BLITHE SPIRIT
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
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
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
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
Friday, August 8th, 2008RECOMMENDED
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
Friday, July 11th, 2008
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
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
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).
MISS SAIGON
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
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.
THE NERD
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Rick Steadman, aka The Nerd, is the guest from hell who comes and stays and stays and stays…in Larry Shue’s hilarious comedy, The Nerd. Shue only wrote two plays (The Nerd and The Foreigner) in a life cut far too short, but they are both comic gems which assure his legacy. There is hardly a theater company (regional, community, or school) that hasn’t presented at least one of them, and with good reason. They are funny, outrageous, absurd delights, and Shue’s The Nerd is now getting an almost perfect production at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse.
LEADING LADIES
Friday, January 25th, 2008
Playwright Ken Ludwig is a master of the contemporary farce, something that
anyone who has seen his much performed Lend Me A Tenor can attest to.
Another Ludwig gem is Leading Ladies, now getting first-rate treatment by Norris
Center, a gem of a professional theater hidden in beautiful Rolling Hills Estates,
down Palos Verdes way.
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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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