THE WOODSMAN
Friday, May 22nd, 2015
Playwright Steven Fechter puts a human face on that most reviled of sex offenders, the convicted child molester, in The Woodsman, the powerful latest from Coeurage Theatre Company and a production sure to generate both thought and discussion long after curtain-call applause has died.
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AMERICAN IDIOT
Sunday, May 17th, 2015
glory|struck productions, who gave Los Angeles the Scenie-winning one-two punch of Spring Awakening In Concert and bare a rock musical, are back in town with what is likely to prove the musical theater event of the season, a head-bangingly thrilling Green Day’s American Idiot brought to surround-sound and surround-sight life in the Downtown L.A. Arts District warehouse provocatively dubbed The Vortex.
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THE WHO’S TOMMY
Thursday, May 14th, 2015
A fabulous, primarily Asian-American cast, design elements with a Far East flavor, and a 1960s-though-‘80s time frame that inspires a slew of innovative costumes and choreography …
All of this (and more) add up to an exciting East West Players revival of the now iconic The Who’s Tommy.
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GUS’S FASHIONS & SHOES
Friday, May 8th, 2015
Plays don’t get much more testosterone-fueled than Gus’s Fashions & Shoes, the grittily dramatic, darkly comedic latest from writer-director Ron Klier, whose Cops And Friends Of Cops kept Vs. Theatre audiences glued to the edge of their seats two years back.
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CIRCUS UGLY
Tuesday, May 5th, 2015NOT RECOMMENDED
Some plays are so unexpectedly marvelous and/or so deeply thought-provoking that you can’t stop talking about them long after the house lights have gone back up. Gabriel Rivas Gomez’s Circus Ugly, the latest from Playwrights’ Arena, is likely to inspire almost as much post-performance conversation as those, but for a different reason. Yes, several of its performers manage to impress and so does a topnotch production design, but not even a lukewarm recommendation is possible for a play that still has me scratching my head and wondering, “WTF was that?!”
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I AND YOU
Friday, May 1st, 2015
When was the last time you saw a contemporary teen dramedy that not only featured a pair of complex, non-stereotypical characters but added something to the genre and in its final moments left you breathless?
Lauren Gunderson’s I And You is that play, at once funny, captivating, and profoundly moving, a powerful piece of theater now getting its Los Angeles Premiere in a production highlighted by Jennifer Finch’s and Matthew Hancock’s star-making performances under Robin Larsen’s inspired direction.
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GREASE
Friday, April 3rd, 2015
You know from the great-big boy-band/girl-group/cast-of-thirty title-song production number that opens USC’s revival of the Broadway/Hollywood smash Grease that you’re in for something out of the ordinary, and here’s the even better news. USC’s big-stage production turns out to be by far the most exciting of the eight Grease revivals I’ve seen.
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TREVOR
Friday, March 27th, 2015
Laurie Metcalf and Jimmi Simpson are a mother and son unlike any you’ve ever seen on stage, on screen, or in real life for that matter, in the West Coast Premiere of Nick Jones’ Trevor, the stellar duo delivering extraordinary performances in a play you’ll be telling friends, acquaintances, and maybe even complete strangers to put at the top of their must-see list.
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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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