THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Friday, July 10th, 2009
Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’ The Light In The Piazza is the most exquisite musical to come from Broadway in many years. The story of a mother and daughter who travel to Italy in the summer of 1953, Piazza was nominated for eleven Tony awards in 2005 and won six, including one for Guettel’s score. Most of its other wins were in design categories, most notably for Michael Yeargan’s superb scenic design. In fact, the Broadway and touring company sets were so breathtakingly beautiful that at times they may even have overshadowed the material, particularly Lucas’ complex, haunting music.
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INSANITY
Sunday, June 28th, 2009RECOMMENDED
Dorian, The Ghost And Mrs. Muir, Lizard, Yo Ho Ho—A Pirate’s Christmas, Pest Control, Insanity. Has any theater company created and staged more world premiere musicals than the NoHo Arts Center Ensemble, and all in the past five years? We’re not talking just world premieres here, but ambitious, big-cast Broadway-style musicals. I somehow doubt that anyone else has a track record to top James J. Mellon and Scott DeTurk’s. No wonder there’s excitement whenever book writer-director Mellon and composer-lyricist DeTurk debut a new show.
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THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
“Thoroughly modern” Millie Dillmount began her journey to Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson Theatre back in 1967 when Julie Andrews brought her to life on the silver screen. Thirty-five years later, Millie made her Broadway debut—with new songs by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan and a lead performance by Sutton Foster that was one of the six Tony awards won by this Best Musical of 2002. (Richard Morris and Scanlan also won the Tony for the show’s book.) A year later came the National Tour, which stopped at the Ahmanson, and in 2006 Millie made her L.A. regional theater debut at Musical Theatre West in Long Beach. Now, it’s Santa Monica Theatre Guild’s turn to bring Millie to musical life (under Anne Gesling’s capable direction), and if the opening night audience’s enthusiastic reaction is any indication of a show’s success, then Thoroughly Modern Millie is likely to be a summer crowd-pleaser.
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CABARET
Friday, June 19th, 2009
When Cabaret debuted on Broadway in 1966, its tale of star-crossed lovers in pre-WWII Berlin was dark stuff for New York audiences accustomed to considerably brighter shows like Hello Dolly, She Loves Me, and Mame. Still, that first incarnation of Cabaret was positively sunny compared to the 1998 revival which has set the tone for just about every Cabaret since then. Imagine a Cabaret without “Mein Herr,” “Maybe This Time,” or “I Don’t Care Much,” without Kit Kat Boys, without any suggestion of homosexuality, one with upbeat love songs like “Why Should I Wake Up?” or the Yiddish ditty “Meeskite.” That was Cabaret pre-1998 and one which might be a bit of a yawn by contemporary standards.
SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE TOO
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
For the many who saw and loved Schoolhouse Rock Live! when it played the Greenway Court Theatre a year and a half ago, there’s some great news. Schoolhouse Rock Live! Too has arrived, with 20 more classic Schoolhouse Rock songs/lessons performed live by a stellar cast of triple threat talents and a rocking live band.
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LES MISÉRABLES
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
When a musical runs over thirteen years on Broadway, it’s a long, long wait until regional theaters get a crack at it. Les Misérables lasted from 1987 to 2003 (6691 performances) and again from 2006 to 2008 (another 480 performances), and during those two decades, the show was never playing in more than two American cities at any one time. There was the Broadway production and there was the National Tour, and both of them featured Trevor Nunn and John Caird’s original direction, as well as the original design team’s sets, costumes, and lighting. Though casts changed, and changed, and changed again, it was still the same basic Les Miz, and no more than a few thousand theatergoers could ever see it on any given day (except of course for two-performance days).
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THE APPLE TREE
Friday, June 12th, 2009
Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick’s The Apple Tree, one of Broadway’s forgotten gems of the mid-60s, gets a small stage revival worth remembering in this charming, funny, tuneful, and sparklingly performed production by North Hollywood’s Crown City Theatre Company.
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FELLOWSHIP! A MUSICAL PARODY OF “THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING”
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
Fellowship! is back in town, and it’s not just Lord Of The Rings fans who have reason to celebrate.
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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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