OVERLOOKED
Saturday, October 6th, 2012
Playwright Brian Nelson skewers the pretentious Ways Of The (Art) World in his acidic new comedy Overlooked, now getting its World Premiere at Orange County’s award-winning Chance Theater.
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A KIND OF LOVE STORY
Monday, September 24th, 2012
“This is the story of two people who were made for each other, true soul mates, a man and a woman destined to fall in love with each other, if only they could ever meet” … is how an unseen narrator opens Jenelle Riley’s contemporary storybook romcom A Kind Of Love Story, now entertaining audiences at Sacred Fools Theatre.
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BACH AT LEIPZIG
Saturday, September 22nd, 2012RECOMMENDED
Were I to tell you I saw a play entitled Bach At Leipzig last night, you’d probably assume that it was some sort of epic historical drama. That’s certainly what it sounds like, right?
Think again. Itamar Moses’ Bach At Leipzig turns out to be a comedy, and not just a comedy. A laugh-out-loud screwball farce written with uncommon intelligence and originality.
San Pedro’s much esteemed Little Fish Theatre now tries its hand at this hysterical historical romp, and if the element of pomp is missing (and missed), there are still good reasons to check out this very entertaining (if bare-ish bones) production.
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UNDER MY SKIN
Thursday, September 20th, 2012
I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for body-swapping flicks. Name a title and I’ve probably seen it. All Of Me. 13 Going On 30. 17 Again. 18 Again! Like Father, Like Son. Big. Chances Are. Vice Versa. Heaven Can Wait. Freaky Friday. Switch. Prelude To A Kiss. Have a character suddenly find him or herself inhabiting someone else’s body or an older or younger version of the one he or she already has—and I am in for the duration, knowing that there’ll be laughter, romance, and maybe even a tear or two as life lessons are learned all the way up to the moment when—inevitably—the switch back is made.
That’s probably why I proved such a sucker for the Pasadena Playhouse’s season opener Under My Skin, a body-swapping comedy by Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser that takes the genre from screen to stage to hilarious effect, even as it updates it to our 2012 world and gives it a particularly inspired twist that only one of the above movies has even vaguely attempted.
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ABSURD PERSON SINGULAR
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
South Coast Repertory opens its 2012-2013 season with a 40th Anniversary revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular, a terrifically directed and performed production which spotlights what Orange County’s premier regional theater and the “British Neil Simon” do best.
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EPIC PROPORTIONS
Tuesday, September 11th, 2012RECOMMENDED
If ever there were a play more suited to North Hollywood’s Avery Schreiber Theatre than Broadway’s Helen Hayes (where it flopped back in 1999), that play is Larry Coen & David Crane’s Epic Proportions, an entertaining small-scale spoof of those cheesy Biblical epics that were once part of Hollywood’s bread and butter. (Or should that be dates and hummus?)
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FISHING
Friday, August 31st, 2012
Playwright David J. Duman has taken his years of toiling in assorted San Francisco Bay Area restaurants and used them as food for laughter in Fishing, his sexy, spicy, fly-on-the-wall look at the staff and customers of a trendy seafood eatery, now getting its first Los Angeles production at Downtown L.A.’s Archway Studio/Theatre.
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TICK TOCK BOOM CLAP
Monday, August 20th, 2012
L.A. stage favorites Melissa Fahn and Sam Zeller light up the big screen in Tick Tock Boom Clap, an enchanting movie dramedy that combines the tried-and-true romcom genre with a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making theater, whether it be a big-bucks Broadway production or a small-potatoes community theater musical like the one around which Tick Tock Boom Clap revolves.
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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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