HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES
Friday, April 30th, 2010
In the musical theater classic Gypsy, strippers Mazeppa, Electra, and Tessie Tura sing, “You gotta have a gimmick if you wanna get ahead.” No playwright would seem to have taken this advice more seriously than prolific British comedy scribe Alan Ayckbourn, whose hit plays almost always have a gimmick.
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TROG AND CLAY: AN IMAGINED HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC CHAIR
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Michael Vukadinovich’s Trog And Clay: An Imagined History Of The Electric Chair may well be one of the funniest plays ever written about actual events, the ingenious playwright having turned the rivalry between electricity pioneers Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse (which led to the first ever execution by electrocution in the U.S.) into a hilarious fact-based absurdist historical farce.
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FULLY COMMITTED
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
If you haven’t heard that one before, Sam Peliczowski probably has. Sam is, you see, a struggling New York-based actor with the worst restaurant job in the Big Apple. Stuck deep down in a tiny basement cell, Sam is the reservations clerk for one of the city’s most shi-shi établissements. No chance for Sam to be seen by directors, producers, casting people. No chance for him to meet women (or men, if he happens to swing that way). No chance to get even the measliest of tips.
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SQUABBLES
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
Every so often one comes across a little-known play that turns out to be a true theatrical gem. Squabbles, by Marshall Karp, is one such comedic treat, and Los Angeles audiences can find out exactly why in a terrific new production now playing at Glendale Centre Theatre.
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THE PSYCHIC
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Sam Bobrick’s The Psychic, at The Falcon Theatre, is a devilishly clever comedy/mystery with a hilarious first act and an even better second one that takes on an added layer of brilliance half-way through.
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SPEECH & DEBATE
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
You’d think by now that closeted politicians would have learned their lesson. Vote consistently homophobic and people will suspect you have a secret to hide. Troll the Internet or public restrooms and that secret will out you whether you like it or not.
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ALIVE AND WELL
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
She: I never apologize cause I am never wrong.
He: Neither am I!
Is this any way to start a relationship? Well, in the world of romantic comedies it is. Think of all the great screen couples whose road to love began with out-and-out hatred, or at least some good old-fashioned dislike. Think Gable and Colbert in It Happened One Night, Crystal and Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, or last year’s Reynolds and Bullock in The Proposal. Couples like these carry on a great tradition begun perhaps by Will Shakespeare in The Taming Of The Shrew, or who knows, maybe from as far back as Adam and Eve.
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
There’s Shakespeare, and then there’s Shakespeare at A Noise Within. No In The Park, Under The Stars, or 99-Seat Plan Shakespeare guarantees the consistent excellence that A Noise Within’s team of world-class actors, directors, and designers deliver, time after time after time. Their current mounting of Much Ado About Nothing is no exception.
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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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