OUR LEADING LADY
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Comedienne extraordinaire Carol Burnett once said, “Comedy is tragedy plus time,” an adage which playwright Charles Busch proves spot-on in his hilarious backstage farce Our Leading Lady, now playing at The Neighborhood Playhouse in Palos Verdes Estates. The tragedy is the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Washington D.C.’s Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, only days after Lee surrendered at Appomattox. In imagining the backstage shenanigans taking place in the hours leading up to that fateful performance of Our American Cousin, starring real-life actress-manager Laura Keene, Busch has written an outrageously funny play which finds comedy out of national tragedy—and serves as an affectionate love letter to the theater as well.
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IXNAY
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009RECOMMENDED
Following his death in a car crash, third-generation Japanese-American Raymond Kobayashi finds himself at heaven’s Reincarnation Station where he is given special permission to begin a new life immediately—on one condition. He must go back as a Japanese-American. Though the word Ixnay is never uttered in Paul Kikuchi’s new comedy-fantasy, a resounding “No way!” is Raymond’s response to this proposition. He’s had enough of his just-ended life as a sansei and the thought of being Japanese-American a second time is one he wants to put an emphatic “nix” on.
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NOISES OFF
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Nobody loves farce more than the British, whether it’s plays like No Sex Please, We’re British, or Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw, or Alan Ayckbourn’s Taking Steps, or any of Ray Cooney’s frantically-paced comic gems (Move Over Mrs. Markham, Run For Your Wife, etc.) These British farces are so popular that they not only get major professional productions throughout the world, they have also become a staple of community theaters, where unfortunately they don’t always get the caliber of actors required. Only performers with a) total command of their lines, b) perfect coming timing, and c) absolute readiness to enter and exit on cue can do these comedies justice.
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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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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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