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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TINTYPES
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
On Broadway, Tintypes received three Tony nominations including Best Musical
of 1981, but it ran only 93 performances. Had Marsha Moode directed it, it
might very well have run 993 performances and won all those Tonys. That’s
how sensational Moode’s Tintypes “revisal,” the current production of the
Downey Civic Light opera, is. Moode, following numerous accomplishments as
DCLO’s director extraordinare, now has her biggest artistic success so far.
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DRIVING MISS DAISY
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy is perhaps best known from the 1989 film
adaptation which starred Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, and which
won Miss Tandy the Oscar at the age of 80. However “Miss Daisy” made her
first appearance in a tiny off-Broadway theater in 1987, with Dana Ivey and
Freeman creating the roles of Miss Daisy and her chauffeur Hoke. That Uhry’s
tale of an elderly Southern Jewish widow and the African American driver
foisted upon her by her adult son could work equally well on the big screen
and on a small stage is testimony to its power. Now, McCoy Rigby
Entertainment’s revival at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts
proves that Driving Miss Daisy is equally successful performed on a Broadway-
sized stage, especially in the hands of TV icon Michael Learned and her 3-time
Miss Daisy costar Lance C. Nichols, under the assured direction of Brian Kite.
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SYLVIA
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
Olympic gymnast. Broadway musical theater star. Dog. A strange trajectory to
be sure, but that’s the path which has brought Cathy Rigby to her starring role
in Sylvia, A.R. Gurney’s comic tribute to “Man’s Best Friend.” Rigby plays the title
role, that of an adorable mutt who finds herself a new master in a Manhattan
park and a new home in a New York city brownstone. Given Rigby’s marvelously
winning performance, it comes as somewhat of a surprise that this is her first
straight play. Hopefully it will lead to many more.
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OKLAHOMA!
Sunday, October 14th, 2007
Of all the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical theater classics, their first and oldest collaboration, Oklahoma!, remains their most contemporary. To modem eyes, Carousel’s hero Billy Bigalow may be seen as an abusive husband. South Pacific’s Nellie is so shocked that Emile had married a (heaven forbid!) Polynesian woman and had children with her that she breaks off their relationship. And The King and I’s King (of Siam no less) needs to be “modernized” by a British schoolteacher. There is, however, nothing dated about either Oklahoma!’s characters or its story. Also, unlike the ever-popular Sound of Music, Oklahoma! has its dark side, not only in the character of Jud Frye, but also in Laurey’s conflicted and repressed longings. That’s not to say that the other R&H musicals are anything less than classics. It just that Oklahoma! better than any others has stood the test of time.
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TOO OLD FOR THE CHORUS
Saturday, September 29th, 2007
Something awful happens in America when you turn 50. You get a letter from
AARP which, according to the five Baby Boomer stars of Too Old for the Chorus,
notifies you that you are “officially old.” You see John Travolta on the cover of
AARP Magazine and think in shock, “When I was 23, he was the same age as
me!” This is the dilemma in which “Shirley,” “Glenn,” “Bobby,” “Faith,” and
“James” find themselves in TOFTC, the tuneful musical revue currently playing at
the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts.
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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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