HAITI

Theatricum Botanicum breathes new life into William DuBois’ swashbuckling historical soap opera Haiti, giving the long-forgotten look back at the Haitian Revolution its very first production—and a rip-roaring one at that—since the New Deal-funded melodrama made theatrical history in 1938 by featuring a black-and-white cast performing side by side on a Harlem stage.
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FAMOUS

Fame wields a double-edged sword for those who come to Hollywood in search of it in Michael Leoni’s Famous, and if the latest from the writer-director of the smash hit Elevator is often flashier than it is profound, it is also without question one of the year’s electrifyingly staged productions, and thanks to the #metoo movement, just about as timely as a World Premiere play can get.
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SCREWBALL COMEDY

If Ben Hecht‎ and ‎Charles MacArthur (The Front Page, Twentieth Century) were alive today, they might have written Screwball Comedy, a Norm Foster/Theatre 40 gem that more than does justice to the genre whose name it bears.
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SCHOOL OF ROCK

Rob Colletti doing his best Jack Black opposite a dozen of the most multi-talented tweens ever to burn up a stage add up to the fun-for-all-ages Broadway musical delight that is Andrew Lloyd Webber and Julian Fellowes’ School Of Rock, now playing at Orange County’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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NEWSIES

A sensational Dillon Klena and a terrifically talented young cast of singing-dancing newsboys make Moonlight Stage Productions’ Newsies an infectiously entertaining (and unashamedly pro-labor) treat.
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MAYAKOVSKY AND STALIN

Some good actors attempt to breathe life into writer-director Murray Mednick’s talky, tedious Mayakovsky And Stalin, the longest two-and-a-half hours I’ve spent in a theater in years.
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DISNEY BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

A luminous Susan Egan’s return to the role that made her a Broadway star is just one reason not to miss 5-Star Theatricals’ five-star revival of Disney Beauty And The Beast, though it is easily Egan’s incandescent star turn that gives the production’s two-weekend run at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza event status.
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MARY POPPINS

In-the-round staging proves a perfect fit for Mary Poppins at Glendale Centre Theater, placing the emphasis firmly on P.L. Travers’ storytelling, the Sherman Brothers’ hum-along songs, a bunch of infectious dance numbers, and leading lady Deborah Robin, quite possibly the best of the seven Marys I’ve seen on stage.
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