SQUABBLES


Theatergoers in search of laughter with a dollop of romance added for good measure need look no farther than Squabbles, currently lighting up the stage at the Palos Verdes-adjacent Norris Center For The Performing Arts.
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FIDDLER ON THE ROOF


There are times in musical theater when all the elements—performance, direction, choreography, musical direction, and design—come together to form an absolutely perfect whole. One of these times is now, in CLOSBC’s brilliant revival of Fiddler On The Roof.
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BLITHE SPIRIT


As long as there’s been theater, there have surely been comedies about ghosts come back to haunt the people on stage and amuse those in the audience who are watching their shenanigans.  Movies like the 1937’s Topper, which spawned not one but two TV series (and is scheduled for a 2010 Steve Martin remake) have continued the tradition on the big and small screen. When there’s only one character who can see the ghost(s) in question and the people around him/her suddenly find our hero(ine) talking to the air and see objects floating around the room, hilarity is sure to ensue.
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BYE BYE BIRDIE


It’s 1958 all over again in CLOSBC’s picture-perfect revival of the rock-n-rollin’ Broadway classic Bye Bye Birdie, with L.A. favorites John Bisom and Natalie Nucci giving New York originals Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera a run for their money in stellar triple-threat performances. Director-choreographer extraordinaire Dan Mojica once again works his magic in bringing to finger-snappin’ toe-tappin’ life the Elvis Presley-gets-drafted-inspired book by Michael Stewart and the oh-so-memorable songs by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams.  
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SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS

RECOMMENDED
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Torrance Theatre Company’s 10th annual Summer Musical, provides ample proof as to the amount and level of musical theater talent on our local stage scene. Unlike recent 7Brides productions by FCLO Music Theatre and Cabrillo Music Theatre, Torrance’s brides, brothers, and assorted townspeople are all portrayed by non-Equity actors, and though TTC’s production does not reach the bar its predecessors set, the results are nonetheless praiseworthy indeed.
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PARADE


The lynching of Jewish Northerner Leo Frank, falsely convicted of murdering 13-year-old Georgia factory worker Mary Phagan, remains today, nearly a century later, one of the most serious miscarriages of justice (and instances of anti-Semitism) in United States history. Powerful stuff for a Broadway musical, and one that would seem, at least on paper, more than a bit of a downer. Parade (with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and book by Alfred Uhry) was a hard sell on Broadway. If Fosse was the “feel-good” musical of 1999, then a show with such grim subject matter as Parade was pretty much its antithesis, and closed after 85 performances.
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TRACERS


With over 4000 Americans killed in Iraq since the United States declared its “war on terror” in the Middle East, now seems a particularly appropriate time to remember the Vietnam War and its more than 47,000 American casualties (not to mention the over 300,000 wounded in action). 

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MISS SAIGON


It’s a long and winding road which leads a Broadway smash to regional  theaters, one that can take years or even decades. In most cases, a show must finish its Broadway run and its national tours (that’s tours with an “s” because major hits often have three or more national tours). That’s why you won’t find still-running Broadway hits like The Phantom Of The Opera or Mamma Mia at your local CLO any time soon. And that is why Miss Saigon at Civic Light Opera Of South Bay Cities is such an event.

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