GOD OF CARNAGE
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Long Beach’s International City Theater trumps the competition with its 2012 season opener of Yasmina Reza’s Tony-winning Best Play of 2009 God Of Carnage, a production which, while not technically its West Coast Premiere (Center Theatre Group got that honor by merely importing the Broadway team), nonetheless merits true event status for being built entirely from the ground up—brand new actors, a brand new director, and a brand new team of designers, all of them doing bang-up work on the ICT stage.
(read more)
HAIRSPRAY
Sunday, October 30th, 2011
It’s taken nearly ten years for the Broadway smash musical Hairspray to get its first L.A.-area CLO production, but it’s been well worth the wait, as Musical Theatre West’s sensational Opening Night performance at the Carpenter Center made abundantly clear.
(read more)
THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
When was the last time you saw a production of the Tony Award-winning, Drama Desk Award-nominated Broadway musical The Robber Bridegroom?
Ask most any Los Angeles theatergoer for their answer and the one you’ll probably get is “Never.” Despite a hilarious book and oh-so clever lyrics by Alfred (Driving Miss Daisy) Uhry and a showful of catchy bluegrass melodies by Robert Waldman, about the only professional L.A. production in the past decade would appear to have been Musical Theatre Guild’s one-night-only concert staged reading in 2001—all the more reason to celebrate its current revival at International City Theatre in Long Beach, though hardly the only one.
(read more)
LOOT
Sunday, September 25th, 2011
No one wrote darker, more subversive comedies than Joe Orton—or funnier ones for that matter. Those requiring proof of the above need only head on over to San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre to check out their terrific production of Orton’s darkly subversive farce.
(read more)
PRIVATE LIVES
Saturday, August 27th, 2011
For a comedy that’s now reached the ripe old age of seventy one, Noël Coward’s Private Lives remains as young, fresh, and lively as ever—and those in need of proof need simply check out the terrific Private Lives revival now playing at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
(read more)
THE UNDERPANTS
Friday, August 19th, 2011
What a difference two seconds can make. That’s how short a time Louise Maske insists that her undies dropped down to her ankles “in front of the neighbors, in front of strangers, and at the King’s parade” in The Underpants, adapted from German playwright Carl Sternheim’s 1910 original by none other than Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin, whose unique take on love and life makes Long Beach Playhouse’s production of The Underpants a delightful August surprise.
(read more)
TRYST
Friday, August 12th, 2011
George Love has never met a woman he couldn’t seduce, wed, fleece, and abandon (all in short order), and he has never met a woman more ripe for seduction than Adelaide Pinchin. It’s no wonder, therefore, that this master of the romantic con makes the plump, plain, downright pathetic London seamstress his latest target in Karoline Leach’s Edwardian thriller Tryst, now making a welcome return to L.A. area stages at San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre.
(read more)
CORPUS CHRISTI
Friday, August 5th, 2011
I’ll admit it. I was a Doubting Thomas. As curious as I was about seeing a fresh new take on Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi, the one production I’d seen previously at Long Beach’s Garage Theatre had not boded well for a second, nor did the discovery that the show was being helmed by a young actor making his directorial debut. Still, the chance to see Corpus Christi again was too tempting to turn down, and August being the quietest theatrical month of the year, this skeptic decided to give the Garage a second chance.
(read more)
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
COPYRIGHT 2025 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY