NEWSIES

When a flop movie musical becomes a home video hit, what better for Walt Disney Studios to do than turn it into a great big Broadway smash, or at least this is what happened with Newsies The Musical, now thrilling SoCal audiences with Christopher Gattelli’s breathtaking Tony-winning choreography, Alan Menken and Jack Feldman’s eminently hummable Tony-winning songs, and much much more at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The dynamite performances delivered by Chris Warren Gilbert and Jill Van Velzer in Musical Theatre West’s Reiner Reading Series concert staged reading of the 1978 Tony winner On The Twentieth Century are just two of the many reasons for someone, anyone, to give the Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green gem the fully-staged SoCal revival it so richly deserves.
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THE BOY WHO DANCED ON AIR

As the centuries-old Afghan tradition of Bacha Bazi (i.e. selling boys from poor families to wealthy masters to serve as their private entertainment) continues well into the present day, a couple of teenage dancers fall into first love in Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne’s gorgeous and powerful The Boy Who Danced On Air, the latest World Premiere musical from San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre.
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HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

No one know how to succeed at musicals-in-the-round better than Glendale Centre Theatre, proof positive of which can be savored in their pitch-perfect revival of the 1961 Frank Loesser/Abe Burrow Broadway classic How To Succeed At Business Without Really Trying.
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NEXT FALL

RECOMMENDED

The conflicts between fundamentalist Christianity and homosexuality have rarely if ever been as powerfully, personally, or fair-mindedly explored as they are in Next Fall, now getting a West Hollywood revival which, while not reaching the level of excellence a more established 99-seat company might have given it, is worth checking out if only to experience Geoffrey Nauffts’ deeply moving play for the first time since it played the Geffen back in 2011.
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MY MAÑANA COMES

The subsistence-wage busboy protagonists of My Mañana Comes are young men the average theatergoer would normally pay not much attention to, which is just one reason why Elizabeth Irwin’s 2014 dramedy proves such an engrossing, eye-opening treat in its Los Angeles Premiere at The Fountain Theatre.
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THE GOLDEN DRAGON

RECOMMENDED
Five exceptional performances, Michael Michetti’s highly imaginative direction, and a breathtaking Theatre @ Boston Court production design add up to reason enough to check out Roland Schimmelpfennig’s The Golden Dragon despite a script more pretentious than profound.
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CAROUSEL

The students of the Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program show off their triple-threat talents in the UCLA Department Of Theater’s gorgeously sung-and-danced revival of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Carousel.
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