SALVAGE

A chance visit to a run-down, out-of-the-way bar stirs up memories long-ago friendships, unfulfilled dreams, unforgotten grudges, and a woman named Jennifer in Tim Alderson’s Salvage, a World Premiere “play with music” which requires buying into more than one coincidence but offers multiple rewards, not the least of which is getting to hear some of the most haunting, gorgeously sung country music in town.
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ORRY

Legendary Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly lives again (at his own funeral, no less) in Nick Hardcastle’s entertaining, informative Orry, now playing a limited engagement at West Hollywood’s Lee Strasberg Theatre.
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AMERICAN MARIACHI

I dare you not to fall for South Coast Repertory’s American Mariachi, the crowd-pleasingest season opener any major American regional theater could wish for.
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INDECENT

A gut-punching, all-too relevant look at Antisemitism, censorship, homophobia, anti-immigration hysteria, the Holocaust, and McCarthyism during the first half of the 20th Century, Paula Vogel’s Indecent is also a thought-provoking demonstration of the power of live theater to both inspire and inflame, and for Los Angeles theatergoers, a chance to see the production that scored director Rebecca Taichman a Tony win two years ago.
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POOR YELLA REDNECKS

Vietgone’s Quang and Tong are back at South Coast Repertory and facing their not quite happily ever after in Qui Nguyen’s laugh-and-rap-packed World Premiere comedy Poor Yella Rednecks.
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THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE

Children’s theater doesn’t get much darker than 24th STreet Theatre’s The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane, and not just because the lights are turned way down low on the starkest of production designs. Dwayne Hartford’s adaptation of Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo’s tale of a toy rabbit’s passage from owner to owner in Depression-era America is grim as can be, though not without hope and moments of joy.
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HYPE MAN: a break beat play

The police shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager impacts the lives of a white rapper, his black backup singer, and the multiracial beat maker who completes their stardom-bound rap group in Idris Goodwin’s HYPE MAN: a break beat play, an exhilarating, discussion-provoking Fountain Theatre West Coast Premiere.
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MIDDLE8

If Thornton Wilder were still alive to write a rock opera about five musicians dealing with issues of love, life, death, and what comes after, he might choose to title it Our Band. Stefan Marks calls his play-with-songs Middle8, and for anyone who’s seen the playwright-actor-director-musician-designer’s past work, it should come as no surprise that Middle8 is label-defyingly special.
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