RIDE THE CYCLONE

Triple-threat performances by a super-talented Gen Z cast score a solid A from this Boomer, but having now seen two different productions of Brooke Maxwell and Jacob Richmond’s Ride The Cyclone, the best I can give the musical itself is a C-.
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FROZEN


The Broadway musical Frozen may not be nearly as preschool-kids-friendly as Disney’s The Little Mermaid or Beauty And The Beast, but Torrance Theatre Company once again gives professional regional theaters stiff competition with their splendidly performed and gorgeous-to-look-at big-stage production of the 2018 Broadway hit.
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MARY POPPINS


Carter Thomas not only proves himself a director par excellence, he gives silver screen greats like Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, and Dick Van Dyke a run for their dance showmanship as Bert (the role Van Dyke originated on screen) in Highlands Theater’s magical and mesmerizing revival of the Broadway smash Mary Poppins.
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GREASE


I’ve seen eleven different productions of Grease, but none of them has reached the heights of Altadena Music Theatre’s thrillingly innovative under-the-stars reinvention of the 1972 Broadway smash.
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WAITING IN THE WINGS


Dames don’t get any grander than the grandes dames taking centerstage at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Waiting In The Wings, Noël Coward’s charming 1960 salute to actresses of a certain age who’ve still got it in them to hold an audience spellbound.
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HOW HIGH THE MOON


If you think the 1950s were all The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It To Beaver, then you haven’t met the the Butlers and Thompsons of Van Nuys, whose hornet’s nest of secrets and lies come to light over the course of an explosively entertaining Fourth Of July weekend in Barbara Nell Beery’s How High The Moon.
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THE FULL MONTY


The sextet of laid-off upstate New York factory workers with plans to offer Buffalo gals a night they’ll never forget are at it again, but this time round they’re doing it in the round in The Nocturne Theatre’s inventively staged revival of Terrence McNally and David Yazbek’s 2000 Broadway hit musical The Full Monty.
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PROOF

Ed Begley Jr has earned a whopping Emmy nominations in his illustrious career, but it’s Heyden Begley who commands the El Portal Theatre stage as the brilliant but emotionally fragile daughter of a mathematical genius gone mad in David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Proof.
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