THE BOY IN THE BATHROOM
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
No theatrical genre is more quintessentially American than the musical. From Show Boat to Oklahoma to West Side Story to A Chorus Line to Rent to Spring Awakening, the American musical continues to evolve, breaking new ground and exploring new themes, and nowhere more so than in the intimate “chamber musical.” Daddy Long Legs, Adding Machine: The Musical, Hello Again, Loving Repeating, Group: A Musical, and Glory Days are but a half dozen chamber pieces raved about on these pages over the past half dozen months, and to this list can now be added The Boy In The Bathroom, currently getting its World Premiere at The Chance Theater.
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THE IDIOT BOX
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
Six 20somethings live in perfect harmony in a New York penthouse. Their lives are laugh track-accompanied, and canned audience “ooohs” and “aaahs” are heard at sentimental moments. They are cute, ditzy, dumb, wisecracking, and a bit dull.
No, this is not the latest network sitcom or a rerun of Friends, but rather Michael Elyanow’s clever, highly satisfying tour-de-force comedy The Idiot Box, one of my favorite new plays of the past ten years.
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SILENT SKY
Sunday, April 10th, 2011
When you think of pioneering names in the field of Astronomy, who pops into your head? Nicolaus Copernicus? Galileo Galilei? Tycho Brahe? Sir Isaac Newton? Johanes Kepler?
Notice anything these five men have in common?
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FOOTLOOSE: THE MUSICAL
Sunday, April 10th, 2011
If you’ve ever seen Kevin Bacon in Footloose, you’ve heard of Bomont, the Midwest town where high-schooler Ren McCormack discovered to his dismay that it was illegal to dance. The 1984 film introduced a heap of 80s hits, including the title song, “Let’s Hear It For the Boy,” “Almost Paradise,” “Holding Out For A Hero,” “I’m Free,” “Somebody’s Eyes,” and “The Girl Gets Around.” Fourteen years later Footloose made it to Broadway as a full-fledged musical, with most of the movie hits integrated into its story line and a bunch of new Tom Snow creations added. The resulting production ran for over 700 performances, and has since become a favorite high school and college musical.
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I LOVE YOU BECAUSE
Saturday, March 12th, 2011
I Love You Because is one of the funniest and most delightful new musicals of the past few years. It has one of the most tuneful, memorable scores you’re likely to hear this year or next. It’s also one of the most unabashedly romantic musical comedies ever. So, you may be asking yourself, “Why have I never heard of it?” to which this reviewer would add, “Why has this near perfect gem of a chamber musical comedy still not gotten its Los Angeles Premiere in the five years since it debuted off-Broadway?”
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WICKED
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
The international smash musical sensation that is Wicked has arrived in Costa Mesa for a four-week run, two-to-four times longer than most of the Broadway Tours that play the Segerstrom Center For The Arts—and no wonder. Few musicals can rival Wicked in terms of song, romance, color, spectacle, and heart.
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THE WEDDING SINGER
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Fullerton’s Maverick Theater scores a coup by staging the 2006 Tony Award-nominated musical The Wedding Singer, and an entertaining production it is—a thoroughly enjoyable two hours of music, comedy, 1980s nostalgia, and romance.
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ROCK OF AGES
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
The ‘80s have taken over the O.C. as the Broadway smash Rock Of Ages arrives at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts. Long-haired rock stars, big-haired rock babes, and the hits of Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, Poison and Asia come together with a wisp of a jukebox musical plot to make for two hours and twenty minutes of joyous nostalgia and hard rock “noize” (as in Quiet Riot’s 1983 cover of “Cum On Feel the Noize.”)
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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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