TUNA DOES VEGAS
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009RECOMMENDED
Joe Sears and Jaston Williams are back with the fourth installment of what till now has been the Tuna Trilogy. Since the folks in Tuna, Texas have already seen and done just about everything they can in the third-smallest town in the Lone Star State, Tuna Does Vegas sends a dozen or so of them off to Sin City. Though the fish-out-of-water concept doesn’t play out quite as well or as hilariously as one might have wished, there are still plenty of laughs and, as always, the pleasure of watching two very talented actors embody close to a dozen characters each, all the while making almost inhumanly quick costume changes just out of our line of sight.
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DAMES AT SEA
Friday, February 20th, 2009
It’s the 1930s and the height of the Great Depression. A pretty young would-be hoofer (that’s hoofer, not hooker!) arrives in New York City with dreams of starring on the Great White Way. When a temperamental Broadway diva becomes indisposed, our sweet young thing is the only chorus girl able to take on the star’s leading role at a moment’s notice. Recognize the plot? It’s 42nd Street, right?
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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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HAPPY DAYS
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
A StageSceneLA prediction: Happy Days The Musical is going to be a sold-out hit at La Mirada Theatre and a surefire smash on its soon-to-begin national tour. Thanks to major rewrites, a bunch of new songs, Michele Lynch’s rockin’-&-rollin’ choreography, and the firecracker direction of Gordon Greenberg, the 2006 Falcon Theatre world premiere musical has gone from so-so to wow-wow!
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SOUTH PACIFIC
Friday, October 3rd, 2008RECOMMENDED
It’s been nearly 50 years since the last of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musicals debuted on Broadway, yet the team’s work remains as popular as ever. Carousel (1945) and The Sound Of Music (1959) continue to be CLO staples, as does The King And I (on Broadway in 1951, 1960, 1977, 1985, and 1996, and soon to open in Thousand Oaks). Last season Downey Civic Light Opera revived the team’s first joint effort, Oklahoma (1943), in an absolutely terrific production (and two more local CLO’s have Oklahoma scheduled over the coming year). And the current Broadway revival of R&H’s 1949 smash South Pacific recently won seven Tonys.
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THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
It’s mid-December 1939 and all Atlanta is atwitter with excitement over the tonight’s gala premiere of Gone With The Wind. Christmas trees are being decorated all across the city including at the home of Adolph Freitag. What, you ask? Freitag doesn’t sound like a Christian name. You’re absolutely right. “Take down that star!” Beulah “Boo” Levy orders her daughter Lala. “Jewish Christmas trees don’t have stars!”
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A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM
Friday, May 30th, 2008
“Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everybody: Comedy tonight!”
Those who associate the name of Stephen Sondheim with something sophisticated, something subtle, something dour even (as in Passion) may not recognize the master of complex, reputedly un-hummable melodies and adult angst in Sondheim’s very first show as lyricist AND composer.
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I DO! I DO!
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
If ever there was a musical which relies on its stars and director to work, it’s I Do! I Do! Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt’s adaptation of Jan de Hartog’s two-character The Fourposter follows 50 years of Michael and Agnes’ marriage, from their wedding day and night in 1898 to the day they vacate their family home in 1948. Without the right team behind it, the show can be a bit of a bore, as a 99-seat production of it proved a few years back. But with a stellar trio like Broadway leading players Brad Little and Barbara McCulloh and multiple Emmy nominated director Will Mackenzie at the helm, I Do! I Do! can sparkle like the diamond in Agnes’ wedding ring, and sparkle this new production at the La Mirada Theatre most definitely does.
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