MY FAIR LADY
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
When My Fair Lady opened on Broadway in 1956, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times called it “one of the best musicals of the century,” quite a proclamation for a century that still had 44 years left to go. Still, looking back these 53 years later, it’s clear as crystal that even if My Fair Lady had opened in 1999, Atkinson’s rather bold statement would have been as spot-on as it was mid-century. In fact, as Downey Civic Light Opera 2009-2010 season-opening revival of the musical theater classic proves, there may indeed be no better 20th Century musical than My Fair Lady.
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RING OF FIRE
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
Johnny Cash fans will be in country music heaven through June 21 as La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment present Ring Of Fire: The Music Of Johnny Cash. Correction: make that music fans, pure and simple. Singer-songwriter-icon Johnny Cash transcended easy classification, blending rock and roll, rockabilly, folk, and gospel, making this production an L.A. musical event of the first order.
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42nd STREET
Friday, May 29th, 2009RECOMMENDED
It’s always a pleasure to see a Downey Civic Light Opera production. I don’t know of another L.A. area CLO with Downey’s hometown feel. Downey residents have come to know DCLO’s resident cast of musical theater stars including Bill Lewis, Charlotte Carpenter, Ed Krieger, Ann Peck McBride, and Glenn Edward, all of whom have done show after show under the direction of Marsha Moode, DCLO’s Executive Producer extraordinaire. Downey CLO concludes its 2008-2009 season with the ever popular 42nd Street, which just happens to star all of the above regulars under Moode’s as always inventive direction.
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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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