SPRING AWAKENING
Monday, March 10th, 2014RECOMMENDED
A talented young cast and some imaginative directorial touches highlight Spring Awakening at Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson, a laudably bold programming choice for the venerable Westside community theater despite certain deficiencies in design, particularly sound, that prevent the Steven Sater/Duncan Sheik musical from being an unqualified success.
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50 SHADES! THE MUSICAL
Wednesday, March 5th, 2014RECOMMENDED
Performances are all-around sparkling, a few of them quite impressive indeed; songs are catchy, their lyrics a mix of cleverness and four-letter-word raunch; a live band provides expert musical backup; and the cocktail-swigging, mostly female audience goes nearly as wild as they would at a bachelorette party. Still, whether or not you decide to see 50 Shades! The Musical, the often outrageously funny spoof of the phenomenally popular Fifty Shades Of Grey, will depend on your wiliness to pay as much as $85 a ticket for an under-90-minute show with all the production values of a Fringe Festival offering produced on the cheap, on the very cheap.
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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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SEX AND EDUCATION
Monday, February 24th, 2014RECOMMENDED
The venerable Colony Theatre enters the 21st Century with a 4-letter-word-propelled bang as it reaches out to extend its subscriber base beyond the blue-hair set with an envelope-pushing production of Lissa Levin’s Sex And Education.
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THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS
Sunday, January 12th, 2014RECOMMENDED
A terrific ensemble of Southern California triple threats and John Vaughan’s pizzazzy choreography are the best reasons to catch Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre’s revival of 1978’s The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, a Broadway smash that begs the question, how did this mostly forgettable musical end up running a whopping 1,584 performances on Broadway?
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MERRY F***IN’ CHRISTMAS, Y’ALL
Tuesday, December 24th, 2013RECOMMENDED
A number of jarring tonal shifts and some underdeveloped characters don’t stop Merry F***in’ Christmas Y’All, the latest from Eclectic Company Theatre, from being a laugh-getter for those who don’t mind more than a bit of raunch in their holiday entertainment.
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CHRISTMAS 2
Sunday, December 1st, 2013RECOMMENDED
The laughs come fast and furious in SkyPilot Theatre Company’s Christmas 2, however Jeff Goode’s latest will need some pruning, tightening, and polishing if it’s going to have nearly the afterlife of his smash hit The Eight: Reindeer Monologues.
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THE POKÉMUSICAL
Thursday, November 7th, 2013RECOMMENDED
A second extension of the Hollywood Fringe Festival hit The Pokémusical made it possible for this reviewer to catch the much talked-about musical spoof of the animated Pokénon TV series and films, one which features quite a few laughs and some terrific performances. Despite those pluses, however, I must confess to having ended up a good deal less a fan of The Pokémusical than its rave reviews had led me to expect. (read more)
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