40 IS THE NEW 15
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
What a difference a few tweaks can make!
40 Is The New 15, Larry Todd Johnson and Cindy O’Connor’s musical about five former high school classmates turning 40 and reflecting on the ways their lives have changed over the past quarter century, has made a triumphant return to North Hollywood a year after its workshop run. What was already an entertaining, moving, and very promising evening of musical theater has come back the polished gem that only years of rewrites and workshops can achieve.
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[title of show]
Friday, July 16th, 2010
West Hollywood’s Celebration Theatre celebrates its twenty-eighth year of presenting quality live theater to the LGBTQQIA community—and has its third big musical hit in just the past twelve months—with the Los Angeles Premiere of Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen’s award-winning off-Broadway hit [title of show]. Directed with consummate panache by Celebration Artistic Director Michael A. Shepperd, [title of show] is the perfect musical for show queens of any gender or sexual orientation.
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LIFE COULD BE A DREAM
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
When Roger Bean’s Life Could Be A Dream opened at Los Angeles’s 99-seat Hudson Theatre last summer, I wrote, “Don’t be surprised if the show is still running a year from now. Rave reviews and enthusiastic word-of-mouth should guarantee full houses and standing ovations for months to come.”
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[title of show]
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
In the spring of 2004, New York City writing partners Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen sat down to create a new musical in just three weeks, that being precisely the period of time remaining before the New York Musical Theatre Festival’s submission deadline. Joined by friends (and fellow performers) Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff, the quartet met the deadline with a 90-minute musical about itself, from its first spark of inspiration to its opening night on Broadway. As for the show’s title, having rejected such candidates as Festival Of Dreams, Your Arms Too Short To Write This Musical, and RENTT (with two t’s), the creative team decided to stick with what was on the application form: [title of show]. And wonder of wonders, their dream became a reality.
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THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
Every musical theater aficionado has his or her own pet shows, ones that can be seen again and again without ever losing their appeal, especially when new performers put their stamps on favorite roles. My own personal favorites include The Last Five Years, The Light In The Piazza, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, all of which I have reviewed in numerous productions since StageSceneLA’s 2007 premiere.
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HELLO, DOLLY!
Friday, July 9th, 2010
When was the last time you saw a production of Hello, Dolly!?
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THE WHO’S TOMMY
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
The Chance Theater tackles its most ambitious musical yet with The Who’s Tommy. Under Oanh Nguyen’s inspired direction, the resulting production is quite possibly the Chance’s most thrilling musical ever, topping even last year’s Hair for visual and audio excitement. With state-of-the-art sound, lighting, and video design and a couldn’t-be-better cast, The Chance’s The Who’s Tommy (quite a mouthful) achieves the nearly impossible. It replicates the rock concert/rock theater experience in a 49-seat house. Spectacle and intimacy in equal measure—I can’t recall another show quite like it.
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A CHORUS LINE
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Try to think of a musical where the hopes, fears, challenges, and dreams of a dozen and a half characters are explored in dialog, song, and dance … and chances are the first (and possibly only) show that will come to mind is A Chorus Line, the first Broadway musical to explore the intimate stories of Broadway’s “gypsies”—while dealing with race and sexuality and featuring big, flashy production numbers to boot. Just as Oklahoma! and West Side Story revolutionized Broadway in the 1940s and ‘50, so too did A Chorus Line change the face of musical theater two decades later.
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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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