HEARTS LIKE FISTS
Monday, August 6th, 2012
Someone in a major American metropolis has been murdering post-coital couples, injecting them with a poisonous serum as they lie entwined in each other’s arms, leaving police baffled and the city’s lovers scared out of their minds.
Fortunately, as any comic book fan knows, serial murders like these are the reason super heroes exist, or in the case of Adam Szymkowicz’s World Premiere comedy-fantasy Hearts Like Fists, super heroines.
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ON GOLDEN POND
Sunday, July 29th, 2012
In the over three decades since On Golden Pond won the Drama Desk Award as Outstanding New Play of 1979, Ernest Thompson’s multigenerational comedy hasn’t lost an iota of its humor or charm, as made clear by its latest revival at Glendale Centre Theatre.
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OUR HOUSE
Tuesday, July 10th, 2012
Theresa Rebeck skewers reality TV in her very funny—and very smart—Our House, now getting a terrific West Coast Premiere at Hollywood’s Lounge Theatre.
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12th NIGHT
Saturday, July 7th, 2012
Twelfth Night. Eighty minutes. No intermission. Shakespeare purists may cavil, but to those with more contemporary sensibilities, these words could hardly be more musical to the ears.
A shorter, brisker running time proves but one of many reasons why Vanguard Rep’s stripped-down 12th Night comes as such a delightful treat this summer season. Add to that inventive direction by adapter Sam R. Ross and featured player Matthew Kellen Burgos, sparkling performances by an all-Equity cast of nine, a splendid production design, and an optional pre-show bring-your-own-feast picnic with a panoramic view of the San Gabriel Valley and you’ve got a 2012 La Cañada Flintridge Shakespeare Festival offering too irresistible to say “No” to.
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FLUFFY BUNNIES IN A FIELD OF DAISIES
Friday, June 29th, 2012
With a title as cutesy yet unwieldy as Fluffy Bunnies In A Field Of Daisies, you’d hardly expect Matt Chaffee’s 2002 two-acter to be a delightful, smart, cleverly written, occasionally raunchy but more often than not mush-hearted comedic gem, let alone one that ran off-and-on for an amazing two or three years in its initial Los Angeles run. Still, this is precisely what Fluffy Daisies is, as audiences can once again discover in its 10 Year Anniversary Revival at Hollywood’s Arena Stage Theatre.
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THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
Most Palisades High School theater students would probably never dream of making a career out of producing and starring in William Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, yet that is precisely the dream that Charles Pasternak and his fellow Pali-Highers Edward Castuera and Jack Leahy shared a decade or so ago, a dream which led to the 2006 founding of an exciting young theater company bent on staging every single play in the Shakespearean oeuvre. When I reviewed my very first The Porters Of Hellgate production, Love’s Labor’s Lost, back in 2008, they were already at number eight in only their second season. The Merry Wives Of Windsor makes it fourteen* and counting, and as in productions past, The Porters have once again come up with an original take on a Shakespeare standard and done so with considerable skill and panache.
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THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED
Monday, June 18th, 2012
The Little Dog Laughed, Douglas Carter Beane’s hilarious, edgy Hollywood-New York showbiz satire, has arrived in North Hollywood with its cutting-edge love story between a gay movie star and a bisexual hustler and its much touted (albeit brief) display of full-frontal male nudity. Though one of its four performances still needs considerably sharpening, director Jon Cortez and cast are largely successful in entertaining, titillating, and maybe even coaxing a tear or two from audiences in search of comedy with a bite.
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THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION
Sunday, June 17th, 2012
For socially liberal Christians, secular humanists, agnostics, and/or atheists, there may seem to be little difference these days between Catholics and Evangelicals. Both would appear to be anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-anything that contradicts the strict tenets of their faiths.
Pit a die-hard Pentecostal against a die-hard Papist, however, and you will stand corrected once each side begins attempting to prove the other wrong.
This is precisely what playwright Evan Smith does to hilarious and thought-provoking effect in The Savannah Disputation, his highly intelligent comedy now getting its Los Angeles Premiere after a New York debut and a slew of well-received regional productions.
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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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