THE UNDERSTUDY
Sunday, March 20th, 2016
The Understudy, Theresa Rebeck’s love letter-slash-poison pen missive to Broadway, Hollywood, and the craft/vocation/affliction of acting, makes for a terrifically acted Southern California Premiere showcase for a trio of L.A. up-and-comers.
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CLOUD 9
Saturday, March 12th, 2016
Nearly four decades have passed since Cloud 9 made its West End debut, but Caryl Churchill’s comedic examination of gender and sexuality remains every bit as entertaining, as contemporary, and as downright mind-blowing in 2016 as it was in 1979, particularly as given vibrant new life by The Antaeus Company in a “partner-cast” staging that would give any Broadway revival a run for its money, albeit on a far more intimate (and infinitely more affordable) scale.
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THE MONGOOSE
Monday, March 7th, 2016NOT RECOMMENDED
Acting, direction, and design are all Grade A in The Mongoose, but what on earth prompted The Road Theatre Company to give Will Arbery’s head-scratcher of a script the go-ahead?
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PAST TIME
Saturday, February 20th, 2016
Stepping inside someone else’s skin may be just what Grandpa James and Grandson Chris need to make their respective romantic lives click in Padraic Duffy’s deliciously quirky, often side-splittingly funny, ultimately heartwarming (albeit somewhat over-padded) World Premiere comedy Past Time, now playing at Sacred Fools’ excitingly refurbished digs on Hollywood’s Theatre Row.
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CRIERS FOR HIRE
Thursday, February 18th, 2016
A trio of SoCal Filipinas earning extra cash by weeping and wailing at funerals may provide the title (and the hook) for Giovanni Ortega’s Criers For Hire, but it’s the play’s mother-daughter reunion and its look at a teenage girl’s coming-of-age in a new land that give Ortega’s delightful, charming World Premiere comedy its emotional heart and punch.
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PRIVATE EYES
Sunday, January 17th, 2016
Reality and fiction. Truth and lies. Has any playwright had more fun fooling (and delighting and engaging) an audience than Steven Dietz does in Private Eyes, the best straight-play production I’ve seen at Santa Monica’s venerable community theater, the Morgan-Wixson, and one that easily holds its own against the top professional houses in town.
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DEN OF THIEVES
Saturday, January 16th, 2016
Organized crime meets a quartet of disorganized would-be criminals to wild and wacky effect in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Den Of Thieves, now getting a hilarious 20th-anniversary revival by 2Cents Theatre Group.
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THE MADWOMAN IN THE VOLVO
Wednesday, January 13th, 2016RECOMMENDED
Solo queen Sandra Tsing Loh has arrived at South Coast Rep with a couple of guest actresses in tow for The Madwoman In The Volvo, an autobiographical look at menopause and infidelity more likely to appeal to female theatergoers forty-five and older than to those who don’t fit this specific demographic.
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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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