TARTUFFE
Tuesday, March 4th, 2014RECOMMENDED
A Noise Within opens its Spring 2014 season with the classical theater company’s own distinctive take on Molière’s classic French farce Tartuffe*, and though not the inspired revival audiences were treated to in Pericles, Cymbeline, and The Beaux Stratgem, this entertaining if at times overly dark production does at the very least make relevant points about the hypocrisy, greed, and corruption of (at least certain members of) the clergy.
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ABOVE THE FOLD
Friday, February 7th, 2014
Three white North Carolina college frat boys accused of gang-raping an African-American stripper provide the incendiary framework for Above The Fold, Bernard Weinraub’s bracingly acidic look at politics circa 2014, race relations in today’s South, and print journalism in an increasingly cyber age—the World Premiere latest from the Pasadena Playhouse.
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ALADDIN AND HIS WINTER WISH
Thursday, December 12th, 2013
The musical theater genre known as Panto may have been born in the United Kingdom, but with Lythgoe Family Productions now giving Los Angeles audiences their fourth annual December taste of it with this year’s Aladdin And His Winter Wish, this distinctively English form of musical entertainment has clearly found its home away from home in sunny Southern California, this year for the second time at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Sunday, December 8th, 2013
A virtual Who’s Who of veteran A Noise Within resident artists join forces with a sensational design team under the inspired direction of Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott to bring audiences ANW’s first production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in a baker’s dozen years.
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A PERFECT LIKENESS
Monday, November 25th, 2013RECOMMENDED
Writer-director Daniel Rover Singer imagines a ninety-minute meeting between Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll in the World Premiere of A Perfect Likeness, now playing at South Pasadena’s Fremont Centre Theatre, and despite bravura performances by Bruce Ladd and Daniel J. Roberts, I must confess to having found Singer’s play rather too talky for my tastes and not nearly as appealing and engaging as its unanimous rave reviews had led me to expect.
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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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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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