GIRLS TALK
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
What screenwriter/playwright/director Roger Kumble did to wealthy New York teens in the movie Cruel Intentions, he does now to four (Very) Real Housewives Of Bel Air in the hilariously venomous Girls Talk, a World Premiere production at the Lee Strasberg Theater.
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NERVE
Saturday, February 5th, 2011
“Ask somebody to love you. Takes a lot of nerve. Ask somebody to love you. You got a lot of nerve.”
–Paul Simon
Can a couple of 20somethings on a blind date from hell find happiness ever after? That’s the question asked by playwright Adam Szymkowicz in Nerve, his disturbing but oh-so-romantic comedy now getting its West Coast Premiere at The Chance Theater.
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MLLE. GOD
Friday, January 28th, 2011
Though Frank Wedekind’s name may not be as well-known as Bertolt Brecht’s, the German playwright is making a comeback nearly a hundred years after his death, first with the Broadway smash Spring Awakening and now with Nicholas Kazan’s Mlle. God, a contemporary stage adaptation of Wedekind’s Lulu Plays, perhaps best known as the basis for silent film star Louise Brooks’ most famous flick, Pandora’s Box.
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DADDY
Sunday, January 9th, 2011
Actor-playwright Dan Via puts an intriguing new spin on the romantic triangle—and the often blurred line between friendship and romance—in the highly provocative Daddy, now getting an impressive West Coast Premiere under the skilled, nuanced direction of Rick Sparks.
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CAUGHT
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
David L. Ray puts a very real face on this country’s gay marriage debate in Caught, the Georgia-born playwright’s absorbing dramedy now getting its World Premiere at the Zephyr Theatre. Incisively directed by Nick DeGruccio and featuring a couldn’t-be-better cast and one of the best design teams in town, Caught is a terrific holiday gift for theatergoers in search of something other than yet another Christmas Carol.
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LULU’S LAST STAND
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010RECOMMENDED
A patriarch’s death brings his three adult daughters back to the family homestead in northern Georgia. Compounding their grief is the upsetting discovery that their mother waited eight full days to inform them of their father’s demise. What on earth could have provoked her to sit on this vital piece of family news for so long? Has Mom gone and lost her mind?
These are the questions that Charlene, Bailey, and Lena attempt to unravel in Lulu’s Last Stand, currently in its World Premiere engagement at Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40. Though it’s not until its second act that Veronica DiPippo’s dramedy really kicks into gear, prompting this reviewer to recommend some first act cuts, it ends up being an enjoyable and even inspiring look at an odd-ball mother and her three very distinctive daughters.
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ANITA BRYANT DIED FOR YOUR SINS
Saturday, October 30th, 2010
“One of the funniest and most exquisitely written comedy-dramas to come along in a long, long while” is how I described Anita Bryant Died For Your Sins when it had its West Coast Premiere in Los Angeles last year. San Diegans (and Angelinos who want a first or second look at Brian Christopher Williams’ exquisite memory play) would do well to check out its terrific San Diego premiere at Diversionary Theatre under the expert direction of Shana Wride.
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A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
Miss Jane Marple, the elderly spinster/amateur sleuth created by Agatha Christie in 1930, starred in a dozen novels up through the early 1970s (never aging a day), but only twice did she appear live on stage, thereby making it a special treat for whodunit fans that Glendale Centre Theatre has revived Leslie Darbon’s stage adaptation of A Murder Is Announced with all-around terrific results.
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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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