SWEENEY TODD
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street is back, supersized, in Musical Theatre West’s excellent revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. A cast of twenty-seven and a twenty-two piece orchestra make this the biggest Sweeney in recent memory, welcome news indeed for theatergoers grown tired of downsized shows.
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RENT
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t know the story of Jonathan Larson and Rent? About how aspiring musical theater writer/composer Jon spent years trying to make a name for himself only to encounter setback upon setback until finally, on the eve of Rent’s first off-Broadway preview performance, he passed away suddenly, only days before his thirty-sixth birthday… About how Rent got rave after rave in the New York press and won Jon posthumously the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book of a Musical—and countless others too numerous to mention… About how Rent went on to become the seventh longest-running show in Broadway history…
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MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Think back to the Golden Age of Technicolor MGM musicals and one of the first titles to pop into your head, particularly as the holiday season rolls around, will surely be 1944’s Meet Me In St. Louis. Even those who haven’t seen the entire film from opening credits to end titles have probably watched clips of Judy Garland singing “The Trolley Song,” “The Boy Next Door,” or “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” on YouTube or TV. The MGM classic made the transition from the silver screen to Broadway in 1989, and it’s with that production that Music Theatre West opens its 2009-2010 season. With direction by Richard Israel and choreography by Lee Martino, it’s no surprise that Meet Me In St. Louis is an all-around winner, and the perfect pre-Thanksgiving treat for young and old alike.
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SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Before Parade, before The Last Five Years, before 13, the now-renowned composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown made his first big splash on the New York musical theater scene with Songs For A New World, a song cycle about facing the “new world” that unexpected life changes can bring about. This glorious collection of songs now returns to the L.A. area in a terrific revival at Long Beach’s International City Theatre, masterfully directed by Jules Aaron.
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DEATHTRAP
Friday, October 9th, 2009
For a record-breaking four years, New York audiences found themselves both riveted and tickled to death by the multitude of plot twists and turns in Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, that is when they weren’t laughing in utter delight at the sheer brilliance of Levin’s five-character, one-set, two-act mystery-comedy, still the longest running thriller in Broadway history. Angelinos can now find out what all the excitement was about simply by driving down to San Pedro to catch Little Fish Theatre’s terrific revival of the comedy-suspense classic.
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BRIGHT IDEAS
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Remember Beverly Sutphin, the sociopathic serial killer heroine of John Waters’ movie Serial Mom? Well, dear old Bev may just have met her match in Genevra Bradley, a mother who will do anything—and I do mean anything—to get her 3-year-old son into Bright Ideas, the most prestigious preschool in town.
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WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
Saturday, August 15th, 2009
Here’s a question for theater aficionados? Can you think of a play which deals with, features, or mentions all of the following: depravity, disguises, gender identity, the government, hanky-panky, hermaphroditism, homosexuality, incest, insanity, marriage, mistaken identities, nymphomania, pederasty, psychiatry, rape, religion, reunited orphan siblings, slapstick, and transvestitism? Who could possibly have found a way to put all of the above into one play—and make it one of the most laugh-out-loud hilarious screwball farces ever?
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LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
For a 1982 off-Broadway musical based on a no-budget black-and-white film shot in two days, Little Shop Of Horrors has come a long, long way. A London West End production opened in 1983 and a movie version was released in 1986 even as Little Shop continued to entertain off-Broadway audiences for an amazing 2,209 performances. A big stage revival finally took the show to Broadway in 2003. Few are the high schools, community theaters, and regional CLOs which haven’t staged Little Shop at least once in the past twenty-seven years. Little Shop Of Horrors is that rarity in musical theater—a show which works equally well in a tiny space and on a Broadway-sized stage, one which can delight and entertain whether performed by teenagers, amateurs, or the kind of A-List professionals now starring in Musical Theater West’s sensational big theater revival.
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