BETTER ANGELS
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
An elderly man enters from the back of the theater, climbs slowly onto the stage, and apologizes for his late arrival. Pointing to a star-spangled banner framed upstage center, he declares, “A beautiful flag, is it not?,” adding, “Forty-five stars.” (Program notes give the year as 1909.) This elderly man, John Hay, informs us that he is going to tell us a story … about “a man, a lady, and a man whose secretary I was. The lady will be new to you, but the man will be as familiar to you as the penny in your pocket.”
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STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF
Monday, September 14th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
Musical Theatre Guild takes rarely performed Broadway gems, casts them with L.A.’s finest musical theater triple-threats, rehearses them in a mere twenty-five hours, and performs them once or twice—almost fully staged though book-in-hand. The resulting “concert staged readings” have ended up being some of the most exciting shows I’ve reviewed over the past two years, most notably last year’s Kiss Of A Spider Woman and Violet, the latter of which featured Shannon Warne’s (one-night-only) Musical Theater Performance Of The Year. Even “problematic” shows like Seesaw have been worth a look-see, thanks to MTG’s superb casts, directors, choreographers, and musicians.
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LUCKY STIFF
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Glendale Centre Theatre follows its sensational staging of Footloose The Musical with Lucky Stiff, an absolutely delightful, albeit smaller scale musical treat, and the first collaboration of Ragtime’s Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Though it is based on Michael Butterworth’s novel The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo, movie fans will most likely be reminded of Weekend At Bernie’s. You remember Bernie, the corpse that Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman had to convince everyone was hale and hearty and having the time of his life? Well, the “stiff” in Lucky Stiff is murder victim Anthony Hendon, who has left a $6,000,000 fortune to his British nephew Harry Witherspoon on one condition: Harry must take Uncle Anthony’s corpse on one last vacation to Monte Carlo.
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OEDIPUS THE KING. MAMA
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
The Troubadour Theater Company is back with Oedipus The King, Mama, one of their funniest shows ever and of those I’ve seen the best danced bar none.
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CLOSER THAN EVER
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Ten talented Asian-American performers sing about “life, love, and all the doors in between” in Lodestone Theatre Ensemble’s next-to-very-last production, an ingeniously-staged, brightly-performed revival of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire’s musical revue Closer Than Ever.
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FOOTLOOSE
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Ever hear of Bomont, the town where it’s illegal to dance? Well, if you’re a movie buff, you certainly have. That’s the town where Kevin Bacon and his mom moved in 1984’s Footloose, much to Kevin’s dismay. The movie introduced a heap of 80s hits, including the title song, “Let’s Hear It For the Boy,” “Almost Paradise,” “Holding Out For A Hero,” “I’m Free,” “Somebody’s Eyes,” and “The Girl Gets Around.” Fourteen years later Footloose made it to Broadway, as a full-fledged musical this time, with most of the movie hits integrated into its story line and a bunch of new Tom Snow creations added. The resulting production ran for over 700 performances, and though it’s reputed to be a favorite high school musical, I can’t recall a major L.A. production.
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2 PIANOS, 4 HANDS
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
If ever a show can be called “unique,” it’s the truly one-of-a-kind comedy with music 2 Pianos 4 Hands, now playing at the Colony Theatre.
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VIOLET
Monday, June 15th, 2009
For about a thousand Los Angeles musical theater aficionados, June 15, 2009 will be remembered as the evening Shannon Warne played Violet. As a young woman whose emotional scars run as deep as the facial scar she longs for a miracle to erase, Warne gave one of the most dazzling performances by a lead actress in a musical I have seen in the past several years. That this performance was achieved in a “concert staged reading” allowed a mere twenty-five hours rehearsal time by Actors’ Equity, and that the entire undertaking was every bit as memorable as its leading lady is nothing short of amazing. How lucky to have been at the Alex on June 15!
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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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