THE BUSY WORLD IS HUSHED
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
Besides being one of the best and most intelligent new plays in quite a while, Keith Bunin’s The Busy World Is Hushed couldn’t come at a more appropriate time. Following a Yes On 8 victory which was fueled largely by so-called “devout Christians,” it is refreshing indeed to see a play which presents a gay-affirming branch of Christianity, and a lead character (and person of the cloth) who not only accepts that her son is gay but actively encourages his quest for Mr. Right.
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WEST SIDE STORY
Friday, November 28th, 2008
Musical Theatre Of Los Angeles follows its much lauded 99-seat production of the mammoth Ragtime with yet another challenge—staging the Jerome Robbins-Arthur Laurents-Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim classic West Side Story with a 32-member cast and a 10-piece orchestra on a stage perhaps ¼ the size of most large theaters’. The result is an intimate yet epic production which rates an A+ for ambitiousness and a solid B for execution, and one which confirms MTLA’s promise as a young and daring new musical theater company.
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SONG OF EXTINCTION
Friday, November 7th, 2008
•A middle-aged immigrant biology teacher relives the genocide in his native Cambodia in which 2,000,000 of his countrymen lost their lives…
•A 40ish biologist obsesses over the impending extinction of a rare species of Bolivian beetle…
•A 15-year-old viola prodigy must come to grips with his mother’s terminal illness…
These are the threads which EM Lewis weaves together in her exquisitely poetic and deeply moving new play Song Of Extinction.
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LEADING LADIES
Sunday, October 12th, 2008
Actors Co-op has found the perfect complement to the concurrently running drama of The Elephant Man—Ken Ludwig’s hilarious gender-bending Leading Ladies. What better way to put an end to the post-summer blues than by spending a couple hours with the oddest couple of men in drag since Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon put on lipstick and hose in Some Like It Hot? Unlike Tony and Jack, though, our two unlikely “heroines” are not on the run from the mob but rather in search of a few million dollars to be inherited if only they can convince a dying woman that they are her lone (and long lost) female relatives. Here’s how it goes:
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PORCELAIN
Friday, October 10th, 2008
BRUTAL TOILET-SEX MURDER IN BETHNAL GREEN!
British tabloids trumpet the news of a vicious murder in a public lavatory in East London. John Lee, a nineteen-year-old Londoner of Asian descent, is accused of cold-bloodedly shooting William Hope, his twenty-six-year old Caucasian lover, six times at close range. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
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EARTH SUCKS
Sunday, October 5th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
–How do you explain gravity?
–Earth sucks.
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JOE’S GARAGE
Saturday, September 27th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Like The Who’s Tommy, Frank Zappa’s 1979 rock opera Joe’s Garage began its life on vinyl. Both rock operas take their titular heroes on a life journey. But while Tommy moved rather quickly from concept album to movie to staged production in London’s West End, it is only now that Joe’s Garage, the cult LP, is getting its first stage adaptation by L.A.’s Open Fist Theatre Company.
RAGTIME
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
Musical Theatre Of Los Angeles’ sensational revival of Ragtime The Musical is the kind of production they say “can’t be done,” and yet, miracle of miracles, they’ve done it. One of the most truly epic shows ever to have filled a Broadway stage, the original production featured a cast of 50. MTLA’s production scales that down somewhat (the program lists 37 performers) but even so, merely to fit those three dozen actors on the Hudson Backstage Theatre’s stage (plus a 10-piece orchestra and conductor) seems nigh on impossible, let alone have them move, interact, even dance. But they’ve done it. Yes, indeed, they’ve done it!
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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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