12 ANGRY MEN
Wednesday, November 13th, 2013
A black-and-white cast adds provocative new shadings to 12 Angry Men as the Pasadena Playhouse revives the 20th Century jury room drama for a 21st Century audience, and though director Sheldon Epps’ re-envisioning of Reginald Rose’s now iconic play proves problematic, there’s no denying the power of the dynamic dozen actors onstage at the Playhouse or of Rose’s ingeniously constructeds, beautifully written classic.
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PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE
Friday, November 1st, 2013
Following in the footsteps of last year’s award-winning Cymbeline, A Noise Within returns for a new season of classical theater with one more of Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” once again prompting the question, “What on earth could the so-called ‘problem’ be?” when the play in question yields results as magical as these?
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ENDGAME
Monday, October 28th, 2013NOT RECOMMENDED
There are plays that grab you from their opening moments and keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. And then there’s Endgame, the latest from A Noise Within.
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RII
Thursday, October 10th, 2013
William Shakespeare. The Theatre @ Boston Court. Two names you wouldn’t normally expect to see in the same sentence let alone in the first paragraph of a review. But wonder of wonders, Boston Court is currently wowing an audience of Shakespeare buffs and T@BC regulars with its very own version of Richard II, one they’ve redubbed RII if only to let the world know that, just as Boston Court isn’t your grandparents’ theater, this isn’t your grandparents’ Richard II—not by a long shot.
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SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ
Monday, September 23rd, 2013
“Kansas City,” “Yakety Yak,” “Love Potion No. 9,” and “On Broadway” are just four of the 1950s rock and pop hits now being performed to cheers and not one but two standing ovations as the Pasadena Playhouse revives the 1995 Broadway smash Smokey Joe’s Café, featuring forty of the greatest hits of rock-and-roll songwriting legends Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
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THE BEAUX’ STRATAGEM
Friday, April 26th, 2013
Frank Galati’s 1990 stage adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath, Sarah Ruhl’s 2003 take on Eurydice, and now Ken Ludwig and Thornton Wilder’s 2006 adaptation of The Beaux Stratagem… Has A Noise Within ever had as contemporary (and 2013 audience-friendly) a season as the three plays now in rep at their Pasadena digs?
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AMERICAN MISFIT
Friday, April 19th, 2013RECOMMENDED
America’s first ever serial killers come back to surreal life in American Misfit, Dan Dietz’s overreaching yet frequently entertaining historical dramedy with music, now playing at The Theatre @ Boston Court under Michael Michetti’s imaginative direction.
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EURYDICE
Sunday, March 17th, 2013
A Noise Within continues its Spring 2013 season, one with a decidedly more modern spin than is usual at California’s Home For The Classics, with Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl’s magical, mystical, poetic retelling of the Orpheus myth from the point of view of his bride.
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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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