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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FELLOWSHIP! A MUSICAL PARODY OF “THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING”
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Fellowship! is back in town, and it’s not just Lord Of The Rings fans who have reason to celebrate.
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THE SOMETHING-NOTHING
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
Fielding Edlow’s The Something-Nothing is a hilarious, biting, highly original look at a 20something love triangle in pre-9/11 New York City.
OKLAHOMA!
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
As the overture reaches its climax, lights come up on a middle-aged woman sitting alone on stage working a butter churn. Behind the woman is a farmhouse and fields of corn as high as an elephant’s eye, and her full-length country dress tells us we are in the early 1900s. From offstage comes a male voice singing a cappella, “There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow…” The voice grows louder until the man enters, wearing a cowboy hat and chaps. “Oh what a beautiful morning… Oh what a beautiful day,” serenades the man to the farm woman, who continues her churning.
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THE REHEARSAL
Sunday, May 10th, 2009RECOMMENDED
The French, They Are A Funny Race, or so goes the title of a 1955 Preston Sturges comedy. Not having seen that film, I’m not quite sure which “funny” its title refers to—“funny-amusing” or “funny-peculiar.” In Jean Anouilh’s The Rehearsal, it’s quite clearly a good deal of both.
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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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