SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE PALACE
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
A brief news clipping reporting the aftermath of a crime in 1980s Apartheid-ruled South Africa inspired renowned playwright Paul Slabolepszy to imagine the 90 minutes which might have led up to it. The harrowing result, Saturday Night At The Palace, had its Cape Town premiere at a time when it was illegal for black and white actors even to appear on stage together.
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MASK
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
The Pasadena Playhouse stage is lit from behind by a dozen or more white
spots shining like headlights at the audience, illuminating a tribe of bikers led
by the imposing figure of big, longhaired, bearded Dozer. “Come Along For
The Ride,” they sing to the music and lyrics of Hall of Fame legends Barry Mann
and Cynthia Weil, and what a ride it’s going to be. Surrender your urge to
nitpick and let your heart lead you along the brief but brilliant highway that is
the life of Rocky Dennis, immortalized by Eric Stolz and Cher in the 1985 film
Mask. This is Mask as musical, and if the story was rich and rewarding already
as biopic, it is even more so with Mann and Weil’s songs added, and the stellar
performances of Michelle Duffy, Greg Evigan, Michael Lanning, and the
raveworthy debut of Allen E. Read as Rocky.
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RAVENSRIDGE
Friday, February 29th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Remember the days when Hollywood regularly turned out major films with
politically or socially relevant themes, movies like The China Syndrome? The
fact that T.S. Cook’s Ravensridge was (in the playwright’s own words)
“summarily rejected by networks and studios alike” is proof that those days are
no more, and is particularly ironic because Cook was one of the Oscar
nominated writers of that award-winning 1979 film.
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ORSON’S SHADOW
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
The year is 1960. The place is Dublin, Ireland, more specifically the Gaiety Theatre,
where renowned film critic Kenneth Tynan has just arrived on a mission. He plans
to ask Orson Welles of Citizen Kane fame to direct “the greatest actor in the
English language” in a production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. The actor in
question is, of course Lawrence Olivier, fresh from his stage and screen triumph in
The Entertainer. There is one hitch to Tynan’s plan, however, and that is Welles’
belief that “Olivier destroyed me in Hollywood in 1948.”
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RAY CHARLES LIVE
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
Combining the appeal of the Oscar-winning hit film Ray with the dynamic live
theater format of Jersey Boys, the Pasadena Playhouse has a surefire hit on its
hands with Ray Charles Live!, written by Suzan-Lori Parks, directed by Sheldon
Epps, and featuring over two dozen hits made famous by the man of soul himself.
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CANNED PEACHES IN SYRUP
Thursday, October 11th, 2007
Seeing a show at the Furious Theatre in Pasadena is a virtual guarantee of a
brilliantly acted and staged production. Dámaso Rodriguez and his furiously
fearless band of thespians invariably pick edgy and topical pieces of writing
which they bring to vivid life upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse, and Canned
Peaches in Syrup is no exception. Set in the not so distant future, in a world
where food and water are so scarce that half the remaining inhabitants of our
planet have turned to cannibalism to survive, Canned Peaches is, as they say,
as topical as today’s headlines. It’s also an outrageously funny comedy, and a
love story a la Romeo and Juliet to boot.
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MATTER OF HONOR
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
Near the beginning of Michael J. Chepiga’s Matter of Honor, the audience at
the Pasadena Playhouse is plunged into darkness. We hear a loud noise, like a
powerful echoing drumbeat, then a series of cries. A beating is taking place. We
know from that moment that we are in for a theatrical experience very much
out of ordinary.
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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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