tick, tick … BOOM!
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010
Musical theater lovers under the age of forty may find it hard to imagine a time when Jonathan Larson’s Rent wasn’t part of our national musical theater lexicon. 12 years and 5,124 performances on Broadway, a still ongoing National Tour, a major motion picture, and since its Broadway closing, regional theater productions galore—Rent has truly conquered the musical theater world.
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HERSHEY FELDER AS GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE
Saturday, January 16th, 2010
Every so often, a performer creates a theater genre or role which pretty much guarantees him or herself a potentially endless future on stage. Jaston Williams and Joe Sears have done so with their Greater Tuna roles. Marypat Donovan has too with her Late Nite Catechism series. Add to that list Hershey Felder.
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ORDINARY DAYS
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
The lives of four ordinary New Yorkers intersect in Adam Gwon’s tuneful, touching new musical Ordinary Days, now getting a sensationally performed, directed, and designed West Coast Premiere at South Coast Repertory.
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XANADU
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Who would ever have thought that Xanadu, one of biggest critical and commercial flops of the 1980s, would turn into a hit Broadway musical of the 2000s? Even the musical’s book writer, Douglas Carter Beane, is said to have had doubts about turning that lemon into lemonade. He need not have feared. Xanadu scored a pair of Tony nominations, including one for Beane, and ran for over 500 performances.
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THE EIGHT: REINDEER MONOLOGUES
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Get ready for the funniest (and filthiest) Christmas show in town. It’s Jeff Goode’s The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, now in its sixth consecutive year of shocking adults-only audiences into hysterical laughter at The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills. What else would you expect from the writer of Poona The Fuckdog And Other Plays For Children? Like Poona, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues is definitely not for children.
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PETER PAN
Friday, December 4th, 2009
Peter Pan is back in a spectacular new production which heralds the arrival of Southern California’s most exciting new professional theater company—3-D Theatricals.
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WINTER WONDERETTES
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
The marvelous foursome known as the Wonderettes are back in town just in time for the holidays, making this is the best kind of news for theatergoers in search of Christmas cheer. Like The Marvelous Wonderettes, the show that made them famous, Winter Wonderettes is two acts of comedy, harmony, and nostalgia, and a seasonal treat for old and young alike.
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LITTLE WOMEN THE BROADWAY MUSICAL
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
Little Women The Broadway Musical has been a favorite of mine since I first heard its tuneful score (music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein) and later saw a performance of the National Tour. Book writer Allan Knee somehow managed to compact Alcott’s 400-plus-word novel into a two-and-a-half hour musical which retains the book’s most memorable moments (Jo’s stealing a Christmas tree from the neighboring Laurence family’s property, jealous Amy burning Jo’s manuscript, Jo’s shame at finding a scorch mark on her gown the night of the big party, etc.) while adding songs which run the gamut from Jo’s feisty “Better” to the bouncy “I’d Be Delighted,” to the rousing Act 1 closer “Astonishing.”
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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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