MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT
Thursday, July 25th, 2013
The hills around Solvang will be alive with the sound of laughter over the next several weeks as PCPA Theaterfest presents their couldn’t-be-better, couldn’t-be-funnier production of the 2005 Broadway smash Monty Python’s Spamalot.
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THE ISLAND
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013RECOMMENDED
It’s one thing (and an admirable one at that) for Skypilot Theatre to have as its slogan “New Plays, Written, Developed, and Performed In Los Angeles.” It’s something even more noteworthy for the company to undertake that most difficult genre of all, the musical. After all, it’s hardly uncommon for a new musical to be “in development” for half a dozen years or more.
I don’t know where The Island is on its trajectory from inspiration to final form. There are certainly aspects of this World Premiere’s book and songs that could, as they say, “use some work.” Notwithstanding, I quite enjoyed this “musical re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, flaws and all.
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LES MISÉRABLES
Monday, July 22nd, 2013RECOMMENDED
A quarter century after its Broadway debut, rights to the international musical phenomenon Les Misérables have at long last been released to community theaters across the U.S., news that may lead diehard Les Miz lovers to wonder if community theaters should even attempt to put on one of the world’s most spectacular musicals (emphasis on spectacle).
If the community theater in question is Actors Repertory Theatre Of Simi, the answer is a qualified yes.
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SHREK THE MUSICAL
Monday, July 22nd, 2013
3-D Theatricals follows its phenomenal revival of Jason Robert Brown’s deep, dark, fact-based Parade with its polar opposite, the bright, breezy, and entirely fanciful Shrek The Musical, in its own way every bit as triumphant as its extraordinary predecessor.
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LEGALLY BLONDE
Saturday, July 20th, 2013
Cabrillo Music Theatre now treats Ventura County residents (and SoCal musical theater lovers farther afield) to a sensational staging of Legally Blonde, 2005’s textbook example of how to turn a hit celluloid romcom into a nigh-on-perfect musical comedy, particularly as directed at Cabrillo with assurance and flair by Legally Blonde Broadway vet Tiffany Engen.
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THE 39 STEPS
Saturday, July 20th, 2013
Glendale Centre Theatre proves that you don’t need a cast of dozens and a seven-figure budget to bring John Buchan’s The 39 Steps to life, despite a plot that takes hero-on-the-run Richard Hannay on an adventure from London to Edinburgh to the Scottish moors and back (during which he crosses paths with a hundred fifty characters or so). All you need are four crackerjack actors, an inventive design team, a tireless stage crew, and directorial whiz Todd Nielsen on hand to bring Buchan’s classic spy novel to vibrant, hilarious life.
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PACK UP THE MOON
Tuesday, July 16th, 2013NOT RECOMMENDED
A gay couple still dealing with the sudden crib death of their adopted child decide a year later to become parents again—this time through surrogacy. Could there be a more current, hot-button topic for a world premiere play?
If only Christina Cigala’s Pack Up The Moon lived up to that promise.
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SUNSET BOULEVARD
Monday, July 15th, 2013
Let me put it simply. Musical Theatre West’s revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard is the theatrical event of the Summer Of 2013—bar none.
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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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