INHERIT THE WIND
Saturday, August 30th, 2008
Is there any play from the 1950s more relevant in 2008 than Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit The Wind? It’s been 83 years since Tennessee schoolteacher John Scopes was put on trial for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in the classroom, yet only a half dozen years ago, a suburban Atlanta school board voted unanimously to allow teachers to introduce students to “different views about the origins of life”—a codeword for “creationism,” and John McCain’s choice to be Vice President of this country is a woman who says she is open to teaching “creationism” in public schools.
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SISSYSTRATA
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
The Celebration Theatre concludes its 25th season with a sensational Sissystrata, a visually dazzling, outrageously funny adaptation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata a la West Hollywood.
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THE NEXT BIG THING
Saturday, July 19th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Anyone craving an evening of 80s nostalgia will find much to enjoy in The Next Big Thing, a new musical just opened at the art/Works Theatre. Like Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Can’t Buy Me Love, The Next Big Thing features a cast of energetic, attractive teens (or more precisely 20somethings passing as teens) with dreams to fulfill, and adults who occasionally get in their way.
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THE WHO’S TOMMY
Friday, June 20th, 2008
The much awaited revival of The Who’s Tommy has finally arrived in a spectacular production featuring a sensational cast and the best sound ever in L.A. theater.
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ASSASSINS
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
West Coast Ensemble continues its tradition of presenting some of Los Angeles’ finest intimate theater musicals (Floyd Collins, Zanna Don’t, Sunday In The Park With George) with an absolutely first-rate new staging of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins. Of the three Assassins productions I’ve seen over the past 15 months, this one features the strongest cast—an utterly sensational one at that—and benefits enormously from the imaginative direction of Richard Israel, fresh from his unanimously praised 1776.
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SONGS FROM AN UNMADE BED
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
The Celebration Theatre scores big with Songs From An Unmade Bed, their best show yet this season and the first to present a fully (and beautifully) realized three-dimensional portrait of a contemporary gay man. Exquisitely performed by Broadway vet Dave Barrus, imaginatively staged by director-of-the-hour Patrick Pearson, and designed by one of the finest teams L.A. has to offer, Songs From An Unmade Bed is must-see theater, not just for its core audience, but for any lover of musical theater or song.
DOG SEES GOD
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
The teenagers in Dog Sees God: Confessions Of A Teenage Blockhead could come straight out of American Pie or Mean Girls, but they bear an uncanny resemblance to a celebrated bunch of comic strip kids.
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shAme
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
When reminiscing about their high school years, most adults can probably recall having studied Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter at some point or other. An imdb check shows over a dozen film or TV adaptations including 1995’s, which starred an improbably cast Demi Moore as Puritan adulteress Hester Prynne. The classic melodrama even made it to Broadway a century ago. Never before, however, has it been set to music, or at least not until composer songwriter Mark Governor decided to turn it into a rock opera now making its Hollywood club debut.
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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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