KISS ME KATE
Wednesday, July 15th, 2015
One of Broadway’s leading directorial-choreographic teams and a New York-based cast with credits a mile long breathe fresh life into the Broadway classic Kiss Me Kate at San Diego’s Old Globe in a brand-new revival certain to delight Cole Porter fans and KMK first-timers in equal measure.
ALL SHOOK UP
Monday, June 22nd, 2015
All Shook Up, aka “The Elvis Musical,” has come to San Diego-adjacent Vista as Moonlight Stage Productions offers SoCal audiences a terrific outdoor revival of one of the most thoroughly entertaining Broadway shows of the past dozen years.
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A NEW BRAIN
Sunday, May 31st, 2015
Brilliant direction + imaginative choreography + ten terrific performances = more than enough reason for a road trip to San Diego to catch Diversionary Theatre’s pitch-perfect intimate staging of William Finn’s rarely revived A New Brain.
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BUYER & CELLAR
Monday, April 20th, 2015
“Mem’ries” light the corners of struggling actor Alex More’s mind, but they are neither “misty” nor “water-colored” given that the divinely heavenly boss-from-hell whom Alex is “rememb’ring” in Jonathan Tolins’ hilarious Buyer & Cellar, now getting an absolutely fabulous San Diego Premiere at The Old Globe, is none other Barbra herself, no family name required.
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BABY WITH THE BATHWATER
Sunday, March 8th, 2015
Wacky is the word for Baby With The Bathwater. Winningly wild and wonderful apply too to Christopher Durang’s 1983 comedy classic, as does gut-bustingly hilarious, a bathtub full of adjectives and adverbs that make the latest from Diversionary Theatre well worth a San Diego road trip this month.
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THE KING AND I
Friday, January 9th, 2015NOT RECOMMENDED
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s score is as glorious today as it ever has been, the now iconic “Small House Of Uncle Thomas” ballet remains a thing of unique beauty and charm, and Victoria Strong and Richard Bermudez not only prove sensational choices to play Anna and the King of Siam, they give the visiting English schoolmarm and the Siamese monarch a romantic, sexual chemistry almost unheard of since The King And I made its 1951 Broadway debut.
Unfortunately, the current Welk Resort Theatre staging of the R&J classic also features some racially insensitive casting choices straight out of the 1950s that underline the creakiness of book writer Hammerstein’s depiction of the Thai people and their centuries-old culture.
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WINTER WONDERETTES
Sunday, November 23rd, 2014
There may not be snow on the ground down Escondido way this month or next, but with Winter Wonderettes spending the holidays at the Welk Theatre, the marvelous (and wonderful) quartet’s trademark blend of comedy, harmony, nostalgia, and seasonal melodies turn the San Diego-adjacent resort’s year-round green grass and blue skies into the next best thing to a traditional White Christmas.
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THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
Friday, November 21st, 2014
From family-friendly animated funfest to powerful grown-up fare, Disney’s The Hunchback Of Notre Dame has been transformed by the folks at La Jolla Playhouse into a new stage musical so darkly dramatic that Broadway’s Phantom Of The Opera seems almost light and frothy by comparison. In other words, what they’ve come up with is that rarity—a Disney musical with the proviso “Leave the kids at home.”
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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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