MADAGASCAR
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010
A young man disappears, and five years later remains missing with nary a clue of his possible whereabouts.
JT Rogers’ Madagascar looks at the effect of this disappearance on three of the people closest to him. Densely written, told almost entirely through monologs, Madagascar is a smart play that requires smarts from its audience.
(read more)
COPENHAGEN
Friday, May 7th, 2010
There’s a moment early on in Michael Frayn’s Tony Award-winning Copenhagen when Margrethe Bohr says reassuringly to her physicist husband Niels, “I don’t think anyone has yet discovered a way you can use theoretical physics to kill people.” Ironic words indeed when spoken to one of the theoretical physicists who worked on the Manhattan Project developing the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, weapons which led to the immediate or eventual deaths of 200,000 human beings.
(read more)
THE DIVINERS
Saturday, March 6th, 2010RECOMMENDED
Don’t go expecting a happy ending in Jim Leonard, Jr.’s The Diviners. The play’s prologue reveals Buddy Layman’s fate from the get-go. “He’s dead now for certain. He’s passed on beyond us. The idiot boy is dead. Buddy Layman’s gone.”
BROADS THE MUSICAL
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
Life begins at 65 for Elaine, Louise, Myra and Nilda, aka The Broads, and for those of you out there who’ve never heard of them, just ask any of their fellow residents at South Florida’s Millennium Manor. They’ll tell that you the Broads are the next best thing to Metamucil, and that when the time rolls around for Millennium Manor’s annual variety show, it’s by far the Senior Citizen event of the year.
(read more)
COUSIN BETTE
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
Who would ever have thought that a 164-year-old French novel would provide the basis for the juiciest, funniest, most twisted 3-act, 3-hour family saga since Tracy Letts’ August Osage County? But that’s precisely what Jeffrey Hatcher’s delicious adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s Cousin Bette has turned out to be, particularly under the brilliant direction of Jeanie Hackett and as performed by the superb troupe of actors who make up the Antaeus Company, “L.A.’s Classical Theater Ensemble.”
(read more)
DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS
Friday, February 12th, 2010
Take a 1964 Marlon Brando-David Niven-Shirley Jones comedy (Bedtime Story), remake it in 1988 with a new title (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and an even funnier trio of leads (Steve Martin, Michael Caine, Glenne Headley), turn it into a 2005 Broadway musical starring John Lithgow, Norman Leo Butz, and Sheri Rene Scott which scored eleven Tony nominations and one big win for Best Actor Butz, then assign director extraordinaire Richard Israel to downscale it to 99-seat dimensions and you’ve got Interact Theatre Company’s sensational L.A. Intimate Theater Premiere of the hit musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, just opened at the NoHo Arts Center.
(read more)
SIDHE
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
A hunky young Irishman and his pretty but droopy young wife arrive at a dark, dingy Chicago apartment for a “look-see.” Since they’ve come baggage in hand, clearly, they’re planning on staying. No matter that the “semi-furnished” flat has only a sofa and a floor lamp. No matter that Conall and Jackie have no references. “Give me some cash, I’ll give you the keys, and then I’ll be out of your way,” offers Louise, the dour 30something landlady, and when the Irishman insists that “I’m not putting this many dollars in your hand without some metal in mine,” the exchange of cash and keys brings Louise and her new renter flirtatiously close. Even without witnessing this, Jackie is not at all happy about Conall’s decision to rent Louise’s upstairs apartment. “She looked at us,” she cautions the Irishman, and again, “She looked at us!”
(read more)
THE COLUMBINE PROJECT
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Of all the Los Angeles theater success stories of 2009, perhaps none was greater than that of The Columbine Project, Paul Storiale’s meticulously researched docudrama about the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. World premiering last April at the 48-seat Avery Schreiber theater in North Hollywood, The Columbine Project was extended twice before transferring to off-Broadway with unprecedented swiftness (and with the entire L.A. cast intact). Its July through October New York run at the Actors Temple Theatre was praised by the prestigious New Yorker magazine as a production which “fills the tiny, funky theatre with talent and gravity.” In December, the original North Hollywood production was awarded five ADA (Artistic Director Achievement) Awards including a Best Director award for its creator/writer/director Paul Storiale.
(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 2025 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY