HELLO AGAIN
Saturday, May 6th, 2017Sex × 10 + book, music, & lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa’s = Hello Again, LaChiusa’s edgy, seductive, unapologetically unhummable chamber musical adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1897 classic La Ronde, the stellarly cast, terrifically performed, audience-challenging latest from Chromolume Theatre.
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OF MICE AND MEN
Friday, May 5th, 2017Spencer Cantrell and Gregory Crafts give riveting performances as migrant farm workers George and Lenny in Theatre Unleashed’s intimate revival of John Steinbeck’s classic tale of human loneliness and impossible dreams, the 20th-century classic Of Mice And Men.
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MIDDLETOWN
Thursday, May 4th, 2017Birth. Life. Death. Infinity. Playwright Will Eno addresses all of the above in Middletown, his 21st-century response to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and if the Pulitzer Prize finalist tends to take quirkiness to extremes, inspired direction, design, and performances make this Chance Theater Southern California Premiere well worth a trip to Anaheim Hills.
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SYLVIA
Monday, May 1st, 2017There’s never been a romantic triangle quite like the one that propels A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia, now getting a cheer-worthy Rubicon Theater revival with an irresistible Ashley Fox Linton as the canine homewrecker who gives this alternately hilarious and heartstrings-tugging romcom its name.
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HAROLD AND MAUDE
Monday, May 1st, 2017The strokes of inspiration that made last year’s Private Eyes one of Morgan-Wixson Theatre’s best are occasionally evident in Colin Higgins’ Harold And Maud, but this time around director Brandon Baer is hampered by casting missteps, pacing problems, and a stage too cavernous for the inventive look he and his design team have conceived.
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THE MUSIC MAN
Saturday, April 29th, 2017Palos Verdes Performing Arts scores a musical comedy bulls-eye with their big-stage, up-close-and-personal revival of Meredith Willson’s 1957 classic The Music Man, the all-around best of the half-dozen Music Men I’ve seen so far.
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UNCANNY VALLEY
Friday, April 28th, 2017Hot topics don’t get much hotter than artificial intelligence, whether in headline news, or movies like Ex Machina, or Jimmy Fallon interviewing “Robot Sophia” on late-night TV, or in Thomas Gibbons’ fascinating, discussion-prompting, edge-of-your seat two-hander Uncanny Valley, now getting its Los Angeles Premiere at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
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AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
Wednesday, April 26th, 2017There’s been more than one “new (i.e. jukebox) Gershwin musical” before An American In Paris’s 2015 Broadway debut, but there’s never been one as gloriously song-and-dance-packed (emphasis on dance) as the gorgeously choreographed and designed quadruple Tony winner, a veritable feast of color and light and ballet and tap and more.
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