THE ISLAND
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013RECOMMENDED
It’s one thing (and an admirable one at that) for Skypilot Theatre to have as its slogan “New Plays, Written, Developed, and Performed In Los Angeles.” It’s something even more noteworthy for the company to undertake that most difficult genre of all, the musical. After all, it’s hardly uncommon for a new musical to be “in development” for half a dozen years or more.
I don’t know where The Island is on its trajectory from inspiration to final form. There are certainly aspects of this World Premiere’s book and songs that could, as they say, “use some work.” Notwithstanding, I quite enjoyed this “musical re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, flaws and all.
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ModRock
Monday, June 24th, 2013
The city was London, the season was Summer Of ’65, and the Beatles had only recently “crossed the pond” to conquer America. Back in the UK, the Profumo Affair and its sexy instigator Christine Keeler was being splashed across British tabloids while at nearby seaside resorts, leather-clad Rockers were clashing in the streets with trendily dressed Mods.
This heady period in 20th Century English history now returns to bouncy, tuneful life in ModRock, Hagan Thomas-Jones’ dandy new jukebox musical that’s a little bit Romeo & Juliet, a little bit Grease, and a whole lot of fun.
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FOOL FOR LOVE
Monday, May 27th, 2013RECOMMENDED
Powerful performances by Chad Doreck and Lauren Plaxco make the Gloria Gifford-directed revival of Sam Shepard’s overwrought one-act Fool For Love now playing at T.U. Studios worth checking out.
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COOPERSTOWN
Saturday, May 25th, 2013
The history-making 1962 induction of Jackie Robinson, America’s first African-American major league baseball player, into the Baseball Hall Of Fame provides a backdrop for Brian Golden’s nostalgic Cooperstown, now getting a first-rate West Coast Premiere at The Road Theatre Company’s brand spanking new second home—The Road On Magnolia.
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THE CRUCIBLE
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
Arthur Miller’s dramatization of the Salem witch trials has rarely if ever seemed as timeless or proven as powerful as it does in The Antaeus Company’s stunning new revival of the 1953 classic The Crucible, brilliantly directed by Armin Shimerman and Geoffrey Wade.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
Sunday, March 31st, 2013
What’s in a name? Well, to Gwendolen Fairfax, whose “ideal has always been to love someone of the name Earnest,” it means just about everything, so much so that her beau Earnest Worthing dare not let it slip that “Earnest” is merely a moniker he assumes when in big city London, his real name Jack being reserved for the rest of his life in the Hertfordshire countryside.
Any theater buff worth his or her salt can surely tell you that the “Earnest” in question is but one of two bogus “Earnests” in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest, now getting a dandy revival at North Hollywood’s Theatre Banshee under the assured direction of Sean Branney.
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NUTTIN’ BUT HUTTON
Friday, March 22nd, 2013
The Blonde Bombshell. Annie Oakley. Fred Astaire’s Let’s Dance Co-Star. The Incendiary Blonde. Texas Guinan. Paramount Pictures’ Biggest Star. The Perils Of Pauline’s Pauline. Blossom Dearie. Dean Martin’s “Hetty Button.”
Miss Betty Hutton was all of the above, either in real or onscreen life, and Diane Vincent pays tribute to her Greatest Hits in the terrific new World Premiere Musical/Musical Revue Nuttin’ But Hutton, now delighting audiences at North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts Center under the direction of the ever inventive Larry Raben.
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MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION
Saturday, March 16th, 2013
Daughter Discovers Mom To Be Millionaire Madam
No, this isn’t a headline story in The National Inquirer or on TMZ, nor is it the latest reality TV show or nighttime soap. In fact, the mother and daughter in question are from over a century back (when you only needed $40,000 to be a millionaire) and the two lead characters in George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Can you say “ahead of its time?”
Shaw’s 1893 ground-breaker makes an exciting return to Los Angeles as The Antaeus Company premieres another if its couldn’t-be-better revivals starring the incomparable Anne Gee Byrd in the title role. Who could ask for anything more?
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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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