LAVENDER MEN
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022
Queer playwright Roger Q. Mason explores the love that dared not speak its name between Abraham Lincoln and his “close friend” Elmer Ellsworth in Lavender Men, at once a gay American history fantasia, a very public therapy session for its self-described “black, fat, femme” author, and one of the most stunning productions in town.
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THE PROM
Thursday, August 11th, 2022
A gaggle of liberal-minded Broadway narcissists descend on conservative Middle America to aid an Indiana teen who just wants to dance in public with the girl she loves in The Prom, the multiple-Tony-nominated musical that now ranks sky-high on my list of 21st-century favorites.
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IF I FORGET
Saturday, July 30th, 2022
A long-simmering family feud fuels Steven Levinson’s hilarious and harrowing off-Broadway tragicomedy If I Forget, dazzlingly reconceived for the Fountain Theatre by director Jason Alexander.
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CLOWNFISH
Saturday, July 16th, 2022Playwright Amy Dellagiarino’s script shows considerable promise, but her Theatre of NOTE World Premiere comedy Clownfish would work a whole lot better had the director reined in one particularly over-the-top performance (and those around it in the play’s frenetic midsection).
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THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
Saturday, July 9th, 2022
Tim Venable’s hot-button-issue World Premiere two-hander The Beautiful People will have you thinking and talking about the gut-punching latest from Rogue Machine long after the stage has gone dark at Melrose’s Matrix Theatre.
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MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL
Saturday, July 9th, 2022
Sumptuous and spectacular and filled with as many instantly recognizable pop hits as in four or five jukebox musicals put together, Moulin Rouge! The Musical is all this and more.
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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM
Sunday, July 3rd, 2022
Director James Fowler and Open Fist Theatre Company discover astonishing new depth and meaning in a centuries-old classic by transposing William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream from ancient Greece to the Antebellum South.
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ARENA: A House MUSIC-al
Sunday, June 26th, 2022A young gay Latino exits the closet to a ‘90s dance club beat in Abel Alvarado’s ARENA: A House MUSIC-al, a heartfelt but overpopulated coming-of-age story that works best when the spotlight is on Alvarado stand-in Lucio, particularly as brought to engaging, charismatic life by newcomer Preston Gonzalez Valle.
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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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