MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG


Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Merrily We Roll Along once again proves, as has virtually ever other Musical Theatre Repertory offering reviewed here since Sunday In The Park With George six years ago, that a blackbox production entirely directed, designed, and performed by college students can easily rival the best of 99-seat-plan Los Angeles theater, that is if the students involved are part of USC’s illustrious School Of Dramatic Arts.
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bare: a pop opera


Catholic school is hardly the most welcoming environment for two teenage boys to fall in love, or so roommates Peter and Jason discover in Damon Intrabartolo and Jon Hartmere’s off-Broadway cult favorite bare: a pop opera, now being given a particularly powerful Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center debut under Fred Helsel’s inspired direction.
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THE ODD COUPLE (FEMALE VERSION)


Oscar becomes “Olive” and Felix “Florence” as the classic Neil Simon comedy The Odd Couple takes on a distinctively distaff tone at Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson Theatre in a production of The Odd Couple (Female Version) so all-around topnotch, you’ll be asking yourself, “Can this possibly be community theater?”
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AN IDEAL HUSBAND


Classical theater fans impatient for the start of A Noise Within’s Spring 2014 season need head a mere five minutes east of ANW’s Pasadena digs to catch Sierra Madre Playhouse’s 2014 opener, an impeccably staged and acted revival of Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband.
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DAY TRADER


Expect the unexpected, and then some, in Eric Rudnick’s edgy, twist-filled Day Trader, thrillingly staged and terrifically acted in its World Premiere production at the Bootleg Theatre.
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DISNEY’S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST


That “tale as old as time” better known as Disney’s Beauty And The Beast is back at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts for the first time in over three years—with a brand-new cast and all the magic of the 1992 animated classic and the Broadway musical it inspired.
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TRUDY AND MAX IN LOVE


A pair of writers meet cute in a “writers’ room” only to fall impossibly in love in Zoe Kazan’s heartbreakingly funny Trudy And Max In Love, now getting its World Premiere at South Coast Repertory.
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BECKY’S NEW CAR


“When a woman says she wants new shoes, what she really wants is a new job. When she says she wants a new house, what she really wants is a new husband. And when she says she wants a new car, what she really wants is a new life.”

Imparting these words of wisdom is Rebecca (Becky) Foster, middle-aged wife and mother and the title character of Steven Dietz’s Becky’s New Car, Kentwood Players’ terrific 2014 opener at the Westchester Playhouse.
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