SHOUT SISTER SHOUT
Tuesday, August 1st, 2017The cast is sensational as all get-out and the life story they have to tell, that of Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973), is well worth a stage or screen bio, but the late great gospel/R&B pioneer deserves far better than the ill-conceived World Premiere musical Shout Sister Shout.
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HOLD THESE TRUTHS
Monday, June 5th, 2017
The time could not be riper for Jeanne Sakata’s Hold These Truths to make its powerful, compelling, inspiring Pasadena Playhouse debut, the extraordinary tale of one American’s fight for his inalienable rights at a time when his own government wished to deny them.
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THE HOUSE IN SCARSDALE: A MEMOIR FOR THE STAGE
Monday, May 8th, 2017
A disowned playwright embarks on a quest to uncover his dysfunctional family’s long-buried truths in Dan O’Brien’s powerful, poetic autobiographical memory play The House In Scarsdale: A Memoir For The Stage, now being given a superbly acted, directed, and designed World Premiere Production at The Theatre @ Boston Court.
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MAN OF LA MANCHA
Sunday, April 2nd, 2017
Stunningly staged and strikingly redesigned, A Noise Within’s Man Of La Mancha takes a half-century-old musical theater classic and gives it 21st-century relevance while reminding audiences why the 1965 Best Musical Tony winner has stood the test of time in a way the same year’s Skyscraper, Pickwick, and It’s A Bird…It’s A Plane…It’s Superman have not.
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AH, WILDERNESS!
Sunday, March 12th, 2017
A New England teen does considerable growing up over the course of thirty-six midsummer hours in Ah, Wilderness!, Eugene O’Neil’s timeless bit of early twentieth-century Americana, delightfully revived by A Noise Within in a production that could only have been improved by the casting of an age-appropriate lead.
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A CINDERELLA CHRISTMAS
Saturday, December 10th, 2016
There’s only one place in town where you can see Disney Channel teen idols, a ‘70s/‘80s TV diva, ugly stepsisters in drag, a gender-bending fairy godmother, a pygmy horse, magic effects and transformations galore, and some terrifically danced production numbers; hear over a dozen Top-40 hits (and more one-liners than a Henny Youngman set); and perhaps most excitingly, get to cheer the heroes and boo the villains—and that’s at the Pasadena Playhouse, once again treating L.A. audiences to the British tradition known as “Panto” with this year’s A Cinderella Christmas, the fifth annual Panto At The Playhouse.
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THE MAIDS
Saturday, October 29th, 2016Stunning performances and a striking production design make A Noise Within’s revival of Jean Genet’s The Maids a must for fans of mid-20th-century French experimental theater. Those less fond of avant-garde fare will find Genet’s talky tale of twisted sisters a considerably tougher go.
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THE IMAGINARY INVALID
Sunday, October 16th, 2016
Whether you’re a Mel Brooks/Monty Python fan who would never even consider setting foot in “California’s Home For The Classics” or a diehard Molière aficionado who can’t possibly imagine passing up a fresh new adaptation of the 343-year-old Le Malade Imaginaire, Constance Congdon’s 21st-century take on The Imaginary Invalid treats A Noise Within audiences to a laughfest so delectably funny (and playfully raunchy), it would do Mel or Monty proud.
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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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