FACING EAST
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
It has been said that there is no greater loss than that of a child a parent has given life to. Imagine, then, how much more devastating the pain must be when that parent feels responsible for his or her child’s death, and how much greater still if the child’s death has occurred at his or her own hands.
BABYLON HEIGHTS
Thursday, May 28th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
WARNING: Language in this play and in my review is rated NC-17.
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FORBIDDEN BROADWAY
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
For the past 27 years, New York City audiences have been treated to Forbidden Broadway, a series of ten or so revues spoofing The Great White Way’s latest hits (and flops). Since 1982, a revolving quartet of supertalented performers backed by a piano—and the master-satirizer that is writer/creator Gerard Alessandrini—have lampooned Broadway legends like Carol Channing and Liza Minnelli, current hit shows a la Jersey Boys and Mary Poppins, and musical theater classics such as Man Of La Mancha and Gypsy. Coming up with a new revue every two or three years, Alessandrini and company have created their own special franchise—which now gets its first original L.A. regional theater staging at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West. Dubbed Forbidden Broadway Greatest Hits, Volume One, the resulting concoction makes for one of the funniest CLO shows you’re likely to see this year.
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IS HE DEAD?
Friday, May 1st, 2009
Straight men in drag have made for sure-fire comedy since long before Milton Berle donned wigs, lipstick, and gowns on TV’s Texaco Star Theater back in the 1950s and Barry Humphries created Dame Edna several decades later. Charley’s Aunt made the first of his/her six Broadway appearances way back in 1893, and only five years after that Mark Twain wrote Is He Dead?.
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BETRAYAL
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
It’s New Year’s Eve, 1968, and Jerry is confessing to Emma his love for her, in the very bedroom she shares with her husband Robert, Jerry’s best friend. “I must tell you,” Jerry declares passionately. “I want to tell you. I have to tell you. You’re lovely. I’m crazy about you. All these words I’m using, don’t you see, they’ve never been said before. I’m bowled over, I’m totally knocked out, you dazzle me, you jewel, my jewel…” Heady words, and with them Jerry and Emma begin a love affair, virtually under the eyes of his wife and her husband, an affair which will last seven years, only to have become a distant memory when they meet again, nine years later.
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THE PRODUCERS
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
There is always excitement when a Broadway megahit like Mel Brooks’ The Producers makes its regional theater debut, and when the regional premiere is as all-around sensational as the one currently being staged by Musical Theatre West, it is a theatrical event of major proportions.
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SILK STOCKINGS
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
Silk Stockings was songwriter Cole Porter’s last Broadway musical. The 1955 production ran for over a year, but unlike Porter’s biggest smash, the twice Broadway-revived Kiss Me Kate, Silk Stockings has pretty much vanished from view and memory. Thus, Musical Theatre West’s revisal of the Cold War comedy comes as something of an event, especially with a much rewritten book by Stuart Ross of Forever Plaid fame, who also directs.
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THE ALL NIGHT STRUT
Friday, October 17th, 2008
Long Beach is indeed a-jumpin’ with International City Theatre’s absolutely terrific revival of The All Night Strut. Music, song, and dance from the big band and swing era combine under the sensational direction of Lance Roberts (who also choreographed the many fabulous dance sequences), with a smashing quartet of triple-threat performers singing such standards as “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “As Time Goes By,” and “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing.”
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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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