SQUABBLES
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
Every so often one comes across a little-known play that turns out to be a true theatrical gem. Squabbles, by Marshall Karp, is one such comedic treat, and Los Angeles audiences can find out exactly why in a terrific new production now playing at Glendale Centre Theatre.
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THE PSYCHIC
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Sam Bobrick’s The Psychic, at The Falcon Theatre, is a devilishly clever comedy/mystery with a hilarious first act and an even better second one that takes on an added layer of brilliance half-way through.
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AWAKE AND SING!
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
If all you knew about New York in the 1930s came from Hollywood movies, you’d think that the city was populated entirely with zany heiresses and egomaniacal divas whose broken legs allowed their talented understudies to go on and become overnight Broadway stars. That’s why Clifford Odet’s Depression-era drama Awake And Sing!, now being revived in an absolutely splendid production at Glendale’s A Noise Within, comes as such an eye-opening surprise. There’s not an heiress, diva, or talented understudy in sight.
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
There’s Shakespeare, and then there’s Shakespeare at A Noise Within. No In The Park, Under The Stars, or 99-Seat Plan Shakespeare guarantees the consistent excellence that A Noise Within’s team of world-class actors, directors, and designers deliver, time after time after time. Their current mounting of Much Ado About Nothing is no exception.
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KISS ME KATE
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
Compared to the 510 years that Petruchio has been telling Katherina to “Kiss me, Kate” in William Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew, the mere 62 that he’s been doing the same thing in Cole Porter’s Tony Award-winning Kiss Me Kate seem like no time at all, especially in as fresh and fun a production as the one currently on stage at Glendale Centre Theatre.
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HIGH SPIRITS
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
For a musical based on the oft-revived Noël Coward comedy Blithe Spirit—and one that got eight Tony Award nominations to boot—you’d think that 1964’s High Spirits would have ended up a perennial CLO favorite. Somehow it didn’t, thereby making it ideal for one of Musical Theatre Guild’s concert staged readings of lesser known Broadway hits and misses. High Spirits’ one-performance-only production on Monday proved not only the rightness of the choice, but also that this is a show which deserves considerably more recognition than has been the case. With absolutely stellar work by its four leads and its superb direction by the multi-talented Richard Israel, MTG’s High Sprits had its audience in high, high spirits indeed.
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CELADINE
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
The titular leading lady of Charles Evered’s Celadine runs a London coffee house, writes plays, occasionally does a bit of spying, and still looks fabulous well into her forties. Assisting her at the coffee house are Mary, a former hooker, and Jeffrey, a young hunk with a penchant for cross-dressing and for crawling under his boss’s skirt. Completing Celadine’s entourage in the play’s West Coast premiere at the Colony Theatre are Elliot and Rowley, the former a handsome young actor, the latter an ex-lover. If Celadine’s young daughter Marie were still alive, the lady would seem to have it made—the very picture of a modern 21st Century woman, right?
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SOUVENIR
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
While it may be true that “America’s Got Talent,” a glance at YouTube clips of failed American Idol auditioners proves that the seriously delusional are alive and well and attempting in vain to sing on-key in these United States. Some have even gone on to make records. Hong Kong immigrant William Hung titled his first CD “Inspiration,” though it’s doubtful that the final result was divine. Back in the 1960s, Pomona housewife Mrs. Elva Miller (known affectionately as “Mrs. Miller”) blithely and cluelessly massacred such 1960s hits as “Downtown” and “A Lover’s Concerto” in her vibrato-heavy, wobbly, off-key mezzo.
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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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