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.
(read more)
THE WIZARD OF OZ
Thursday, February 13th, 2014
The beloved characters of L. Frank Baum, the iconic songs of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg, the musical gifts of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, the spectacular creations of a world-class design team, and the contemporary sensibility that has helped make Wicked a blockbuster international smash—all of these combine to give Southland audiences the fabulous hybrid that is the North American Tour of the 2011 London Palladium production of The Wizard Of Oz, now playing at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
(read more)
CHICAGO
Wednesday, January 29th, 2014
You may have seen Kander & Ebb’s Chicago at your nearby regional, community, or 99-seat theater, but you haven’t seen Chicago in all its Broadway brilliance till you’ve seen the National Tour of the Walter Bobbie-directed, Ann Reinking-choreographed 1996 revival, now dazzling Southern California audiences this week only at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
(read more)
DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
Wednesday, January 15th, 2014
That “tale as old as time” better known as Disney’s Beauty And The Beast is back at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts for the first time in over three years—with a brand-new cast and all the magic of the 1992 animated classic and the Broadway musical it inspired.
(read more)
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.
(read more)
PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013
The rainbow-colored bus known around the world as Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert has just pulled into the Costa Mesa station (make that Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts), and as anyone who’s seen Stephen Elliott’s 1994 cult hit movie of the same name can tell you, that’s just about the most fabulous news any OC resident or neighbor to the north could possibly ask for this week.
(read more)
ANYTHING GOES
Wednesday, September 25th, 2013
No 1930s musical has achieved the enduring popularity of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. A grand total of five Broadway, off-Broadway, and West End revivals, a pair of movie adaptations, a TV special, and more national and international productions than even the most dedicated Porter aficionado could possibly count.
For those who wonder why Anything Goes just keeps on ticking, there’s no more compelling evidence than the National Tour of its 2011 Broadway revival now spending the week at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts, a Broadway tour that guarantees SoCal audiences one show-stopping number after another in an Anything Goes that tops any other production of it you might happen to have seen.
(read more)
SISTER ACT
Wednesday, August 7th, 2013
Sister Mary Clarence, the nun formerly known as nightclub chantoose Deloris Van Cartier, has come to town, news that can only mean that the sensational Sister Act is celebrating musical comedy mass at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts. (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