THE BLUEST EYE
Monday, September 4th, 2023Performances are uniformly topnotch and the A Noise Within season opener is imaginatively directed and stylishly designed. I only wish I had enjoyed Lydia R. Diamond’s undoubtedly faithful stage adaptation of Toni Morrison’s downer of a novel The Bluest Eye even half as much as the Grade A treatment it’s been given.
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STEW
Monday, July 17th, 2023
Pasadena Playhouse concludes its monumentally successful Tony-winning 2022-2023 season on a sky-high note with Zora Howard’s gripping, thought-provoking, thoroughly entertaining “kitchen sink” dramedy Stew.
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THE BOOK OF WILL
Monday, May 15th, 2023
A race against time to preserve the words of the world’s greatest playwright before they fade from memory propels Lauren Gunderson’s The Book Of Will, the fascinating, illuminating, crowd-pleasing latest from A Noise Within.
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A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Monday, May 1st, 2023
Pasadena Playhouse’s epic Sondheim Celebration continues this month with A Little Night Music, a Broadway-couldn’t-do-it-better revival that tops even February’s magnificent Sunday In The Park With George.
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KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
Sunday, April 2nd, 2023
You may have read Manuel Puig’s novel. You might have watched its Oscar-winning movie adaptation. If you’re a musical theater buff, you’ve probably seen it set to the songs of Kander and Ebb. But chances are you haven’t experienced the powerful theatrical two-hander Puig himself adapted from his book, just one of many reasons not to miss Kiss Of The Spider Woman’s stunningly acted, directed, and designed debut at A Noise Within.
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UNRIVALED
Sunday, March 26th, 2023I was often tickled but only occasionally engaged by the madcap antics and contemporary speak of the trio of 11th-century Japanese women whose friendship/enmity (frenmity?) Rosie Narasaki writes about in Unrivaled, now getting its World Premiere as a Boston Court Pasadena-Playwrights’ Arena co-production.
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SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
Monday, February 20th, 2023
Stephen Sondheim’s most personal musical, Sunday In The Park With George, finally gets what L.A. Sondheim lovers have long prayed for, a superbly performed, stunningly designed, rarer-than-rare big-stage revival that had its Pasadena Playhouse opening night audience swooning with joy.
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Tuesday, February 14th, 2023
A newly liberated Sicily provides a fresh new WWII-era time and place for American GI Benedick and Italian ragazza Beatrice to fall in love at not-quite-first sight in A Noise Within’s sparkling 2023 revival of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.
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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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