DISNEY BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Saturday, July 21st, 2018A luminous Susan Egan’s return to the role that made her a Broadway star is just one reason not to miss 5-Star Theatricals’ five-star revival of Disney Beauty And The Beast, though it is easily Egan’s incandescent star turn that gives the production’s two-weekend run at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza event status.
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MARY POPPINS
Friday, July 20th, 2018In-the-round staging proves a perfect fit for Mary Poppins at Glendale Centre Theater, placing the emphasis firmly on P.L. Travers’ storytelling, the Sherman Brothers’ hum-along songs, a bunch of infectious dance numbers, and leading lady Deborah Robin, quite possibly the best of the seven Marys I’ve seen on stage.
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MUTT HOUSE
Thursday, July 19th, 2018I defy anyone to resist the canine charmers of Mutt House, or their human companions, or the songs, or the laughter, or the romance, or the heart of this Kirk Douglas Theatre guest production, as gem-perfect an L.A. World Premiere musical as I’ve seen in at least a dog’s year.
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BIG FISH
Tuesday, July 17th, 2018Chance Theater takes full advantage of Big Fish The Musical’s newly revised “small cast edition” to transform an overblown Broadway flop into an intimate gem that could touch even a heart of stone.
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YANKEE DOODLE DANDY
Monday, July 9th, 2018A talented cast do their best to breathe life into Musical Theatre West’s Yankee Doodle Dandy, a well-intentioned but ill-conceived look back at the life of George M. Cohan, the father of 20th-century musical comedy.
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BIG RIVER
Saturday, July 7th, 2018Actors Repertory Theatre Of Simi treats Simi Valley audiences to one of its best–and best-looking–productions ever, a terrifically performed revival of the 1005-performance Tony-winning Best Musical of 1985, Roger Miller and William Hauptman’s Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
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CABARET
Friday, July 6th, 2018Michael Matthews takes Cabaret, a director’s show if there ever was one, and transforms it into the summer’s most spectacular intimate musical, an almost perfect rendition of the 20th-century Broadway classic, a production blessed by superb performances, breathtaking choreography, and the most jaw-dropping design I may ever have seen at Celebration Theatre.
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MARY POPPINS
Sunday, July 1st, 2018Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson Theatre delivers the family entertainment goods with a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Mary Poppins, once again proving that you don’t need Broadway-budget spectacle to get audiences cheering.
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