COLLECTED STORIES
Sunday, October 21st, 2012
Two of L.A.’s most gifted actresses ignite the stage in The Group Rep’s production of Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize finalist Collected Stories, giving performances every bit as brilliant as one might expect to see on the stages of our finest regional theaters.
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YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
Saturday, October 20th, 2012
If you love Kaufman and Hart’s 1930s classic You Can’t Take It With You as much as I do, then the best news in town will surely be The Antaeus Company’s sensational revival of this screwball gem, a production that gives audiences two completely different casts to choose from—and more.
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DANGEROUS CORNER
Monday, October 8th, 2012RECOMMENDED
“Director’s concept” is a tricky business. When inspired, it can enhance a writer’s intentions and allow audiences to see a play or musical in new, exciting ways. When misguided, it can detract from a production’s effectiveness and distract an audience from a clear perception of what the playwright is trying to say. The latter proves to be the case in Crown City Theatre Company’s revival of J.B. Priestley’s 1932 drama Dangerous Corner, though fortunately not fatally so.
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THE RED ROOM
Monday, October 1st, 2012NOT RECOMMENDED
Memories of the past haunt the present of a once successful Hollywood mogul, his tormented wife, and their three adult sons in Christopher Knopf’s frustratingly abstruse The Red Room, now getting its World Premiere at North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts Center.
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EPIC PROPORTIONS
Tuesday, September 11th, 2012RECOMMENDED
If ever there were a play more suited to North Hollywood’s Avery Schreiber Theatre than Broadway’s Helen Hayes (where it flopped back in 1999), that play is Larry Coen & David Crane’s Epic Proportions, an entertaining small-scale spoof of those cheesy Biblical epics that were once part of Hollywood’s bread and butter. (Or should that be dates and hummus?)
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WAR BRIDE
Monday, August 20th, 2012
When returning WWII G.I. Alvin Rhodes told his mother Catherine he’d be bringing a surprise back to Merced with him, she thought he meant a lovely tea set. About the last thing she was expecting was a Japanese bride. After all, it was only the month before that the “Japs” had surrendered, and as far as Catherine was concerned, they were still our enemy. How dare Alvin play this sick joke on her? How dare he commit treason in this way!
Thus begins Samantha Macher’s highly original and often quite gripping War Bride, now getting its World Premiere production by SkyPilot Theatre, astutely directed and imaginatively choreographed by Nancy Dobbs Owen.
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PAUL+CHRIS: TOGETHER AGAIN (FOR THE FIRST TIME)
Wednesday, August 15th, 2012
Take two of L.A.’s most handsome and vocally gifted musical theater performers—partners in music and life for the past eleven years. Stir in a dozen and a half tunes showcasing their talents both as individuals and as a duo. Back with some terrific ivory-tickling and surround with a theaterful of fans and friends and you’ve got Paul+Chris: Together Again (for the first time), an evening of musical theatre songs “exploring the surprises of friendship, longing, and love,” and one far too entertaining for its one performance only last night at the NoHo Arts Center.
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A RING IN BROOKLYN
Saturday, August 11th, 2012
The Academy For New Musical Theatre follows last year’s 40 Is The New 15 with another flashback-to-the-past World Premiere musical, A Ring In Brooklyn (subtitled “a frickin’ musical”), and if their latest project gets off to an iffy start, about halfway through Act One it kicks into gear and turns out a winner.
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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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