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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THAT PERFECT MOMENT
Friday, January 1st, 2010
It was 1969, aka the Summer Of Love, and an aspiring San Fernando Valley rock band was about to get its first big break as opening act for The Buckinghams, whose “Kind Of A Drag” had hit #1 two years before. Ultimately, however, fame escaped The Weeds, and even now, twenty-five years later, that one summer remains the high point in the lives of its four members. True, all four 50something friends have gone on to varying degrees of career success, but as the years have passed, that summer a quarter century ago has acquired a golden glow for “the greatest rock band that nobody’s ever heard of.” It was a summer filled with “cheap dope and easy women,” a time when the four friends gave themselves “permission to dream.” If only they could go back in time, or somehow bring back that perfect moment in each of their lives.
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SEE HOW THEY RUN
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
What would regional and community theaters do without British farce? It’s hard indeed to imagine a theater season without a Ray Cooney comedy like Run For Your Wife, a Joe Orton confection, Michael Frayne’s Noises Off, or a laugh-getter by the almost impossibly prolific Alan Ayckbourn. The granddaddy of all contemporary British farces may well be Philip King’s 1945 gem See How They Run, and those wanting to experience British humor at its funniest are hereby advised to catch the King classic’s spiffy new production at Glendale Centre Theatre.
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Monday, December 21st, 2009
After 45 years of staging Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol around holiday time, the folks at Glendale Centre Theatre have learned how to do Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, and Tiny Tim right. Brenda Dietlein’s adaptation, with original music and lyrics by Steven Applegate and Byron Simpson, is bright, funny, tuneful, faithful to the original, and never dull or stodgy.
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FROSTY THE SNOW MANILOW
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
The Troubies’ formula has rarely worked better than it does in Frosty The Snow Manilow, their 2009 holiday offering and one of their best shows ever.
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NOISES OFF
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
As noted last week, A Noise Within’s current production of Shakespeare’s Richard III proves once again that nobody does the Bard better than “California’s Home For The Classics.” A Noise Within now proves itself equally adept at contemporary British farce in their concurrently running revival of Michael Frayn’s 1982’s Noises Off, the latest (and most recent) of the modern classics ANW intersperses amongst its productions of Shakespeare, Shaw, and The Greeks.
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THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD III
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
No L.A.-area theater company does Shakespeare better than Glendale’s A Noise Within. Fans of the Bard need only check out their latest production, The Tragedy Of King Richard III, for proof positive that ANW is indeed “California’s Home For The Classics.” From its stellar cast of classically trained pros to its masterful direction by Geoff Elliott to its absolutely stunning design, this is a Richard III that’s beautifully acted, brilliantly conceived, and as exciting as any classic Hollywood adventure epic.
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