BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA
Saturday, February 21st, 2009
Though he never appears on stage during the play’s 90-minute running time, the real star of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, currently wowing North Hollywood audiences, is the man who conceived and directed the supernaturally screamalicious production—Ken Sawyer. In lesser hands, and without the state-of-the-art sound and lighting equipment at the NoHo Arts Center, Hamilton Dean and John L. Balderston’s stage play might be a campy, creaky mess. Instead, it is an entirely thrilling evening of theater which provides the pleasures of the greatest horror films—shocks and screams galore—in three dimensions and surround sound.
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THE TWILIGHT OF THE GOLDS
Friday, February 6th, 2009
What would you do if a simple test early in pregnancy could determine whether or not your child would be born with a physical defect or a propensity towards a debilitating illness? What if such a test could even tell you what your unborn child’s sexual orientation might be?
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THE BIRD AND MR. BANKS
Friday, January 16th, 2009
How, you might wonder, could a middle-aged nebbish of an accountant named Seymour Banks have become the FBI’s most wanted man in America? The answer to this puzzler can be found in Keith Huff’s quirky, original, and entirely unpredictable dark comedy, The Bird And Mr. Banks, now getting its West Coast Premiere at the illustrious Road Theatre.
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LOVE’S LABOR’S LOST
Friday, December 26th, 2008
I have a confession. I’m not the worlds biggest Shakespeare fan. Yes, I know that as a theater reviewer it’s my “duty” to love the Bard, so sue me for saying that I often get lost in his convoluted plots, whole chunks of dialog whizzing past me or over my head without really sinking in. Thus, when I tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed (and had very little difficulty following) The Porters of Hellsgate’s production of Love’s Labor’s Lost, this is high praise indeed.
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SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ
Saturday, December 13th, 2008
Fans of 1950s rock and pop will be in Top 40 heaven with the El Portal Theatre’s revival of the 1995 Broadway smash Smokey Joe’s Café, featuring three dozen of the greatest hits of rock-and-roll songwriting legends Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
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PROBLEM CHILD
Sunday, November 16th, 2008
The comedy is dark indeed in George F. Walker’s Problem Child, and thanks to Walker’s twisted take on life and a quartet of pitch-perfect performances, this Bella Productions/Actor’s Workout Studio production is black comedy at its blackest and funniest.
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O JERUSALEM
Friday, November 14th, 2008
What if several months before the events of 9/11, an important U.S. government official had learned of a planned terrorist attack—by air, on an Eastern city, in September? Could the attacks on the World Trade Center have been prevented had this official spoken to the right higher-ups? This hypothetical (or is it?) situation is the basis of O Jerusalem, by A.R. Gurney, now getting a first-rate Los Angeles premiere by The Production Company.
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GIRL’S ROOM
Saturday, October 11th, 2008
Take West Side Story’s original Maria and A Chorus Line’s original Cassie and star them together in 2008 and you have, as Girl’s Room’s publicity proclaims, two veritable Broadway legends sharing the same stage for the first time, and more than enough reason to catch Joni Fritz’s ingratiating dramedy during its limited engagement at the El Portal.
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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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