THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
You haven’t seen Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors till you’ve seen it “Burlesque On Brand” style, courtesy of director extraordinaire Michael Michetti at A Noise Within.
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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
As I sat last night watching the lives of Atticus, Scout, Jem, and the rest of the characters created by Harper Lee in To Kill A Mockingbird, I couldn’t help looking at the audience around me, mostly seniors, their ages hovering around 76, give or take a few years, and think of the changes that have taken place in our society since 1935, the year Lee’s novel-turned-play takes place, the year in which many of those audience members first saw the light of day.
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ONE TOUCH OF VENUS
Monday, February 7th, 2011
Sparkling performances and Richard Israel’s deft direction make One Touch Of Venus, Musical Theatre Guild’s latest revival, a delightful 1940s bonbon.
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FOREVER PLAID
Sunday, January 16th, 2011
The Plaids of Forever Plaid are back, entertaining Glendale Centre Theatre audiences with their close-harmony vocals and amusing between-song patter in a 90-minute revue that couldn’t be a better choice for the retired seniors who make up the bulk of GCT audiences—and should prove entertaining to the under-65 set as well.
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SMUDGE
Saturday, January 15th, 2011RECOMMENDED
How to review a show whose point you missed entirely? That’s the dilemma currently faced by this reviewer in writing about Rachel Axler’s Smudge, the latest offering by Burbank’s esteemed Syzygy Theatre Group.
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THE FIRST JO-EL
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010
Here’s a bit of Biblical trivia for you. According to the Gospel According To The Troubies, there were not one but two pregnant women at the Bethlehem Inn on December 25th of the year 0. Joseph and Mary were there, of course, but unbeknownst until now, an unmarried couple named Manolo and Letty were about to give birth as well—or at least so we’re told in this year’s Troubadour Theatre Company holiday show, The First Jo-el.
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GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
Over the past two decades, Glendale’s A Noise Within has tended to offer three kinds of plays, one each per Fall or Spring season. There’s something by Shakespeare, something by Ibsen, Moliere, Shaw, or an ancient Greek or Roman, and something more contemporary, say a play by Odets, Anouilh, Williams, Miller, or O’Neil. Now, with Neil Bartlett’s 2007 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1861 novel Great Expectations, California’s Home For The Classics gets the chance to merge the classical and the modern for an evening of classical contemporary (or contemporary classical) theater at its finest.
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HELLO AGAIN
Monday, November 8th, 2010
Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello Again has inspired Musical Theatre Guild’s very best production since 2009’s two-in-a-row stagings of Kiss Of The Spider Woman and Violet. Under Michele Spears’ inspired direction and starring ten of the country’s finest musical theater talents, this seductive chamber musical, based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1897 classic La Ronde, proved again that when MTG members and guest artists have the right material, their “concert staged readings” can the equal the very best fully staged productions in town.
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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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