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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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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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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