SECRETS OF A SOCCER MOM
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
You don’t have to be the mother of a budding soccer star to enjoy Stillspeaking Theatre’s latest offering. Still, San Marino’s professional theater couldn’t have picked a better play for the community which surrounds it than Kathleen Clark’s Secrets Of A Soccer Mom. My guess is that the carpool set will love it. After all, even this single male reviewer with no particular interest in raising children, playing soccer, or watching children play soccer had a fine time getting to know its three title characters.
(read more)
CITY OF ANGELS
Saturday, September 12th, 2009RECOMMENDED
For a theater company to have been in continuous operation for a record eighty-eight years, it must be doing something right. Whittier Community Theatre certainly is, and their latest production, City Of Angels, the Tony-winning Best Musical of 1989, is a perfect example of why WCT is the oldest non-profit amateur theater west of the Mississippi.
(read more)
SWEET CHARITY
Friday, March 13th, 2009RECOMMENDED
It’s been far too long since a major production of the 1966 Broadway hit Sweet Charity has been mounted locally. Thus, it’s a pleasure to announce Charity’s arrival at the Curtis Theatre in Brea. Though not at CLO level, this non-Equity production offers many pleasures, not the least of which are its bouncy, hummable songs, including now well-known standards like “Big Spender,” “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This,” “Where Am I Going?”… The list of Cy Coleman-Dorothy Field hits goes on and on.
(read more)
BAREFOOT IN THE PARK
Friday, March 6th, 2009
One of my favorite things about being a theatergoer is having the chance to see new productions of favorite plays. Unlike the movies, where the word “remake” usually spells artistic disaster, revivals of popular theater favorites give directors and actors the opportunity to put their own stamp on iconic productions and roles, and playgoers the chance to revisit favorite characters and situations—with a fresh new twist.
(read more)
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
In one of the major 99-seat theater coups of the year, Covina Center For The Performing Arts obtained the rights to stage the L.A. Regional Premiere of Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s extraordinary The Light In The Piazza, winner of a deserved six Tony awards in 2005. Now, in one of the biggest theatrical triumphs of this or any year, CCPA’s production, superbly directed by New York/L.A.-based Brady Schwind and starring three of Broadway’s most talented performers, recreates the magic of the Lincoln Center original on a warmer and more intimate scale.
(read more)
ROSE’S DILEMMA
Friday, August 29th, 2008
The “ghost comedy” is a tried a true genre that, for me at least, never fails to entertain. You know the story. Ghost returns from the other side to haunt our hero (or heroine), the only one who can see or hear said ghost, a situation leading to exchanges like the following (purely of my own creation):
(read more)
FACING EAST
Sunday, July 13th, 2008RECOMMENDED
Who is to blame when a gay man kills himself? Is it the “sin of homosexuality” that is at fault, or is it the judgment of those around him who chose to shun and shame, rather than to embrace? Sadly, even in the year 2008, there are far too many who believe the former. Religious faith, instead of being based on love and acceptance, is too often used to judge and condemn, something which author/playwright Carol Lynn Pearson knows all too well.
ANY NUMBER CAN DIE
Saturday, June 14th, 2008
As much as I have enjoyed attending (and appearing in) Whittier Community Theatre productions, I must confess that I wasn’t expecting all that much from a little known murder mystery spoof entitled Any Number Can Die, written by a certain Fred Carmichael, author of over 40 plays even the most avid theatergoer has probably never heard of. Ever seen All The Better To Kill You With? Don’t Mention My Name? Exit The Body? Hey, Naked Lady? Meet My Husbands? A Pack Of Rascals? Ten Nights In A Bar Room?
(read more)
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
COPYRIGHT 2025 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY