BRIGADOON
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
Before My Fair Lady, before Gigi and Paint Your Wagon and Camelot, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe had their first big Broadway hit in 1947 with Brigadoon. Thrice revived since then on the Great White Way, Brigadoon has gone on to become a regional theater favorite, and though it will never eclipse Lerner & Loewe’s masterpiece (you know which one that is), it does have its own old-fashioned charms as well as songs like “Almost Like Being in Love” that have gone on to become standards.
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NINE
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
When Rob Marshall’s movie adaptation of Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston’s Nine came out last year, many reviewers and moviegoers shook their heads. Could this film (rated a mere 6.2 by imdb.com users and a dismal 49/100 by major media reviewers*) actually have been nominated for twelve Tonys and won five (including Best Musical and Best Score) when it debuted as a Broadway musical in 1982? What did the original show have that Marshall’s movie lacked?
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WELCOME HOME JENNY SUTTER
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Jenny Sutter is the newest kind of wounded war vet—a female United States Marine who, just like her male counterparts did four decades ago upon returning home from an unpopular war in Southeast Asia, has no idea how she can possibly fit back into a “normal” life after the hell she experienced in Iraq.
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DREAMGIRLS
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Dreamgirls is back, bigger, brighter, bolder, and more dazzling than ever. In fact, the National Tour which has just begun a two-week run at Costa Mesa’s Orange County Performing Arts Center is one of the most visually spectacular and spectacularly performed touring productions ever. In many ways, it’s in a class all by itself.
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BENT
Sunday, April 18th, 2010RECOMMENDED
Recent years have seen great strides for the LGBT movement in the United States and even more so in certain other parts of the world. At the same time, as a visit to Towleroad.com will attest, anti-gay violence occurs on a daily basis, and in countries like Uganda, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, the mere fact of being gay can mean death, and not merely by your garden variety basher but by the government itself. Thus, Theatre Out’s production of Martin Sherman’s Bent comes at a propitious time indeed, and though a key directorial decision dilutes its power, a committed cast and one performance in particular make this an important piece of theater for LGBT playgoers and general audiences as well.
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DOCTOR CERBERUS
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
It’s the mid-1980s and Franklin Robertson is a “husky” 13-year-old geek with a passion for late night scary movies. If horror host Doctor Cerberus is on the air, you can be sure that young Franklin will be in front of his TV set, enraptured. Tonight, the Transylvanian-accented Doctor (“with a Ph.D in Fear”) is screening “an American classic in the tradition of Citizen Kane and Gone With The Wind,” 1984’s Firestarter, starring Drew Barrymore and George C. Scott “just before he fired his agent.”
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HAIRSPRAY
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
It’s been five years since Hairspray has been anywhere near L.A., so the arrival of the long-running National Tour at Costa Mesa’s Orange County Performing Arts Center is exciting news indeed. This fabulous touring production features lead and supporting actors who create memorable characters and a team of young triple-threats who sing and dance Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s tuneful songs to deserved audience cheers.
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THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE
Sunday, April 4th, 2010RECOMMENDED
George is a linguist, and he’ll be the first to explain that this doesn’t mean that he speaks a whole bunch of languages fluently, but rather that his field is linguistics, the scientific study of language and languages as a whole. George’s particular field of interest and expertise is the study of dying languages such as Elloway, whose two remaining speakers are facing their twilight years. If George doesn’t probe their knowledge asap, it will be too late to for a recorded/written record of the language, and Elloway will be lost forever.
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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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