SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
The customary path for a musical to follow is the one from stage to screen, the most recent example being Mamma Mia, in movie theaters (and live on Broadway) even as I write this. Far less usual is seeing an original movie musical adapted for the stage, yet just as MTW’s The Wizard Of Oz closes, Singin’ In The Rain opens at Cabrillo Music Theatre, a veritable bonanza for lovers of MGM musicals of Hollywood’s golden age.
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YANK!
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre (“The Nation’s 3rd Oldest LGBT Theatre”) has scored a major (and I mean MAJOR) coup in obtaining the rights to present the West Coast Premiere of Yank!, a major hit (and audience award winner) at 2005’s New York Musical Theatre Festival. In fact, Diversionary is only the second theater company in the U.S. to stage Yank! since the Festival, and a WOW! of a production it is, thanks a terrific cast, staging by the original New York director Igor Goldin, and the hands-on presence of book and lyrics writer David Zellnik and composer Joseph Zellnik.
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THE NEXT BIG THING
Saturday, July 19th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Anyone craving an evening of 80s nostalgia will find much to enjoy in The Next Big Thing, a new musical just opened at the art/Works Theatre. Like Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Can’t Buy Me Love, The Next Big Thing features a cast of energetic, attractive teens (or more precisely 20somethings passing as teens) with dreams to fulfill, and adults who occasionally get in their way.
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THE WIZARD OF OZ
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
“We’re off to see the wizard!”
Children of all ages (and that means parents and grandparents too) will be following the yellow brick road from now until July 27 as Musical Theatre West concludes its 55th season with its very first staging of the L. Frank Baum/MGM classic.
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PARADE
Friday, July 11th, 2008
The lynching of Jewish Northerner Leo Frank, falsely convicted of murdering 13-year-old Georgia factory worker Mary Phagan, remains today, nearly a century later, one of the most serious miscarriages of justice (and instances of anti-Semitism) in United States history. Powerful stuff for a Broadway musical, and one that would seem, at least on paper, more than a bit of a downer. Parade (with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and book by Alfred Uhry) was a hard sell on Broadway. If Fosse was the “feel-good” musical of 1999, then a show with such grim subject matter as Parade was pretty much its antithesis, and closed after 85 performances.
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LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
Downsizing Broadway musicals to fit Equity waiver stages has become an L.A. theater tradition (and challenge) to companies with limited space and budgets. Though somewhat rough around the edges, the Knightsbridge Theatre’s production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage Aux Folles succeeds admirably and enthusiastically, re-imagining La Cage as a Studio City “tranny” bar yet losing none of the original’s laughter, musical dazzle, and tears.
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AMERICAN TALES
Friday, June 27th, 2008
The Anateus Company opens its 2008 ClassicsFest series (of 8 works in progress and 6 “first looks”) with a world premiere fully staged production of a pair of absolutely charming one-act chamber musicals, billed together as American Tales.
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THE WHO’S TOMMY
Friday, June 20th, 2008
The much awaited revival of The Who’s Tommy has finally arrived in a spectacular production featuring a sensational cast and the best sound ever in L.A. theater.
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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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