OKLAHOMO!
Friday, November 27th, 2009RECOMMENDED
No one in Los Angeles makes theater quite like Justin Tanner. His one-act comedies are the theatrical equivalent of a midnight cult movie, blending the zany, the edgy, the gay, and occasionally the downright bizarre with a charm very much their own. The best of Justin Tanner’s plays, like last year’s marvelously manic Voice Lessons (which won Laurie Metcalf StageSceneLA’s award for Comedic Performance Of The Year) or Teen Girl, Tanner’s salute to the John Hughes oeuvre, are a sure bet to garner critical raves and audience cheers. Even minor Tanner, like the current revival of 2004’s Oklahomo! (not a spelling error), is guaranteed fun.
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NOISES OFF
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
As noted last week, A Noise Within’s current production of Shakespeare’s Richard III proves once again that nobody does the Bard better than “California’s Home For The Classics.” A Noise Within now proves itself equally adept at contemporary British farce in their concurrently running revival of Michael Frayn’s 1982’s Noises Off, the latest (and most recent) of the modern classics ANW intersperses amongst its productions of Shakespeare, Shaw, and The Greeks.
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HAMLET, SHUT UP
Friday, November 20th, 2009
For everyone who’s ever said, “Wouldn’t it be great if Shakespeare didn’t have all that Elizabethan English and iambic pentameter?”, Sacred Fools has concocted the perfect solution. Hamlet Shut Up is the world famous action/ghost/lust/revenge/murder-packed tale of the Prince Of Denmark unsullied by the spoken word—and what a brilliantly conceived and executed concoction it is!
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GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, L.A.’s decade-old Asian-American 99-seat theater company, is ending its tenth (and sadly final) season with Philip W. Chung’s romantic comedy Grace Kim & The Spiders From Mars. With charismatic lead performances by Elizabeth Ho as its Korean-American title character and Hanson Tse as the man who might just be able to rescue Grace from ten years of sadness, this World Premiere production is likely to please romcom fans regardless of ethnicity or country of origin. Though its more run-of-the-mill sitcom moments could benefit from a tweaking or two, as could a few over-the-top scenes, Chung’s play is filled with characters to care about, some inspired musical numbers, and a love story that grips from the moment Grace and Wayne first meet. If only the man of Grace’s dreams weren’t her sister’s fiancé.
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LA RONDE DE LUNCH
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Peter Lefcourt skewers Hollywood deal-making—brilliantly—in La Ronde De Lunch, the funniest show you’re likely to see this fall and one of the most terrifically performed comedies of this or any season.
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A BIG GAY NORTH HOLLYWOOD WEDDING
Friday, November 6th, 2009
Run, don’t walk, to see A Big Gay North Hollywood Wedding!
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SHERLOCK’S LAST CASE
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
The world’s most famous detective takes center stage in Charles Marowitz’s Sherlock’s Last Case, a delightful, clever cross between spoof and homage now playing at Hollywood’s Actors Co-op Theatre. Under Jeremy Lewit’s oh-so ingenious direction, this comic tribute to Baker Street’s sleuth extraordinaire is a winner from its imaginative opening to its deliciously satisfying finale.
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EXIT STRATEGY
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Life begins at seventy in Bill Semans and Roy Close’s Exit Strategy, now entertaining audiences eighteen to eighty at Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre.
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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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