THE GONDOLIERS
Saturday, May 24th, 2014NOT RECOMMENDED
Gorgeous voices fill the stage at the Sierra Madre Playhouse but that’s about all there is to recommend in Alison Eliel-Kalmus’s adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Gondoliers. Though G&S fans may find the production more interest-piquing than this reviewer did, SMP’s follow-up to 2012’s Ruddigore could benefit from a tighter directorial hand, less “director’s concept,” and a stricter adherence to the operetta’s original book.
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THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Tuesday, May 6th, 2014Misfit kids once again rule as Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre presents The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, one of the past decade’s crowd-pleasingest musicals, and whether it’s your first time at The Bee, or your eleventh (as it was for this reviewer), you’ll be smiling—and cheering on the competitors—from start to finish.
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GYPSY
Thursday, April 10th, 2014Inland Valley Repertory Theatre continues its 2014 season midweek at Claremont’s Candlelight Pavilion with an audience-pleasing revival of one of the greatest musicals in Broadway history, Gypsy.
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CRAZY FOR YOU
Monday, March 24th, 2014The songs are all Gershwin, the dancing is virtually non-stop, and the entertainment value is sky-high in the Tony-winning Best Musical of 1992 Crazy For You, which Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre is now reviving to justified audience cheers.
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ARSENIC AND OLD LACE
Thursday, February 20th, 2014
Playwright Joseph Kesselring may have written only one enduring hit in his lifetime, but endure Arsenic And Old Lace most certainly has, its latest revival by Inland Valley Repertory Theatre providing 2014 audiences with as many laughs as must have greeted the black comedy’s Broadway debut back in 1941.
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MY FAIR LADY
Sunday, February 9th, 2014
Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre celebrates its 200th production with a crowd-pleasing revival of the musical that started it all for the Claremont gem nearly thirty years ago, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe’s 1956 classic My Fair Lady.
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AN IDEAL HUSBAND
Sunday, January 19th, 2014
Classical theater fans impatient for the start of A Noise Within’s Spring 2014 season need head a mere five minutes east of ANW’s Pasadena digs to catch Sierra Madre Playhouse’s 2014 opener, an impeccably staged and acted revival of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband.
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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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