GREATER TUNA
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008RECOMMENDED
The residents of Tuna, Texas are alive and well and currently sojourning at
Metropolitan Community Church of the Valley in North Hollywood. Since MCC
of the Valley happens to have a largely gay and lesbian congregation, this
might come as a shock to some of the Tuna folks, as their hometown is not the
most forward-thinking spot in the nation. Not by a long shot.
(read more)
A GOOD SMOKE
Friday, February 22nd, 2008RECOMMENDED
Don Cummings’ darkly funny A Good Smoke could just as easily be titled Life
With The Mother From Hell, but that might just be the teensiest bit off-putting.
After all, how many of us would choose to spend an hour and a half with one
of the most unrelentingly angry women ever put on a stage? But rest assured,
on opening night the Chandler Theatre was filled with uproarious laughter,
and I was among those who laughed the loudest. Black as the comedy in as
A Good Smoke is, this is a very funny comedy indeed.
(read more)
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
South Coast Rep’s revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest is
a production full of color, imagination, and panache. (Note: For those in need
of a summary of the oft performed comedy of manners, click here for a
Wikipedia synopsis.) Director Warner Shook’s original vision for Earnest is evident
from the moment the audience first sets sight on Michael Olich’s gorgeous non-
literal set design. The Segerstrom Stage is ablaze with rich blue-greens and
reds, colorful Persian rugs, a handsomely brocaded divan and armchair, and a
leopard rug center stage, head intact, and not a wall in sight. Nephelie
Andoyadis’s costumes are the epitome of elegance, and match the set’s color
scheme, which by the way changes for each of the play’s three acts.
(read more)
STUPID KIDS
Friday, February 15th, 2008
Gay teens are once again center stage at the Celebration Theatre in John C.
Russell’s comedy Stupid Kids. Michael Matthews, nominated for the Ovation
Award for his direction of the Celebration’s previous teen play Beautiful Thing,
once again proves himself a director extraordinaire in this energetic, dance
and music filled, laugh out loud funny yet poignant exploration of
contemporary American teendom.
(read more)
VOICES FROM OKINAWA
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008RECOMMENDED
East West Players follows its superb productions of Julia Cho’s Durango and
Jeanne Sakata’s Dawn’s Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi with Jon
Shirata’s Voices From Okinawa.
(read more)
CARNAGE, A COMEDY
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
The Actors’ Gang webpage describes their revival of Adam Simon and Tim
Robbins’ Carnage, A Comedy as a “raucous satire about televangelism and
the state of religion in America,” yet when the original production of Carnage
went to New York in 1989, Frank Rich of the New York Times wrote, “There may
have been a more amateurish work than ”Carnage” on a professional stage in
New York this year, but somehow the gods spared me from seeing it.”
(read more)
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
Thursday, January 31st, 2008<
“Doctor, help me! I keep seeing naked men!”
“From now on, we shall never have sex except in a linen cupboard.”
(Two of my favorite lines from What The Butler Saw.)
(read more)
PUTTIN’ ON THE FRITZ
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
Puttin’ On The Fritz, now playing off-nights at Sacred Fools, is a pair of new one-
acts which premiered at the Fritz Blitz of New Plays at San Diego’s Fritz Theater.
(read more)
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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