RE-ANIMATOR: THE MUSICAL
Sunday, July 10th, 2011
Every so often a show comes along that attracts audiences who’d never ordinarily set foot inside a legitimate theater, let alone for a musical, heaven forbid. Rare examples of these surprise cult hits include Spamalot, which drew in Monty Python fans in droves; Joe’s Garage, which had Frank Zappa fans lined up around the corner at Open Fist; and now Re-Animator™-The Musical, which opened in February for a six-week run at the Steve Allen Theatre and has been packing them in since then.
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A DEATH IN COLOMBIA
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011
It takes particular skill to write a thriller for the stage. Playwrights can’t rely on chase sequences or camera angles or other cinematic tricks as screenwriters can. Their task becomes all the more difficult if the stage thriller they’re writing is to unfold in real time on a single set with only a handful of characters. Add to the above a political theme, and you’ve got a doozy of a writing assignment.
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BROADSWORD: A HEAVY METAL PLAY
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
Sixteen years ago, four young New Jerseyans dreamed of a heavy metal stardom that would transport them far away from the Podunk town of Rahway. Then, as these things happen, their lead singer got a too-good-to-resist offer of a solo career and the remaining three were left to pick up the pieces. Now, a decade and a half later one of the the foursome is dead (or at the very least presumed dead), and his surviving bandmates have reunited for his memorial.
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BAKERSFIELD MIST
Friday, June 24th, 2011
If there’s anyone with whom most Los Angeles theatergoers would surely not want to change places, it would probably be Maude Gutman of Bakersfield, the heroine of Stephen Sachs’ impressive World Premiere comedy Bakersfield Mist, now playing at the Fountain Theatre. Not only would the mere idea of living without a hundred or more plays to choose from each week be eminently resistible, a mere glance at the rundown knickknack-filled trailer Maude calls (mobile) home would provoke a spontaneous urge to hightail it back to L.A. asap.
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WORKING
Sunday, June 5th, 2011
What A Chorus Line is to Broadway dancers, Working is to the American work force, a musical salute to the cleaning women, iron workers, masons, mill workers, supermarket checkers, teachers, waitresses and countless others who have built America and kept it strong.
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iGHOST
Saturday, May 28th, 2011
The halls of Canterville Chase are alive with the sounds of spirits in Doug Haverty and Adryan Russ’s tunefully entertaining new musical iGhost, now getting its World Premiere at the Lyric Theatre.
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KRUNK FU BATTLE BATTLE
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
East West Players closes its best season in years with Krunk Fu Battle Battle, quite possibly the first full-fledged hip-hop musical ever, and a sensational one at that.
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RENT
Saturday, May 7th, 2011
When Jonathan Larson’s megahit Rent ended its twelve-year-long Broadway run in 2008, regional theaters finally got their crack at staging the now iconic tale of impoverished young artists and musicians living in New York’s Lower East Side during the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic. Sadly though, despite an (over)abundance of Southern California productions since then, few appear to have achieved the greatness that Rent deserves. This is a show that requires bona fide triple threats in all its roles, including its many ensemble tracks, and despite our SoCal talent pool, this may have proved more easily said than done.
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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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