COMPANY
Friday, January 20th, 2017
The all-student talent of USC’s Musical Theatre Repertory rises to the many challenges of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Company—and then some—in an intimate staging that stands out as one of the finest of the eighteen MTR productions I’ve reviewed over the past nine years.
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RENT
Saturday, January 7th, 2017
Jonathan Larson’s Rent has arrived at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts in an energetically performed 20th-Anniversary non-Equity tour that recreates Michael Greif’s original 1996 vision, one that revolutionized Broadway with its now iconic tale of impoverished young artists and musicians just barely holding it together in New York’s Lower East Side during the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic.
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LITTLE WOMEN – THE BROADWAY MUSICAL
Sunday, December 25th, 2016
An almost entirely new cast breathes fresh new life into Little Women – The Broadway Musical in its Chance Theater return, one that audiences can consider themselves lucky to have caught during its just concluded five-week run.
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ELF THE MUSICAL
Wednesday, December 21st, 2016
Get ready to fall in love with Elf, both 6’2” Buddy and the Broadway adaptation of the Will Ferrell holiday gem. Elf The Musical is spending a week at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts and some despite stiff competition from White Christmas and The Grinch, it now takes first place as this reviewer’s heart as best holiday musical ever.
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AMÉLIE, A NEW MUSICAL
Monday, December 19th, 2016
Romance and whimsy reign supreme at the Ahmanson Theatre this holiday season as the century’s most popular French movie heroine takes center stage in Amélie, A New Musical, a Southern California Premiere blessed by a tuneful (and virtually nonstop) score, entrancing performances (including a beguiling star turn by Hamilton star Phillipa Soo), and a magical production design unlike anything I’ve seen before. Give Amélie, A New Musical some judicious book tweaking and it could well prove a Broadway winner in 2017.
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I’M JUST WILD ABOUT HARRY
Friday, December 16th, 2016
I’m Just Wild About Harry, Gary Lamb and William A. Reilly’s Americanized musicalization of Brandon Thomas’s classic 1892 British farce Charley’s Aunt, is back for the holidays with an all new cast but the same proven blend of gender-bending screwball fun and frolic, early 20th-century song hits, and happily-ever-after romance that have made it a crowd-pleasing Crown City hit not once but twice.
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SLEEPING BEAUTY AND HER WINTER KNIGHT
Thursday, December 15th, 2016
Lythgoe Family Panto is back in the OC as the Laguna Playhouse treats kids of all ages to Sleeping Beauty And Her Winter Knight, Orange County’s most song, dance, and laugh-packed December treat.
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A CINDERELLA CHRISTMAS
Saturday, December 10th, 2016
There’s only one place in town where you can see Disney Channel teen idols, a ‘70s/‘80s TV diva, ugly stepsisters in drag, a gender-bending fairy godmother, a pygmy horse, magic effects and transformations galore, and some terrifically danced production numbers; hear over a dozen Top-40 hits (and more one-liners than a Henny Youngman set); and perhaps most excitingly, get to cheer the heroes and boo the villains—and that’s at the Pasadena Playhouse, once again treating L.A. audiences to the British tradition known as “Panto” with this year’s A Cinderella Christmas, the fifth annual Panto At The Playhouse.
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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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