DAMES AT SEA
Friday, February 20th, 2009
It’s the 1930s and the height of the Great Depression. A pretty young would-be hoofer (that’s hoofer, not hooker!) arrives in New York City with dreams of starring on the Great White Way. When a temperamental Broadway diva becomes indisposed, our sweet young thing is the only chorus girl able to take on the star’s leading role at a moment’s notice. Recognize the plot? It’s 42nd Street, right?
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EVITA
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
No matter how many times you’ve seen Evita, you haven’t really seen it till you’ve seen Christa Jackson in the title role. As Eva Perón, Jackson gives one of the two or three most thrilling performances I’ve seen by a lead actress in a musical in the past several years. Directed and choreographed to perfection by the amazing Sha Newman, FCLO Music Theatre’s revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice blockbuster is that rare CLO production, one which could be transplanted to Broadway exactly as is. In other words, this Evita is out and out brilliant.
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THE FULL MONTY
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Those unemployed Buffalo factory workers turned Chippendales-style strippers are back, and Redondo Beach has them. Though The Full Monty lost all nine of its Tony Award nominations to The Producers in 2001, the David Yazbek-Terrence McNally musical has become a regional theater favorite, and rightly so. Musical Theatre West gave it a sensational big theater staging in 2007 and with director Dan Mojica at the helm, Civic Light Opera Of South Bay Cities’ brand new production is every bit its equal.
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DIVORCE! THE MUSICAL
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
Imagine you’re a multitalented young writer-musician-performer with two failed marriages under your belt—and you’re not yet thirty. Would you consult a lawyer? Too late for that now. See a therapist? Been there, done that. Write an original musical about your experiences on the divorce battlefield? Now THAT’s an idea!
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STORMY WEATHER
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
The legendary Lena Horne is brought to vivid life by a pair of stellar performers in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Stormy Weather. Like the Playhouse’s electric Ray Charles Live, Sharleen Cooper Cohen’s bio-musical (under the assured direction of Michael Bush) revisits the life of a show biz superstar through the eyes of her grown-up self, played here by triple-threat stage, screen, and recording star Leslie Uggams. Young Lena is the equally gifted Nicki Crawford, and together they take the audience on a half-century journey from Harlem’s Cotton Club to the stages of the world—punctuated by some of the greatest songs of the era.
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THE PRODUCERS
Saturday, January 31st, 2009
There is always excitement when a Broadway megahit like Mel Brooks’ The Producers makes its regional theater debut, and when the regional premiere is as all-around sensational as the one currently being staged by Musical Theatre West, it is a theatrical event of major proportions.
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POPE JOAN
Thursday, January 29th, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
Following their award-winning revival of Hair, producer Michael Butler and director/choreographer Bo Crowell return with the world premiere musical Pope Joan, the saga of history’s only female pope, who (supposedly) reigned for less than three years in the 850s.
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THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
In one of the major 99-seat theater coups of the year, Covina Center For The Performing Arts obtained the rights to stage the L.A. Regional Premiere of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s extraordinary The Light In The Piazza, winner of a deserved six Tony awards in 2005. Now, in one of the biggest theatrical triumphs of this or any year, CCPA’s production, superbly directed by New York/L.A.-based Brady Schwind and starring three of Broadway’s most talented performers, recreates the magic of the Lincoln Center original on a warmer and more intimate scale.
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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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