SPECIES NATIVE TO CALIFORNIA
Sunday, May 14th, 2017
Imagine if Chekhov had set The Cherry Orchard in 21st-century Mendocino County and you’ve got Dorothy Fortenberry’s Species Native To California, am IAMA Theatre Company World Premiere dramedy that proves that every good story is worth a good retelling.
(read more)
THE LYONS
Saturday, May 13th, 2017
Ben, Rita, Lisa, and Curtis Lyons give the Lomans, the Tyrones, and the Giddenses a run for their dysfunctional family money, albeit with considerably more laughter-provoking results in Nicky Silver’s The Lyons, the latest darkly comedic bit of brilliance from The Road Theatre Company, a Los Angeles Premiere incisively directed by Scott Alan Smith.
(read more)
MIDDLETOWN
Thursday, May 4th, 2017
Birth. Life. Death. Infinity. Playwright Will Eno addresses all of the above in Middletown, his 21st-century response to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and if the Pulitzer Prize finalist tends to take quirkiness to extremes, inspired direction, design, and performances make this Chance Theater Southern California Premiere well worth a trip to Anaheim Hills.
(read more)
A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2
Tuesday, April 25th, 2017
Nora’s come back to the “doll’s house” she once called home, though how long she’ll stay is anybody’s guess in Lucas Hnath’s audacious, scabrous, wordy, discussion-prompting, and often surprisingly droll sequel to the Henrik Ibsen classic, the South Coast Repertory World Premiere of A Doll’s House, Part 2.
(read more)
FAILURE: A LOVE STORY
Monday, April 17th, 2017
Center Theatre Group opens Block Party, its three-play salute to the best of Los Angeles intimate theater, with an exquisitely expanded Kirk Douglas Theatre staging of Coeurage Theatre Company’s multiple-award-winning Failure: A Love Story, Philip Dawkins’ whimsical meditation on the fragility of life and the resiliency of those who live it.
(read more)
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)
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
COPYRIGHT 2026 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY