ONCE
Wednesday, August 20th, 2014
Sometimes execution can be everything. It certainly is in the case of Once, the multiple Tony-winning Best Musical of 2012. The story and the songs are the same as those in the film on which it is based (a movie I found quite unbearable), and yet as brought to freshly inspired life on the musical theater stage, Once The Musical turns out to be one of the best, and quite possibly the most original Broadway smashes, of the past decade.
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GHOST THE MUSICAL
Wednesday, July 30th, 2014
What do you do when the musical you’ve produced ends up flopping on The Great White Way, but has enough going for it to merit a post-Broadway National Tour?
One possible solution is to mount a cost-saving non-union tour, and hope that even without an Equity cast and budget, whatever magic brought the show to Opening Night on Broadway will somehow survive.
In the case of Ghost The Musical, now playing at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts, the magic mostly does.
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DIXIE’S TUPPERWARE PARTY
Friday, July 11th, 2014RECOMMENDED
When playwright Kris Andersson and his Tupperware Lady alter ego “Dixie Longate” debuted their “one-woman” show Dixie’s Tupperware Party at the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival, little did they realize that ten years later, their comedy confection would earn a slot at Westwood’s Geffen Playhouse. As to whether it merits a run at one of L.A.’s most prestigious regional houses … Well, I’ll say this for Dixie and her honest-to-gosh Tupperware party: There are far less entertaining ways to spend an evening at the theater than in the presence of the trailer-trashy redhead and her multi-colored plastic bowls, canisters, jars, and other assorted gadgets.
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JERSEY BOYS
Thursday, June 26th, 2014
Jersey Boys, the 13th longest running show in Broadway history no less, is now making its triumphant return to Southern California with a three-week stop at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts after a seven-year absence, and that, musical theater (and Four Seasons) lovers, is cause for celebration.
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THE BOOK OF MORMON
Friday, May 16th, 2014
Elders Price and Cunningham have arrived in beautiful Costa Mesa, California with their offer of a “free book written by Jesus” as the Segerstrom Center For The Arts presents the Orange County Premiere of Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone’s absolutely brilliant, super-smash Broadway hit The Book Of Mormon.
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MAMMA MIA!
Wednesday, April 9th, 2014
Mamma Mia! and its two dozen of ABBA’s Greatest Hits are back at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts for the first time in three years, and though this is the international smash’s first non-Equity tour, this latest Mamma Mia! comes across Grade-A professional all the way.
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I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE
Wednesday, March 19th, 2014
From its smash 2011 Los Angeles debut only a few blocks from CBS Television City and its subsequent hit Chicago run, I Love Lucy® Live on Stage has now arrived as a great big National Tour for one all-too-brief Southern California stop at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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NOËL COWARD’S BRIEF ENCOUNTER
Sunday, February 23rd, 2014
Married housewife Laura meets married physician Alec when a cinder gets in her eye at a London train station and he kindly removes it for her. Shared tea and conversation in the station tea room lead to another meeting, and another, until Laura and Alec can no longer deny their love, nor the knowledge that as an adulterous middle-class couple living in 1938 London, there is no possibility of a happily-ever-after.
Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter now comes to magical, imaginative, supremely theatrical onstage life as the Wallis Annenberg Center For The Performing Arts presents the Cornwall-to-London-to-Broadway-to-Beverly Hills production of Kneehigh Theatre’s Tony-nominated adaptation of David Lean’s über-romantic 1945 film classic, itself based on Coward’s one-act gem Still Life.
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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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