FLOYD COLLINS
Monday, March 31st, 2014
In the early days of 1925, decades before Baby Jessica and O.J. and Monica Lewinsky and Nancy & Tonya and Watergate and Laci Peterson and Patty Hearst and Jon Benet and Octomom and Iran Contra and countless other 20th Century media circuses, a young Kentucky cave explorer named Floyd Collins became trapped in a narrow crawlway over fifty feet underground. Efforts to rescue him ignited a media frenzy, aided and abetted by the recent advent of broadcast radio that helped spread the news across the country.
Inspired by the two-week-long efforts to save Collins from a subterranean grave (and the carnival atmosphere that surrounded the rescue mission), Adam Guettel and Tina Landau wrote the 1996 Lucille Lortel/Obie Award-winning Floyd Collins, one of the most powerful musicals of the past two decades and one which La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts has now given an intimate “ONSTAGE” production that proves a brilliant follow-up to last year’s smash Spring Awakening.
(read more)
IN THE HEIGHTS
Saturday, March 29th, 2014
The Tony-winning Best Musical of 2008 with its original Tony-winning choreography and orchestrations, its original Tony-nominated Broadway scenic and costume designs, and a cast of some of Southern California’s finest triple-threats… All of this adds up to the very first Broadway-scale L.A.-adjacent regional production of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’s In The Heights, one of the finest Cabrillo Music Theatre productions ever.
(read more)
CRAZY FOR YOU
Monday, March 24th, 2014
The songs are all Gershwin, the dancing is virtually non-stop, and the entertainment value is sky-high in the Tony-winning Best Musical of 1992 Crazy For You, which Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre is now reviving to justified audience cheers.
(read more)
A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE
Monday, March 24th, 2014
The lives of couple dozen “unimportant” Dubliners are bestowed the significance they deserve in Torrance Theatre Company’s beautifully performed intimate-stage production of Terrence McNally, Lynn Aherns, and Stephen Flaherty’s 2002 off-Broadway musical A Man Of No Importance.
(read more)
CINNAMON GIRL
Monday, March 17th, 2014
Velina Hasu Houston and Nathan Wang transport us to another time, another place, another world in their magical, mystical, marvelous new musical Cinnamon Girl, now playing at the Greenway Court Theatre.
(read more)
SPRING AWAKENING
Monday, March 10th, 2014RECOMMENDED
A talented young cast and some imaginative directorial touches highlight Spring Awakening at Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson, a laudably bold programming choice for the venerable Westside community theater despite certain deficiencies in design, particularly sound, that prevent the Steven Sater/Duncan Sheik musical from being an unqualified success.
(read more)
ME AND MY GIRL
Saturday, March 8th, 2014
Here’s a Broadway trivia quiz for you. Which of the following musicals ran the longest on The Great White Way: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, Funny Girl, The King And I, Cabaret, Annie Get Your Gun, Kiss Me Kate, The Pajama Game, or Me And My Girl?
If you’re anything like this reviewer/Broadway buff, you may be astonished by the answer. 1986’s Me And My Girl trumps its far better known competitors with a grand total of 1420 performances, just one of many reasons to cheer the arrival of this largely obscure Broadway smash, now smashingly revived by L.A.’s premier theater-in-the-round, Glendale Centre Theatre.
(read more)
THE MUSIC MAN
Tuesday, February 18th, 2014
Musical Theatre West takes one of the truly great 20th Century musicals and gives it a splendid 21st Century revival, one that would be even more splendid with an age-appropriate leading man.
(read more)
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
COPYRIGHT 2026 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY