GUYS AND DOLLS
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Damon Runyon’s colorful New York denizens are lighting up the stage at Rolling Hills Estates’ Norris Theatre in their 2011-2012 season opener, a highly entertaining production of Frank Loesser’s Guys And Dolls.
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CHICAGO
Monday, August 15th, 2011
To paraphrase Stephen Sondheim, “Everything’s coming up Chicago” these days. Still going strong at 6000+ performances on Broadway, the musical smash is at long last lighting up regional and community theater stages, giving directors, choreographers, performers, and designers the chance to put their own stamp on the John Kander/Fred Ebb classic.
ONCE UPON A MATTRESS
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011RECOMMENDED
If America is the land of opportunity, nowhere is this more true than in the world of community theater. There’s probably nowhere else in the world where software developers, college math teachers, office workers, Air Force officers, and children’s book illustrators are offered so many opportunities to take to the stage and enjoy the delights of performing live theater—without having to quit their day jobs.
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ART
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
The stars of last fall’s Moonlight And Magnolias are reunited as best friends in the Hermosa Beach Playhouse production of Yasmina Reza’s Tony-winning Art, just one of several reasons not to miss this terrific revival of the 1998 Broadway smash.
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THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s The Light In The Piazza is the most exquisite new musical to grace Broadway in the past ten years. How’s that for a reason to catch its first big-stage L.A.-area production since the National Tour played the Ahmanson in 2006—especially one as gorgeous as that of Civic Light Opera Of South Bay Cities?
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THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
Any director tackling Shakespeare is likely to want to put his or her personal stamp on the tragedy or comedy in question, be it the gazillionth Hamlet or the ump-ump-umpteenth Taming Of The Shrew. Stephanie A. Coltrin is no exception, and under her imaginative direction, Hermosa Beach Playhouse’s Taming Of The Shrew becomes a broadly-played comedic delight.
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THE ODD COUPLE
Friday, February 4th, 2011
How many plays can you think of that have generated a film adaptation (and a 30-years-later sequel), a long-running sitcom, a short-running African American-cast sitcom, an animated children’s series, an alternate version with the male and female roles reversed, and an updated version with an all new title?
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BAREFOOT IN THE PARK
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
There’s a fine line in theater between “period” and “dated.” A play that’s dated is one that’s no longer appropriate for a contemporary audience and may even be offensive to current sensibilities. On the other hand, a period play delights us with its look back at the way we were, as seen through then-contemporary eyes. That’s why, when someone recently described Neil Simon’s Barefoot In The Park as “dated,” my immediate response was, “No, it’s not dated at all. It’s period.”
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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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