ESCANABA IN DA MOONLIGHT
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Movie star/playwright Jeff Daniels affectionately skewers the natives of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (aka the Yoopers) in his hit comedy Escanaba In Da Moonlight, now making a return engagement at San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre. As an authentic Yooper might put it, “Dis is some funny show, and dat’s da trute.”
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CAVE QUEST
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010RECOMMENDED
Did you ever see that Coca Cola commercial from 1970s, the one that had a couple thousand peace-seeking grownups and kids warbling “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony”? Well, that’s basically Justin Yi’s motivation in climbing to the top of the Himalayas in Les Thomas’ new play Cave Quest. To be more specific, the young Asian American wants to teach the world to “find inner peace” by means of a $49.99 video game. The key to Justin’s achieving this goal is a “legendary” Buddhist nun named Padma—who just happens to have started out a small-town Fresno girl named Ruby Riyono.
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CELADINE
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
The titular leading lady of Charles Evered’s Celadine runs a London coffee house, writes plays, occasionally does a bit of spying, and still looks fabulous well into her forties. Assisting her at the coffee house are Mary, a former hooker, and Jeffrey, a young hunk with a penchant for cross-dressing and for crawling under his boss’s skirt. Completing Celadine’s entourage in the play’s West Coast premiere at the Colony Theatre are Elliot and Rowley, the former a handsome young actor, the latter an ex-lover. If Celadine’s young daughter Marie were still alive, the lady would seem to have it made—the very picture of a modern 21st Century woman, right?
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WHY TORTURE IS WRONG AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Meet the cast of characters of Why Torture Is Wrong, And The People Who Love Them, Christopher Durang’s absurdist screwball war-on-terror romantic farce, now getting its West Coast Premiere by The Blank Theatre Company. There’s:
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SOUVENIR
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
While it may be true that “America’s Got Talent,” a glance at YouTube clips of failed American Idol auditioners proves that the seriously delusional are alive and well and attempting in vain to sing on-key in these United States. Some have even gone on to make records. Hong Kong immigrant William Hung titled his first CD “Inspiration,” though it’s doubtful that the final result was divine. Back in the 1960s, Pomona housewife Mrs. Elva Miller (known affectionately as “Mrs. Miller”) blithely and cluelessly massacred such 1960s hits as “Downtown” and “A Lover’s Concerto” in her vibrato-heavy, wobbly, off-key mezzo.
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NO SEX PLEASE, WE’RE BRITISH
Friday, January 29th, 2010
All those doors is the first clue that we’re in the land of farce. After all, how many apartment living rooms have six (count’em) doors leading off who-knows-where, in addition to stairs leading up to a second floor? Only the needs of farce (plenty of “he goes out just as she comes in” moments and slammed doors galore) could inspire such a floor plan. Then there are the intercoms (not one, but two) and a hatch opening on to the kitchen that keeps flying down and shutting. Clearly we’re going to be in for an evening of screwball merriment.
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SHAKESPEARE UnSCRIPTED
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
The talented folks of Impro Theatre and Combined Artform (aka the best improv actors in town) are back with their latest confection, Shakespeare UnScripted, and like its predecessors Jane Austen UnScripted and Tennessee Williams UnScripted, it adds up to two acts of improvised madness and merriment.
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SYLVIA
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
Sylvia is A.R. Gurney’s tale of an adorable mutt who finds herself a new master in a Manhattan park and a new home in a New York City brownstone. This comic tribute to Man’s Best Friend has become a regional audience favorite since its first staging in 1995 with Sarah Jessica Parker as Sylvia, and its latest incarnation at Hermosa Beach Playhouse is one of the Playhouse’s best.
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