SEA CHANGE
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
The year is 1974 and a quintet of Tufts University friends have gone whale watching off the coast of Provincetown. Virginal conservative gay guy Val and liberal lesbian Jan are arguing about politics, Val contending to Jan’s absolute horror that “you can’t blame Nixon for Kent State.” Blond Adonis Sunny is stoned as usual, and arguing with feisty lesbian Elle on whether it’s TLGC (Tufts Lesbian and Gay Community) or TGLC, alphabetical order making more sense to Sunny as a gay male. Completing the fivesome is Sunny’s devout Catholic boyfriend Gene.
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BE LIKE WATER
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
It’s not easy being 14, especially when you’re different from the other kids. That’s what Chinese-Japanese-American Tracy (Saya Tomioka) has discovered in her Uptown Chicago neighborhood in the year 1978. Unlike her popular classmate Tina (Ariel Rivera), an Asian teen Farrah Fawcett clone, Tracy would rather watch Bruce Lee movies than go to Nisei dances. Unlike her unfortunately named classmate Bruce Lee (Shawn Huang), Tracy would rather practice kung fu moves than dance the latest disco steps to “Disco Inferno” or “He’s The Greatest Dancer.”
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THE FRIENDLY HOUR
Friday, September 12th, 2008
Playwright Tom Jacobson finds greatness in the “small” lives of a group of South Dakota housewives in his newest play, The Friendly Hour, being given a splendid World Premiere Production at the always splendid The Road Theater.
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NO EXIT
Friday, September 12th, 2008
What a difference a director makes.
When I saw a production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit last April, I just didn’t get it. The bizarre costuming and makeup (the lead actor wore green glitter in his gelled jet black hair, dark glittery lipstick, heavy eye shadow, and rouge, and was attired in a waistcoat, dark green silk vest, tight black leggings and 8” platform boots) and robotic movements affected by the actors took me out of the story and not into the world they were striving to create.
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FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIRE DE LUNE
Thursday, September 4th, 2008
Frankie and Johnny were lovers and (as the song goes), “Oh Lordy, how they could love,” that is until she caught Johnny cheating on her “with that high-browed Nellie Bly” and shot him dead.
Fortunately, things are a good deal more hopeful for the lovers in Terrence McNally’s moving two-character, two-act dramedy, Frankie And Johnny In The Clair De Lune, now playing at International City Theatre in Long Beach. With the superb Libby West and Thomas Fiscella in the title roles and master director Todd Nielsen at the helm, ICT’s production proves to be one of their finest.
INHERIT THE WIND
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
Is there any play from the 1950s more relevant in 2008 than Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit The Wind? It’s been 83 years since Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes was put on trial for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in the classroom, yet only a half dozen years ago, a suburban Atlanta school board voted unanimously to allow teachers to introduce students to “different views about the origins of life”—a codeword for “creationism,” and John McCain’s choice to be Vice President of this country is a woman who says she is open to teaching “creationism” in public schools.
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THE PAVILION
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
As the strains of The Beatles “Across The Universe” fade, a young man appears on a bare black stage.
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SONA TERA ROMAN HESS
Sunday, August 17th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
“Some people never die, and I am one.”
These are the words that begin Sona Tera Roman Hess, described in press materials as “the story of a family struggling to reconstruct itself in the aftermath of a strange infidelity, set against the backdrop of impending war.”
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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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