FULLY COMMITTED
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
If you haven’t heard that one before, Sam Peliczowski probably has. Sam is, you see, a struggling New York-based actor with the worst restaurant job in the Big Apple. Stuck deep down in a tiny basement cell, Sam is the reservations clerk for one of the city’s most shi-shi établissements. No chance for Sam to be seen by directors, producers, casting people. No chance for him to meet women (or men, if he happens to swing that way). No chance to get even the measliest of tips.
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THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Quite possibly the biggest L.A. theater success story of past decade has been that of The Marvelous Wonderettes, Roger Bean’s wonderfully marvelous look back at the pop music of the 1950s and ‘60s as sung by a quartet of high school girls at their 1958 prom and their 1968 class reunion. From its original incarnation (a 45-minute workshop in Milwaukee) to its two-year run at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre to its successful off-Broadway engagement, The Marvelous Wonderettes has truly conquered the American musical theater world.
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ESCANABA IN DA MOONLIGHT
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Movie star/playwright Jeff Daniels affectionately skewers the natives of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (aka the Yoopers) in his hit comedy Escanaba In Da Moonlight, now making a return engagement at San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre. As an authentic Yooper might put it, “Dis is some funny show, and dat’s da trute.”
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BACKWARDS IN HIGH HEELS
Friday, February 26th, 2010
It’s been said that Ginger Rogers became a star doing everything her dance partner Fred Astaire could do … but backwards in high heels. The Oscar-winning actress-dancer now gets her very own tribute musical, Lynette Barkley and Charles McGovern’s Backwards In High Heels, and it’s hard to imagine a better production of “The Ginger Musical” than the one just opened at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
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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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