THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
Few musicals have enjoyed the success of The Rocky Horror Show. Its 1973 West End World Premiere was followed by a ’74 Los Angeles run at the Roxy, a ’75 Broadway premiere, and subsequent productions throughout the world leading to what may well be a record number of cast recordings—a grand total of twenty-eight, plus the movie soundtrack. Audience participation at live productions and midnight movie screenings has become legendary, with Rocky fans showing up in costume, throwing food, toilet paper, and confetti on the stage at appropriate moments, and shouting out punch lines in unison.
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DADDY LONG LEGS
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
“An exquisite gem of a musical” is how I described Daddy Long Legs in its world premiere engagement at the Rubicon last year. Since then, Paul Gordon and John Caird’s adaptation of Jean Webster’s 1912 novel has had several more engagements across the country, allowing the writers the opportunity for fine-tuning, a must in the creation of any new musical. It’s this adeptly tweaked Daddy Long Legs that returns to Southern California for a three-week engagement at the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, an even more polished gem of a musical than it was before, and not just one for the kiddies. Though Webster’s novel fits squarely in the Children’s Books section of your local library or Barnes And Noble, its musical adaptation proves absolutely right for ages eight to eighty.
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INTO THE WOODS
Thursday, November 4th, 2010
If you love Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods even half as much as I do, you must see Lucid By Proxy’s remarkable new revival, brilliantly directed by Calvin Remsberg in the most unique Into The Woods setting ever.
Since its Broadway premiere 23 years ago, 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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ANNIE
Sunday, October 31st, 2010
Broadway’s original Annie is back—thirty-three years after the show’s opening night—in the multiple Tony Award-winning musical’s latest revival, exciting news indeed for those who recall Andrea McCardle’s Tony-nominated star turn in the title role. McCardle has graduated terrifically to the role of Miss Hannigan, originated in 1977 by Dorothy Loudon—who beat the pint-sized thirteen-year old for the Best Leading Actress Tony. How’s that for Broadway trivia…and an L.A. musical theater event!
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MAKING PARADISE: THE WEST HOLLYWOOD MUSICAL
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
Cornerstone Theatre Company and the city of West Hollywood celebrate their mutual Silver Anniversaries with the World Premiere of Making Paradise: The West Hollywood Musical. Featuring a cast of thirty-one, some of whom have never acted before, let alone sung and danced on a theater stage, Making Paradise tells the story of the founding of WeHo through exactly the kind of people who make up its population—a gay, lesbian, straight, and transgender, rainbow colored, multiracial, multiethnic mix of 20somethings, middle-agers, and octogenarians. Some of the voices are only so-so and some cast members appear to be working hard on remembering which dance step follows which—and it matters not a whit. Making Paradise: The West Hollywood Musical succeeds not just because of its strengths but also because of (what in a more traditional production would be considered) its weaknesses. It’s a thrilling, dramatic, informative, entertaining, suspenseful, and ultimately quite moving piece of theater.
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HAPPY DAYS
Friday, October 22nd, 2010
Happy Days (and nights) have arrived at the Thousand Oaks Performing Arts Center as Cabrillo Music Theatre presents Happy Days, the popular new(ish) musical based on Garry Marshall’s TV favorite.
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WHEN GARBO TALKS
Friday, October 15th, 2010RECOMMENDED
Screen legend Greta Garbo’s voice remained as mysterious as the star herself until the release of Anna Christie, her first talking picture. “Garbo Talks!” proclaimed ads for the 1930 flick, and talk the Swedish superstar did, her “Gif me a vhisky, ginger ale on the side, and don’t be stingy, baby!” soon becoming almost as synonymous with the reclusive screen idol as her much quoted “I vant to be alone!”
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SOUTH PACIFIC
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
Rodgers & Hammerstein fanatics may cry sacrilege, but I never quite understood why South Pacific was considered such a classic. Then came the National Tour of the 2009 Tony-winning (Best Revival Of A Musical) Lincoln Center Theatre production, and I became a believer. Not only is South Pacific one of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s finest, it stands as one of the greatest musicals ever to grace a Broadway theater, at least when done right.
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