ASSASSINS
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
West Coast Ensemble continues its tradition of presenting some of Los Angeles’ finest intimate theater musicals (Floyd Collins, Zanna Don’t, Sunday In The Park With George) with an absolutely first-rate new staging of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins. Of the three Assassins productions I’ve seen over the past 15 months, this one features the strongest cast—an utterly sensational one at that—and benefits enormously from the imaginative direction of Richard Israel, fresh from his unanimously praised 1776.
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RETURN
Friday, June 13th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Sonia Levitan’s award-winning young adult novel The Return has been turned into a musical, entitled simply Return, with often powerful results.
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SONGS FROM AN UNMADE BED
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
The Celebration Theatre scores big with Songs From An Unmade Bed, their best show yet this season and the first to present a fully (and beautifully) realized three-dimensional portrait of a contemporary gay man. Exquisitely performed by Broadway vet Dave Barrus, imaginatively staged by director-of-the-hour Patrick Pearson, and designed by one of the finest teams L.A. has to offer, Songs From An Unmade Bed is must-see theater, not just for its core audience, but for any lover of musical theater or song.
IMAGINE
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
The best children’s theater, like the best Disney classics, is theater that’s not just for kids. South Coast Repertory knows this well, and the latest entry of its “Theatre For Young Audiences” series is sure to delight not only children … but also the grownups they bring along.
A VERY BRADY MUSICAL
Friday, June 6th, 2008The Brady Bunch is (are?) alive and well and on stage at Theatre West in the brand new A Very Brady Musical. With music and lyrics by Hope and Laurence Juber and book by Lloyd J. Schwartz and Hope Juber, A Very Brady Musical mixes multiple plots with catchy songs to create a mostly entertaining evening of tuneful entertainment.
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shAme
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
When reminiscing about their high school years, most adults can probably recall having studied Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter at some point or other. An imdb check shows over a dozen film or TV adaptations including 1995’s, which starred an improbably cast Demi Moore as Puritan adulteress Hester Prynne. The classic melodrama even made it to Broadway a century ago. Never before, however, has it been set to music, or at least not until composer songwriter Mark Governor decided to turn it into a rock opera now making its Hollywood club debut.
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A NEW BRAIN
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Patrick’s Pearson breathtakingly conceived production of William Finn’s A New Brain is the most dazzling display of young talent you’re likely to see this year.
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A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM
Friday, May 30th, 2008
“Something familiar, something peculiar, something for everybody: Comedy tonight!”
Those who associate the name of Stephen Sondheim with something sophisticated, something subtle, something dour even (as in Passion) may not recognize the master of complex, reputedly un-hummable melodies and adult angst in Sondheim’s very first show as lyricist AND composer.
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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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