IN ON IT
Sunday, June 8th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
In Daniel MacIvor’s In On It, two actors perform on a bare black stage, their sole “props” being a pair of chairs and a gray suit jacket. Who are these two men? Are they actors? Writers? Students in an acting class? They seem to be preparing a play or movie about someone named Ray who was involved in an accident. At various times, both performers (named “This One” and “That One”) don the jacket to become Ray, or doff it to portray one of the other characters in Ray’s life. Other scenes between the two men, a gay couple, have them discussing their work in progress. Still others seem to be flashbacks from their past.
PEST CONTROL
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Pest Control The Musical may well be the most visually and technically spectacular musical ever staged in a 99-seat L.A. area theater. Its cast is a mix of stars with major Broadway credits and some of our finest local talents. Director- choreographer James J. Mellon and his Open At The Top Productions have mounted a sensational world premiere musical where only the number of seats is small.
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LADY
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Craig Wright may be most familiar as the writer/(executive) producer of TV’s Dirty Sexy Money and Six Feet under, but theatergoers know him as a prodigious playwright, the author of such radically different fare as Orange Flower Water, Grace, and Recent Tragic events, all three of which have had superb L.A. productions over the past two years. Orange Flower Water is a harrowing drama of adultery, Grace mixes that theme with evangelical Christianity, and Recent Tragic Events dares to imagine a screwball comedy taking place the day after 9-11. Now comes the West Coast Premiere of 2007’s Lady, and the trio of outstanding local productions of Wright’s work is now a quartet.
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CORPUS CHRISTI
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
MCCV’s brilliantly directed and exquisitely performed production of Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi is currently thrilling audiences at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, moving them to laughter and tears as it did the many Southern (and Northern) Californians who saw it over the course of its one year journey to Scotland.
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THE CONCEPT OF REMAINDERS
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Richard Martin Hirsch proves himself not only prolific (4 plays produced locally in the last two years) but versatile par excellence with his latest (and best) work. After The Quality Of Light (a May-September romance set in France), Atonement (an engrossing character study of a Jewish writer in crisis), and this winter’s The Monkey Jar (a “from today’s headlines” drama about a child accused of threatening his teacher with a handgun), Hirsch now turns his considerable talents to comedy with a sexy adult concoction entitled The Concept Of Remainders.
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ONE NIGHT STANDS
Sunday, April 6th, 2008RECOMMENDED
One Night Stands, The Sex Comedies began as the second half of a program of one acts last June. Nearly a year later it continues in expanded form as a sort of “late night” entry playing during “prime time” hours (sans the two musicals which completed the original program).
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THE HISTORY OF BOWLING
Monday, March 24th, 2008RECOMMENDED
You know you’re in for something different at the theater when a quartet of
pom-pom bearing cheerleaders provide the pre-show announcements … as a
cheer. Follow that with a leading man who’s a real-life quadriplegic (Danny
Murphy of Farrely Brothers movies fame) and a quirky girl meets older boy plot
and you have The History Of Bowling, now playing at the NoHo Arts Center.
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THE VIOLET HOUR
Friday, March 14th, 2008
Richard Greenberg’s The Violet Hour seems throughout Act 1 (at least
superficially) to be a light and semi-absurd (albeit very intelligent) comedy.
However with the blackout line which concludes the act, it transforms itself in
Act 2 into a far more provocative (and intellectually stimulating) drama. The
two acts together form a funny and thought-provoking evening of theater.
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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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