ALMOST, MAINE
Saturday, December 6th, 2014
Plays don’t get any more magical, nor any more unabashedly romantic (with just enough salt to keep things from getting sappy) than John Cariani’s Almost, Maine, the record-breaking Most Produced Flop in off-Broadway history, now getting what well may be its first fully-cast professional Los Angeles production since its 2006 New York debut—and an absolutely wonderful one at that.
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INTO THE WOODS
Friday, December 5th, 2014
Into The Woods is back in town again, the musical’s long-awaited film adaptation’s upcoming Christmas Day opening certain to inspire more ITW revivals than have been seen locally in years and years … and leave L.A. theatergoers scratching their heads wondering which of the bunch to see.
For this reviewer, at least, the answer is simple. Head on over to Beverly Hills’ ritzy Wallis Annenberg Center For The Performing Arts to catch the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Summer Of 2014 smash revival, now spending the holiday season indoors at the Wallis after four SRO months under the Ashland, Oregon skies.
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BUS STOP
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
Little Fish Theatre does everything right in their pitch-perfect revival of William Inge’s Bus Stop, the finest of the dozen-and-a-half productions I’ve reviewed at San Pedro’s little gem of a theater, and one absolutely worth a drive down Port Of Los Angeles way.
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL
Sunday, November 30th, 2014RECOMMENDED
Alan Menken & Lynn Ahrens’s gorgeous songs are the best of quite a few reasons to catch Actors Repertory Theatre Of Simi’s holiday production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol despite the disservice its multitalented hometown cast is done by some sour notes emanating from the orchestra pit.
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SERIAL KILLER BARBIE
Saturday, November 29th, 2014
The season’s brightest, bounciest, and most crowd-pleasing musical surprise turns out to be Colette Freedman and Nickella Moschetti’s Serial Killer Barbie, hardly the splatter fest its catchy albeit misleading title might suggest, but a show that anyone who’s gone through the 12 rounds that are Elementary, Middle, and High School can identify with and cheer.
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FLARE PATH
Wednesday, November 26th, 2014
A dashing English WWII fighter pilot. A handsome Hollywood film star. The pilot’s actress wife who loves them both. Could any triangle be more ripe for romantic drama than the threesome at the heart of Terence Rattigan’s 1942 stage hit Flare Path, rescued from obscurity by a 2011 West End revival and now being given a spiffy, seven-decades-awaited Los Angeles Premiere by Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40?
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STEEL PIER
Monday, November 24th, 2014
Though I’d be hard pressed to pick just one of the fifty concert staged readings reviewed here as the Absolute Best Concert Staged Reading Ever, I can’t recall a more spectacularly staged “reading” of a Broadway musical than last night’s Reiner Reading Series staging of Kander & Ebb’s Steel Pier.
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WINTER WONDERETTES
Sunday, November 23rd, 2014
There may not be snow on the ground down Escondido way this month or next, but with Winter Wonderettes spending the holidays at the Welk Theatre, the marvelous (and wonderful) quartet’s trademark blend of comedy, harmony, nostalgia, and seasonal melodies turn the San Diego-adjacent resort’s year-round green grass and blue skies into the next best thing to a traditional White Christmas.
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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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