I LOVE YOU BECAUSE
Saturday, July 23rd, 2016
A sparkling book, a dozen or so delightfully quirky characters, and above all one of the catchiest (and often most gorgeous) scores in recent years add up to Joshua Salzman and Ryan Cunningham’s unabashedly romantic I Love You Because, at long last getting the Los Angeles staging I’ve been wishing and hoping for since first falling in love with the musical’s original cast recording nearly ten years ago—and what a terrific production ILYB has been given at Hollywood’s Hudson Theatre.
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FOOL FOR LOVE
Friday, July 8th, 2016
I may never go gaga for Fool For Love, but if ever a production could make me a believer in Sam Shepard’s overheated take on Greek tragedy in today’s Wild Wild West, it’s the one now playing at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre thanks to some refreshingly subtle directorial touches and a quartet of superb performances, chief among them star turns by Burt Grinstead and Charlotte Gulezian.
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SMOKE
Monday, July 4th, 2016
Fearless only begins to describe Patrick Stafford and Emily James’ stunning performances in Kim Davies’ walk-on-the-wild-side two-hander Smoke, now running in raw, risk-taking Rogue Machine rep with the similarly single-word-titled Honky and Bull.
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BULL
Monday, July 4th, 2016
Youtube videos would like bullied teens to believe “It Gets Better” once high school days are over and done. Not so in the dog-devour-dog business world of Mike Bartlett’s Bull, where it’s one pitiful runt going head to head against a pair of vicious pit bulls. Sorry, make that one pit bull and one pit bitch. Now running in rep with Rogue Machine’s Honky and Smoke, Bull makes for one devastatingly funny, mercilessly soul-shattering fifty-five minute ride.
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BAD JEWS
Friday, July 1st, 2016
Cousins clash over religion, their heritage, and a precious family heirloom in Joshua Harmon’s equal parts side-splitting, button-pushing, discussion-provoking Bad Jews, back in L.A. as a mostly quite successful guest production at Hollywood’s Theatre Of NOTE.
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GOLDEN BOY
Monday, June 20th, 2016
They don’t write plays like Golden Boy anymore, which is just one reason to check out the Stella Adler Lab Theatre Company’s revival of the 1937 Clifford Odets classic. Another is Mattia Bartoli’s electric star turn as violinist turned pugilist Joe Bonaparte.
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I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU – The Life And Lyrics Of Al Dubin
Thursday, May 26th, 2016
An Oscar-winning lyricist finally gets the star treatment he’s been heretofore denied in the thoroughly entertaining I Only Have Eyes For You – The Life And Lyrics Of Al Dubin, a big-stage/big-budget musical treat whose big challenge will be to convince anyone too young to know the difference between Carmen and Lin-Manuel Miranda to take a chance on a musical that may be arriving about fifty years too late to be a Broadway smash.
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HONKY
Tuesday, May 24th, 2016
If laughter is indeed the best medicine for what ails us, then anyone afflicted with racism would do well to check out the latest from Rogue Machine, Greg Kalleres’s foul-mouthed and fabulous satirical comedy Honky. (And if you think the R-word doesn’t apply to you, then you clearly haven’t heard Avenue Q’s “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist.”)
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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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