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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HELLO, AGAIN
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Arthur Schnitzler’s 1897 classic La Ronde becomes a seductive chamber musical in Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello, Again, currently being staged by USC’s Musical Theatre Repertory in an all around sensational production which proves that student produced-directed-acted-designed work can give any professional production a run for its money.
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KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
Friday, September 26th, 2008
What 1993 Broadway hit ran for over 900 performances and won 7 Tonys including Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score (inspiring not one but two different Broadway Cast Recordings), yet is only now getting its first major Los Angeles production since its 1996 National Tour played the Ahmanson?
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LOUIS AND KEELY LIVE AT THE SAHARA
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
By the time Louis Prima met 16-year-old Keely Smith in the late 1940s, the 37-year-old Italian-American entertainer’s career had already undergone several transformations. In his teens and 20s, Prima had played trumpet in jazz combos and bands. In 1940, he formed his own Big Band, singing most of the vocals himself. By the time the 1950s rolled around, the Glenn Miller/Benny Goodman sound was passé, and “Louis Prima and Keely Smith” began their successful Las Vegas career, performing multiple shows from midnight until dawn.
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SEA CHANGE
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
The year is 1974 and a quintet of Tufts University friends have gone whale watching off the coast of Provincetown. Virginal conservative gay guy Val and liberal lesbian Jan are arguing about politics, Val contending to Jan’s absolute horror that “you can’t blame Nixon for Kent State.” Blond Adonis Sunny is stoned as usual, and arguing with feisty lesbian Elle on whether it’s TLGC (Tufts Lesbian and Gay Community) or TGLC, alphabetical order making more sense to Sunny as a gay male. Completing the fivesome is Sunny’s devout Catholic boyfriend Gene.
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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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