THE SECRET GARDEN – THE MUSICAL
Saturday, December 21st, 2013
Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman’s Tony-winning The Secret Garden – The Musical has returned to The Chance Theater just in time for the holidays, terrific news for those as young as Mary Lennox, folks every bit as grown-up as gruff old gardener Ben Weatherstaff, and everyone in between.
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A CHRISTMAS MEMORY
Friday, December 20th, 2013
A much loved autobiographical short story by Truman Capote makes its holiday season comeback as a full-length musical as the Laguna Playhouse offers audiences the West Coast Premiere of Duane Poole, Larry Grossman, and Carol Hall’s overlong but entertaining—and ultimately quite moving—A Christmas Memory.
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ALADDIN AND HIS WINTER WISH
Thursday, December 12th, 2013
The musical theater genre known as Panto may have been born in the United Kingdom, but with Lythgoe Family Productions now giving Los Angeles audiences their fourth annual December taste of it with this year’s Aladdin And His Winter Wish, this distinctively English form of musical entertainment has clearly found its home away from home in sunny Southern California, this year for the second time at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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EVITA
Wednesday, December 11th, 2013
There’s no place quite like Broadway when it comes to reviving musical theater classics, as the recent national tours of Anything Goes and West Side Story have made abundantly clear. Now, as if further proof were necessary, comes Michael Grandage and Rob Ashford’s spectacular re-envisioning of the 1978 Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice blockbuster Evita, a revival that debuted in London’s West End in 2006 before transferring to Broadway in 2012, where it received three Tony nominations, including Best Revival Of A Musical and Best Choreography.
Southern California audiences now get the chance to see what all the hoopla’s been about as the revival’s First National Tour pays a two-week visit to Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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BECAUSE IT’S CHRISTMAS
Monday, December 9th, 2013
It wouldn’t be December in Claremont without Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre’s annual original Christmas musical, and this year’s, Because It’s Christmas, makes for an evening or afternoon of delightful, tuneful holiday entertainment for children, parents, grandparents, and everyone in-between.
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IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS
Saturday, December 7th, 2013
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is back for a second year at the Norris Center For The Performing Arts with its four fantastic leads intact, the same sensational direction and choreography, designs like those you’d expect in the best regional theater productions, and—brand new this time round—a live pit orchestra. There may be other White Christmases around town this time of year, but this is the one to see, or see again.
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IN THE HEIGHTS
Saturday, November 23rd, 2013
Usnavi, Vanessa, Benny, Nina, Sonny, Daniela, Piragua Man, and all the colorful Washington Heights locals of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes’ In The Heights are back in the Heights (Boyle Heights that is) as Teatro Nuevos Horizontes’ multiple Scenie-winning production of the 2008 Broadway hit returns for this year’s holiday season with four of its original stars intact and many of its new principal players living up to memories of last year’s all-around phenomenal leads.
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ILLYRIA
Friday, November 22nd, 2013
A gifted young cast directed by one of SoCal’s finest, a gorgeous score, and romance and comedy in equal measure are several of the best reasons to catch Cal State Fullerton’s blackbox staging of Illyria, Peter Mills’ musicalization of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night*. Add to that the unlikelihood of a major L.A. theater miraculously discovering Illyria’s existence, and anyone who loves musicals should make it a point not to miss this largely unknown gem.
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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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