LADYHOUSE BLUES
Sunday, March 3rd, 2013
Four years had passed since the Equal Rights Amendment was sent to the states to be ratified and three since Roe vs. Wade became the law of the land when Kevin O’Morrison’s Ladyhouse Blues first sent mid-1970s audiences back to 1919, a year after the end of World War I and the watershed year the Senate ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the vote just as the 1920s began to roar.
Andak Stage Company now revives Ladyhouse Blues under the impeccable direction of Anne McNaughton, offering L.A. audiences an all-around splendid production, one that transports us back nearly a century to the end of a decade in which the times, were (as Bob Dylan was to put it forty-five years later) most definitely “a-‘changin’.”
COMPANY
Friday, February 15th, 2013
“Phone rings, door chimes, in comes company!”
As any musical theater buff can tell you, the person whose phone is ringing and whose door is chiming and who is welcoming company into his Manhattan pad is none other than Robert, aka Bobby, aka Bob, aka Bobbo, aka Robby, aka Bobby Baby, aka Robert Darling, aka Bobby Honey, the bachelor lead of Company, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Tony-winning Best Musical of 1970, now getting its first L.A. production in what seems like eons—and a pretty darned terrific one at that—at North Hollywood’s Crown City Theatre.
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AND THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND
Sunday, February 3rd, 2013
Cabaret, “All That Jazz,” Chicago, “Maybe This Time,” “The Money Song,” Kiss Of The Spider Woman, “My Coloring Book,” “New York, New York” … When you hear the names Kander & Ebb, the list of hit shows and songs goes on and on, so much so that by the year 1991, the time had come for a musical revue saluting John Kander and Fred Ebb’s Greatest Hits, and the Drama Desk Award-winning And The World Goes ‘Round (conceived by Scott Ellis, Susan Stroman, and David Thompson) was born.
Though now officially licensed as The World Goes Round, the revue’s latest revival at the NoHo Arts Center gives it back its original ‘91 title, a decision fully in keeping with this sensational, back-to-its-roots staging of one of the most entertaining, tune-packed song cycles in musical theater history.
THE GAYEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER
Tuesday, January 1st, 2013
Though it’s now too late for L.A. theatergoers to catch this holiday season’s return engagement of Joe Marshall’s The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever!, this reviewer did manage to squeeze in the final performance of this hilarious (and much improved for 2012) December gem.
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SHERLOCK’S LAST CASE
Monday, December 24th, 2012
The world’s most famous detective pays North Hollywood a visit as The Group Rep presents Charles Marowitz’s delightful Sherlock’s Last Case as their end-of-year offering. Though not the inspired staging Actor’s Co-op gave us a few years back, director Larry Eisenberg and a talented cast offer Angelinos a crowd-pleasing comedy at a time when most L.A. stages are dark for the holidays.
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ONE NOVEMBER YANKEE
Sunday, December 23rd, 2012RECOMMENDED
A single-engine Piper J-3 Cub airplane crashes in the New Hampshire woods, its two passengers soon arriving at the inexorable conclusion that neither is likely to survive the freezing winter night. Playwright-director Joshua Ravetch takes this incident and expands upon it in unexpected ways in One November Yankee, now getting its World Premiere production at North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts Center.
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CHRISTMAS MY WAY – A SINATRA HOLIDAY BASH!
Sunday, December 16th, 2012
Memories of holidays spent listening to the song stylings of Ol’ Blue Eyes come back to life in Christmas My Way – A Sinatra Holiday Bash!, now entertaining audiences at North Hollywood’s historic El Portal Theater.
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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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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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