POCATELLO
Sunday, February 28th, 2016
Small lives matter in Pocatello, just as they do in all of Samuel D. Hunter’s “Idaho plays,” the latest of which now gets an impressive West Coast Premiere by the theater company that gave L.A. audiences Hunter’s equally memorable A Bright New Boise and A Permanent Image.
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BROKEN FENCES
Saturday, February 27th, 2016
The effects of urban gentrification on two Chicago couples, one upwardly mobile and white, the other financially challenged and black, are examined in Broken Fences, a Road Theatre Company World Premiere whose star performances and impressive production design largely overcome the tonal inconsistencies and missed opportunities of Steven Simoncic’s thought-provoking, often quite powerful script.
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A CLASS ACT
Monday, February 22nd, 2016
Tony winner Edward Kleban had been gone for thirteen years when Broadway finally gave the songwriter his due (albeit for a scant 135 performances, previews included) in the biomusical A Class Act, the latest one-night-only concert staged reading from Musical Theatre Guild, and one that could scarcely have been improved upon.
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COLONY COLLAPSE
Monday, February 22nd, 2016
Overambitious Colony Collapse may well be, and run about fifteen minutes longer than it should, but Stefanie Zadravec’s interweaving of five crisscrossing monologs with a realistic family drama plus a mysterious girl inhabiting a world of her own add up to a compelling World Premiere for The Theatre @ Boston Court, one sure to provoke much post-performance discussion with its themes of children gone missing, family relationships broken by drug-addiction, and a mysterious disease that has caused the death of over ten million North American bees in the past ten years.
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ROMEO AND JULIET
Sunday, February 21st, 2016
Graffiti-covered inner-city walls, dumpsters, and assorted skid-row detritus provide a startling but effective backdrop for A Noise Within’s Romeo And Juliet, director Dámaso Rodríguez’s electrifying new look at the age-old classic.
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PAST TIME
Saturday, February 20th, 2016
Stepping inside someone else’s skin may be just what Grandpa James and Grandson Chris need to make their respective romantic lives click in Padraic Duffy’s deliciously quirky, often side-splittingly funny, ultimately heartwarming (albeit somewhat over-padded) World Premiere comedy Past Time, now playing at Sacred Fools’ excitingly refurbished digs on Hollywood’s Theatre Row.
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CRIERS FOR HIRE
Thursday, February 18th, 2016
A trio of SoCal Filipinas earning extra cash by weeping and wailing at funerals may provide the title (and the hook) for Giovanni Ortega’s Criers For Hire, but it’s the play’s mother-daughter reunion and its look at a teenage girl’s coming-of-age in a new land that give Ortega’s delightful, charming World Premiere comedy its emotional heart and punch.
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FUNNY GIRL
Wednesday, February 17th, 2016RECOMMENDED
The musical that made Barbra Streisand a Broadway superstar is back, and if 1964’s Funny Girl doesn’t hold up nearly as well as its mid-‘60s competitors Hello, Dolly!, Fiddler On The Roof, and Man Of La Mancha, its latest Southland revival proves an enjoyable season opener for Inland Valley Repertory Theatre.
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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