IONESCOPADE
Thursday, June 20th, 2013
An elderly couple who spend the entire evening setting up chairs for invisible guests who’ve come to hear an invisible orator. French villagers transformed one by one into rhinoceroses. A soprano without a single hair on her head. Could there be anything more ridicule?
Welcome to the world of théâtre de l’absurde as epitomized by Eugène Ionesco, the French playwright whose plays The Chairs, Rhinoceros, and The Bald Soprano express the meaninglessness of life in the most amusing of ways … and now form the basis of Ionescopade, Robert Allan Ackerman and Mildred Kayden’s wacky vaudeville currently being revived at the Odyssey Theatre three decades after its Los Angeles debut.
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REAL MEN SING SHOW TUNES…AND PLAY WITH PUPPETS
Monday, April 29th, 2013
Women have had their Menopause The Musical. Gay men have had their Naked Boys Singing. Now, at last, straight men have their very own R-rated musical revue—Real Men Sing Show Tunes…and play with puppets, now tickling the ribs of both male and female theatergoers seventeen and older at the Palos Verdes-adjacent Norris Theatre.
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NUTTIN’ BUT HUTTON
Friday, March 22nd, 2013
The Blonde Bombshell. Annie Oakley. Fred Astaire’s Let’s Dance Co-Star. The Incendiary Blonde. Texas Guinan. Paramount Pictures’ Biggest Star. The Perils Of Pauline’s Pauline. Blossom Dearie. Dean Martin’s “Hetty Button.”
Miss Betty Hutton was all of the above, either in real or onscreen life, and Diane Vincent pays tribute to her Greatest Hits in the terrific new World Premiere Musical/Musical Revue Nuttin’ But Hutton, now delighting audiences at North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts Center under the direction of the ever inventive Larry Raben.
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THE TROUBLE WITH WORDS
Monday, March 4th, 2013
What do you do when you’ve won your second Ovation Award (for music directing The Color Purple) a mere twelve months after winning Ovation Number One for the music and lyrics of your original song cycle The Trouble With Words … and you’ve only just turned thirty?
The answer, if you’re Gregory Nabours, is to revisit The Trouble With Words in a smartly tweaked 2013 production for Coeurage Theatre Company, one which features the talents of its original director and band and most of its original cast, along with four new songs and a brand new choreographer and design team, all of this adding up to a TTWW 2.0 even more splendiferous than it was the first time round.
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THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND
Saturday, February 16th, 2013
You may think you’ve seen The World Goes ‘Round before—the hit musical revue featuring 30 mostly little-known Kander & Ebb songs performed cabaret-style by a cast of 5. Yes, indeed, you may think you’ve seen The World Goes ‘Round (or And The World Goes ‘Round if you will), but trust me, you’ve never seen The World Goes Round as Downey Civic Light Opera executive producer Marsha Moode has reconceived it as a TV variety show-style extravaganza featuring 41 Kander & Ebb songs, including many of their Greatest Hits, as performed by cast of 37. Purists may carp, but for those in the Moode for two-and-a half hours of pure entertainment (with a bunch of Kander & Ebb trivia thrown in for good measure), the Downey Civic Light Opera’s The World Goes ‘Round more than fits the bill.
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AND THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND
Sunday, February 3rd, 2013
Cabaret, “All That Jazz,” Chicago, “Maybe This Time,” “The Money Song,” Kiss Of The Spider Woman, “My Coloring Book,” “New York, New York” … When you hear the names Kander & Ebb, the list of hit shows and songs goes on and on, so much so that by the year 1991, the time had come for a musical revue saluting John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Greatest Hits, and the Drama Desk Award-winning And The World Goes ‘Round (conceived by Scott Ellis, Susan Stroman, and David Thompson) was born.
Though now officially licensed as The World Goes Round, the revue’s latest revival at the NoHo Arts Center gives it back its original ‘91 title, a decision fully in keeping with this sensational, back-to-its-roots staging of one of the most entertaining, tune-packed song cycles in musical theater history.
I LEFT MY HEART: A Salute To The Music Of Tony Bennett
Monday, January 14th, 2013
“I Wanna Be Around,” “Rags To Riches,” “Stranger In Paradise,” “The Good Life,” “The Shadow Of Your Smile,” “Where Do I Begin,” and of course “I Left My Heart In San Francisco.” Hear this list of song titles and there’s only one name likely to pop into any music lover’s head—Tony Bennett, a star since his very first Number One record, “Because Of You,” topped the charts way back in 1951 and still going strong at age 86, with seven concert dates coming up in the next month alone.
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CHRISTMAS MY WAY – A SINATRA HOLIDAY BASH!
Sunday, December 16th, 2012
Memories of holidays spent listening to the song stylings of Ol’ Blue Eyes come back to life in Christmas My Way – A Sinatra Holiday Bash!, now entertaining audiences at North Hollywood’s historic El Portal Theater.
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