VENUS IN FUR
Tuesday, November 26th, 2013
David Ives’ Venus In Fur has come to town, or about as close to L.A. as she’s going to get for a while, which is more than enough reason to head down south to catch San Diego Repertory Theatre’s mesmerizing production of the 2012 Best Play Tony nominee.
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A PERFECT LIKENESS
Monday, November 25th, 2013RECOMMENDED
Writer-director Daniel Rover Singer imagines a ninety-minute meeting between Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll in the World Premiere of A Perfect Likeness, now playing at South Pasadena’s Fremont Centre Theatre, and despite bravura performances by Bruce Ladd and Daniel J. Roberts, I must confess to having found Singer’s play rather too talky for my tastes and not nearly as appealing and engaging as its unanimous rave reviews had led me to expect.
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IN THE HEIGHTS
Saturday, November 23rd, 2013
Usnavi, Vanessa, Benny, Nina, Sonny, Daniela, Piragua Man, and all the colorful Washington Heights locals of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegria Hudes’ In The Heights are back in the Heights (Boyle Heights that is) as Teatro Nuevos Horizontes’ multiple Scenie-winning production of the 2008 Broadway hit returns for this year’s holiday season with four of its original stars intact and many of its new principal players living up to memories of last year’s all-around phenomenal leads.
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ILLYRIA
Friday, November 22nd, 2013
A gifted young cast directed by one of SoCal’s finest, a gorgeous score, and romance and comedy in equal measure are several of the best reasons to catch Cal State Fullerton’s blackbox staging of Illyria, Peter Mills’ musicalization of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night*. Add to that the unlikelihood of a major L.A. theater miraculously discovering Illyria’s existence, and anyone who loves musicals should make it a point not to miss this largely unknown gem.
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SIDE SHOW
Wednesday, November 20th, 2013
Daisy and Violet Hilton, the “Siamese twins” of Bill Russell and Henry Krieger’s Side Show, are back onstage in a heartstoppingly beautiful revival of the 1997 multiple-Tony Award nominee at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse, a production which despite a couple too many deleted songs, makes for one powerful “revisal” as re-imagined by its creators and director Bill Condon.
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WONDERFUL TOWN
Monday, November 18th, 2013
From autobiographical short story collection to play to movie to Broadway musical to musical movie (but with different songs) to TV series. Few musical comedies have had as many incarnations as 1953’s Wonderful Town, and though Broadway revived it in 2003, this Golden Era hit has faded a bit too much into obscurity to join perennial 1950s favorites like Damn Yankees and The Pajama Game onto any major theater’s annual season—making it a perfect choice for Musical Theatre Guild to revive for one night only as the first of their 2013-2014 “concert staged reading” treats.
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ON GOLDEN POND
Monday, November 18th, 2013
Cast aside any preconceived notions you might have about “community theater” and head on over to Whittier Community Theatre to catch Ernest Thompson’s On Golden Pond (a play that hasn’t lost an iota of its humor or charm since winning the Drama Desk Award as Outstanding New Play of 1979) in a production that stands comparison to what you might see on one of our local professional stages.
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BARRYMORE
Sunday, November 17th, 2013
Southern California musical theater star Gordon Goodman brings to life stage-and-screen legend John Barrymore in William Luce’s Barrymore, the virtual one-man-show that won its originator Christopher Plummer the Tony and could well earn Goodman equivalent recognition when L.A. award season comes around.
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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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