studded tribute to mega-composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz at Hollywood’s Ford Amphitheatre on Sunday, August 23, produced by power duo Chris Isaacson and Shane Scheel, and directed by Broadway’s sensational Billy Porter.
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THE PIECES OF ME
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
It’s a thrill to “discover” talented performers and watch them as their careers
take flight. I first saw Andrew Chappelle in a high school production of Grease in
2004. Not just any high school; this was LACHSA, the Los Angeles County High
School for the Arts, where some of the most talented kids in the L.A. area
prepare for future careers in showbiz. The cast of Grease included Corbin Bleu,
who has since gone on to teen stardom as one of the High School Musical kids.
More importantly, Grease also starred Andrew Chappelle, a young man whose
own Broadway fame is just a few years away. Chappelle riveted audiences the
following year in his scene-stealing performance as James Thunder Early in
Dreamgirls. Following his 2005 graduation, Andrew headed off to CCM, the
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, a school whose
Broadway/TV star alumni include Vicki Lewis, Randy Harrison, and Faith Prince,
among many others.
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EXTRAORDINARY DECEPTIONS
Saturday, December 15th, 2007RECOMMENDED
Though I’m not a big magic aficionado, I thoroughly enjoyed Michael Gutenplan’s
hour of Extraordinary Deceptions–A Magical Holiday Extravaganza, now playing at
the Powerhouse in Santa Monica.
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