APRIL, MAY, & JUNE
Saturday, April 8th, 2017April, May, & June may be more Lifetime Channel sitcom than Chekhov, but once the play gets past its expository-dialog crash course in four decades of family dysfunction, Gary Goldstein’s entertaining World Premiere look at three sisters so close in age they could almost be triplets yields its fair share of both laughter and emotional rewards.
(read more)
THIS IS OUR YOUTH
Tuesday, April 4th, 2017Two decades before Manchester By The Sea won him a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, Kenneth Lonergan burst upon the theatrical scene with This Is Our Youth, the then 30something playwright’s funny, biting, perceptive look at three privileged but disaffected 20ish New Yorkers in the early Reagan ‘80s, a coming-of-age tale that now provides three 20ish L.A. acting up-and-comers with a terrific vehicle to strut their comedic-dramatic stuff.
(read more)
FOR PIANO AND HARPO
Friday, February 17th, 2017
Comedian, composer, pianist, actor, raconteur, best-selling author, quiz-show guest and talk-show host—Oscar Levant was all of these and more, and thanks to writer-star Dan Castellaneta, the largely forgotten 20th-century icon returns to self-deprecating, neurotic, pill-addicted, acerbic life in Castellaneta’s entertaining, elucidating bio-dramedy For Piano And Harpo, a Falcon Theatre World Premiere.
(read more)
THE FOUND DOG RIBBON DANCE
Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
Only the lonely populate The Found Dog Ribbon Dance, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that Dominic Finocchiaro’s wondrous World Premiere is anywhere near a downer. On the contrary, the latest from Echo Theater Company is precisely the kind of play you’ll want to tell all your romcom-loving friends (and just about anyone else in search of smart, funny, heartstrings-tugging, feel-good new theater) not to miss.
(read more)
BLOODLETTING
Tuesday, January 10th, 2017A Filipino-American brother and sister’s pilgrimage to their recently deceased father’s birthplace takes a supernatural turn in Boni B. Alvarez’s Bloodletting, a Playwrights’ Arena World Premiere that could appeal to fans of the occult who don’t mind spending seventy-five minutes with a couple of rather obnoxious siblings.
(read more)
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY
Tuesday, December 20th, 2016
Nearly three decades may have passed since Other People’s Money first introduced off-Broadway audiences to corporate takeover whiz Larry The Liquidator, but Jerry Sterner’s bitingly comedic look at our country’s increasingly affluent 1% proves as relevant as ever as evidenced by its terrifically entertaining (though sadly just-closed) InterACT Theatre Company revival.
(read more)
MOM’S DEAD
Sunday, December 4th, 2016Dysfunctional families have guaranteed theatrical fireworks since the Ancient Greeks, and families don’t get much more dysfunctional than the Thompsons in Nathan Wellman’s darkly comedic Mom’s Dead, a frequently compelling if overly padded World Premiere from Sacred Fools.
(read more)
THE CONSUL, THE TRAMP, AND AMERICA’S SWEETHEART
Monday, November 28th, 2016
Here’s a fun fact for you. Hollywood routinely allowed Hitler’s Nazis to dictate movie content during the decade leading up to World War II, a bit of Tinseltown trivia at the heart of John Morogiello’s The Consul, The Tramp, And America’s Sweetheart, the engaging, enlightening latest from Theatre 40.
(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.
COPYRIGHT 2025 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY