THE WILD PARTY
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
USC’s Musical Theatre Repertory’s production of Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party is a thrilling endeavor which serves as further evidence of the brilliant directorial vision of Steve Edlund (Sunday In The Park With George) and as a preview of some very exciting professional careers ahead.
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LA RONDE
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
Even before the first of its ten “dialogues,” you know you’re not in for your great-great-great grandfather’s La Ronde in director Larry Biederman’s stunningly conceived, designed, and executed production of the 1900 Arthur Schnitzler classic. Despite its late-19th Century setting, there’s not a divan or gas lamp or bustle in sight. Instead, a black-and-white Annie Lennox (circa the Eurythmics) belting out “I need someone to listen to the ecstasy I’m faking” is projected on an irregularly-cut upstage canvas screen, behind which the outlines of cocktail party guests and the shadows of a man and woman move this way and that, seemingly unable to connect.
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BACKSEATS & BATHROOM STALLS
Friday, December 12th, 2008
Quite simply put, Backseats & Bathroom Stalls is the funniest comedy I’ve seen so far in the 2008-2009 season. Rob Mersola’s pansexual sex farce not only had me laughing out loud (and quite loudly indeed) through its non-stop 80 minutes of hilarious surprises but kept me on the edge of my seat trying to guess what was coming next. It also has one of the best “I didn’t see that one coming” surprises since The Crying Game or The Sixth Sense.
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BOB’S HOLIDAY OFFICE PARTY
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
Hilarious, crazy, zany, drunken Midwest Hell Christmas insanity” is how my friend Marc describes his first exposure to Bob’s Holiday Office Party, and I wholeheartedly agree. No wonder Bob’s Holiday Office Party is celebrating thirteen consecutive years of shocking and delighting L.A. audiences with its particular blend of mirth, drunken shenanigans, and Christmas spirit.
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A MULHOLLAND CHRISTMAS CAROL
Friday, November 21st, 2008
Three minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam (located 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles) burst catastrophically, resulting in a flood which took over 600 lives. The dam had been the brainchild of William Mulholland (of Mulholland Drive fame), who masterminded the 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct to transport water south from the Owens Valley in Central California and helped to transform Los Angeles from a chaparral-covered desert to the city we know today.
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INTO THE WOODS
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Since its Broadway premiere 21 years ago, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into The Woods has become one of the most performed musicals in the U.S.—in regional CLOs, on college and high school campuses, and in intimate theaters. Its first act, which magically combines some of the best loved of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and its second, which explores with considerable depth what happens after “happily ever after,” make for a show which retains its freshness and originality two decades after it first captivated Broadway audiences.
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THE JOY LUCK CLUB
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Fans of Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club or Wayne Wang’s 1993 film version will find much to relish in East West Players’ production of its stage adaptation by Susan Kim.
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LOVELACE A ROCK OPERA
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
The lights dim and the upstage screen is filled with image after image—Richard Nixon, protests against the Vietnam war, uniformed soldiers, Woodstock, Kent State, the Manson girls, John and Yoko, the first man on the moon…
The year is 1969 and Linda Boreman is having sex for the first time, in a Cutlass Supreme.
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