SHANGHAI MOON
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Those who adhere to strict standards of political correctness should not, I repeat NOT see Shanghai Moon, Charles Busch’s spoof of the “Oriental” melodramas of Hollywood’s Golden Era. All others will have a devilishly good time reliving the forbidden passions of such “classics” as Lady From Chungking, Daughter Of Shanghai, King Of Chinatown, Shanghai Express, and Daughter Of The Dragon, all of them starring the immortal Anna May Wong. After all, as the program cover states, “There is enchantment when East meets West under the Shanghai Moon.”
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O JERUSALEM
Friday, November 14th, 2008
What if several months before the events of 9/11, an important U.S. government official had learned of a planned terrorist attack—by air, on an Eastern city, in September? Could the attacks on the World Trade Center have been prevented had this official spoken to the right higher-ups? This hypothetical (or is it?) situation is the basis of O Jerusalem, by A.R. Gurney, now getting a first-rate Los Angeles premiere by The Production Company.
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SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Prim and proper uptight elderly Southern belle meets free-spirited foul-mouthed gay jokester for Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks in Richard Alfieri’s touching Broadway comedy, now getting a spiffy revival at Burbank’s Falcon Theatre.
U.S. DRAG
Thursday, October 30th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Romy and Michelle are alive and well and living on the stage of the Furious Theatre in Pasadena. Well, if not exactly Romy and Michelle of High School Reunion fame, at least their kissing cousins.
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THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
Advice columnist Ann Landers had for decades been famous as “the lady with all the answers” when, on a night in 1975, she sat down to write the most difficult column in her career. “The lady with all the answers doesn’t have an answer to this one,” wrote Ann … in the column which announced to her readers the end of her 36-year marriage.
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LOVE’S OLD SWEET SONG
Friday, October 24th, 2008
The Syzygy Theatre Group joins in the International Centennial Celebration of William Saroyan with an captivating production of one of the Armenian-American writer’s lesser known works, 1940’s Love’s Old Sweet Song. Like Saroyan’s The Human Comedy, Love’s Old Sweet song is both sentimental and idealistic, and all the more wonderful for being so. Like the screwball comedies of Preston Sturges and Howard Hawks, it involves mistaken identities, culture clashes between haves and have-nots, some fast-talking, witty repartee, and ridiculous, farcical situations. It is this blend of the screwball and the sentimental that makes Love’s Old Sweet Song such a magical piece of theater.
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THE RAINMAKER
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
There aren’t many plays from the 1950s that hold up as well as L. Richard Nash’s 1954 folksy romance The Rainmaker. Not only does The Rainmaker not seem dated, it’s as funny and heartwarming as any play being premiered today, and despite its 1950s Midwest setting, it might as well be taking place somewhere in middle America circa 2008. As the second production of A Noise Within’s “Season Of Awakenings,” The Rainmaker is sure to charm audiences of all ages.
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BLITHE SPIRIT
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
As long as there’s been theater, there have surely been comedies about ghosts come back to haunt the people on stage and amuse those in the audience who are watching their shenanigans. Movies like the 1937’s Topper, which spawned not one but two TV series (and is scheduled for a 2010 Steve Martin remake) have continued the tradition on the big and small screen. When there’s only one character who can see the ghost(s) in question and the people around him/her suddenly find our hero(ine) talking to the air and see objects floating around the room, hilarity is sure to ensue.
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