THE GRADUATE
Friday, February 13th, 2009
Say the words The Graduate and the first thing likely popping into your head will be the voices of Simon and Garfunkel singing “Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson” or perhaps “The Sounds Of Silence.” Then there’s the famous movie poster of a very young Dustin Hoffman gazing at Anne Bancroft’s stockinged leg filling the foreground. And who can forget Hoffman’s semi-incredulous, “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me,” one of the American Film Institute’s 100 most famous movie lines … ever.
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SURVIVING SEX
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009RECOMMENDED
David Landsberg’s Surviving Sex is a frequently funny (albeit almost totally implausible) look at men’s and women’s relationships seen through the eyes of the nebbish-next-door, aka Stan.
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LOST IN YONKERS
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
If anyone is wondering why Neil Simon’s Lost In Yonkers won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, head over to the La Mirada Performing Center For The Arts. The McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of this Simon favorite is a textbook example of how to make an 18-year-old comedy seem as fresh as if it were only now getting its world premiere.
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JESUS HATES ME
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
Life in small town South Central Texas is anything but dull in Jesus Hates Me, Wayne Lemon’s quirky dark comedy getting its West Coast Premiere in a beautifully acted and directed (by Oanh Nguyen) production at Anaheim Hill’s Chance Theater.
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CANDIDA
Saturday, February 7th, 2009RECOMMENDED
Candida, George Bernard Shaw’s romantic comedy classic, has just opened at the Colony Theatre, and it’s hard to imagine a better production than the one directed by Kathleen F. Conlin.
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TAKING STEPS
Friday, February 6th, 2009RECOMMENDED
With over seventy plays under his belt, Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most prolific (and successful) playwrights ever. He’s also one of the funniest and most original. It’s said that each of his plays has a gimmick. The Norman Conquests trilogy are three separate plays, each with the same set of characters, each taking place on the same weekend, each in a different part of a English country home. Amazingly, each play tells a complete story and can be seen in any order without the need to see either of the others. How The Other Half Loves superimposes two neighboring houses on the same set, so that characters standing within touching distance are often in two completely different locations. Taking Steps, currently at the Odyssey Theater, has a somewhat similar conceit. It places all three stories of a London home (“The Pines”) at the same stage level with a pair of staircases (one of them spiral) on which actors “ascend” or “descend” without ever moving up or down even an inch. With characters slamming doors and barely missing running into each other, this British farce is amusing indeed.
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SQUABBLES
Friday, January 30th, 2009
Theatergoers in search of laughter with a dollop of romance added for good measure need look no farther than Squabbles, currently lighting up the stage at the Palos Verdes-adjacent Norris Center For The Performing Arts.
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LIGHT UP THE SKY
Monday, January 26th, 2009
Moss Hart affectionately skewers the world of the theater in his 1948 comedy Light Up The Sky, now being given a pitch-perfect revival by Open Fist Theatre under the crackerjack direction of Bjørn Johnson.
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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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