9 TO 5
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
Violet, Doralee, and Judy, the trio of office gals made famous by Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Jane Fonda in 1980’s 9 To 5 are back—in a re-directed, re-choreographed, re-designed National Tour of the Broadway musical which world premiered a few years back at the Ahmanson.
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COMPLETENESS
Sunday, April 24th, 2011
The KISS principle tells us to “Keep it simple, Stupid!” In other words, it’s a simple design (or romance for that matter) that works best, unnecessary complexity being the enemy of a successful outcome.
Nerds-in-love Elliot and Molly learn the truth of KISS in Itamar Moses’s Completeness, the popular young playwright’s latest World Premiere comedy, now playing at South Coast Repertory. If only the computer scientist and the molecular biologist could just keep it simple, maybe their fledgling romance might have a chance of not imploding.
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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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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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