REVOLVER
Sunday, June 16th, 2013RECOMMENDED
A gay man seeking vengeance on the bashers who killed his first love years before. Jesus dancing a tango in heaven with the disciple whose betrayal led to his death on the cross. A closeted mega-rich movie star and the openly gay starving actor who was once his one true love. Antagonistic friends of a recently od’ed crystal meth addict sorting through his things. An angry gay activist being interviewed by a young journalist who idolizes him. A murdered gay man and one of his killers meeting once again in heaven.
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PAINT YOUR WAGON
Saturday, June 1st, 2013RECOMMENDED
Downey Civic Light Opera concludes its 58th (and sadly last) season with a production that once again illustrates what DCLO and the illustrious Marsha Moode do best—even with a second-rate musical like the largely (and justly) forgotten 62-year-old chestnut that is Lerner & Lowe’s Paint Your Wagon.
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FOOL FOR LOVE
Monday, May 27th, 2013RECOMMENDED
Powerful performances by Chad Doreck and Lauren Plaxco make the Gloria Gifford-directed revival of Sam Shepard’s overwrought one-act Fool For Love now playing at T.U. Studios worth checking out.
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THE MIRACLE WORKER
Sunday, April 21st, 2013RECOMMENDED
A pair of powerhouse performances would make Actors Co-op’s revival of William Gibson’s Tony-winning The Miracle Worker must-see theater if only attention been paid to sightlines, or had the Co-op staged it at the David Schall Theatre next door.
Note: See update at end of review.
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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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RAGTIME
Monday, March 18th, 2013RECOMMENDED
Kentwood Players takes on the many challenges of Ragtime, one of the most truly epic shows ever to have filled a Broadway stage, and achieves laudable results for a community theater production.
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STAY ON THE LINE: A Rock Musical
Saturday, March 2nd, 2013RECOMMENDED
A crisis hotline center serves as the setting for Stay On The Line: A Rock Musical, a revised remounting of a 2001 Cal State Fullerton project and one that works best as a showcase for its phenomenally talented cast of mostly 20something triple threats under the direction of Crystal K. Craft and Scott Mlodzinski.
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ALL MY SONS
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013RECOMMENDED
It takes guts for a community theater to challenge audiences accustomed to light comedic fare with a drama as stark as Arthur Miller’s All My Sons. Heck, it takes guts for any theater company to stage what may well be the greatest play of the 20th Century and do it justice.
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