YES, PRIME MINISTER
Friday, June 14th, 2013
The country is England, the time is now, and the PM’s country house retreat Chequers is in crisis mode. The coalition government finds itself representing a divided electorate, the British Pound Sterling is waning in value, and an ongoing European Council conference seems headed for disaster. With all these problems and more on his table, what’s a Prime Minister to do?
In Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn’s hilariously farcical Yes, Prime Minister (now getting its US Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse), the answer comes in the form of a potential ten-trillion dollar bailout from a former Soviet republic the authors have dubbed Kumranistan. All the PM has to do is provide the Kumranistani foreign secretary with a trio of call girls for a totally illegal (and immoral and unethical) sex orgy.
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GIRL CRAZY
Tuesday, June 11th, 2013
Musical theater lovers who might have wondered just how revolutionary Oklahoma! was when it redefined the Broadway musical in 1944 got a tangy taste of what came before it at Monday night’s terrifically entertaining Musical Theatre Guild concert staged reading of George and Ira Gershwin’s Girl Crazy.
Fully integrated songs and dances? No way. Lyrics that advanced the plot? Forget it. Serious subject matter? You must be kidding! And as for 21st Century political correctness, there was no such thing back in 1930 when Jews, Mexicans, Gypsies, Asians, Gays, Women, you name it, were deemed joke-worthy.
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DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE
Monday, June 10th, 2013
If there’s nothing more annoying than the sudden sound of a cell phone going off in a public place, how about when the owner of said phone just lets it ring … and ring … and ring? No wonder Jean, the heroine of Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone, finally loses her patience and goes over to give the negligent phone owner a piece of her mind. It’s only then that she discovers that the man with the annoying cell phone has, as they say, met his maker.
Thus begins Ruhl’s whimsical Helen Hays Award-nominated comedy, a sure bet to entertain audiences at Long Beach’s International City Theatre, particularly with director Richard Israel imaginatively in charge.
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HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
Sunday, June 9th, 2013
That go-getting whiz kid J. Pierpont Finch is once again zipping his way up the corporate ladder as Performance Riverside gives the Broadway classic How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying a crackerjack revival well-worth the drive east.
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A MIDSUMMER SATURDAY NIGHT’S FEVER DREAM
Saturday, June 8th, 2013
“If we offend, it is with our good will, that you should think, we come not to offend, but with good will.”
The prologue is straight out of Shakespeare, but after that, you know you’re in Troubies Land as the strains of “Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive” fill the Falcon Theatre … and the Troubadour Theater Company’s latest crowd-pleaser A Midsummer Saturday Night’s Fever Dream is off and running.
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DYING CITY
Wednesday, June 5th, 2013
A young man’s unannounced arrival at the New York apartment of his deceased twin brother’s widow triggers the gradual revelation of three lifetimes’ worth of secrets and lies in Christopher Shinn’s Dying City, now getting a compelling, beautifully acted and directed Los Angeles premiere at Rogue Machine.
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SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE – THE MUSICAL
Tuesday, June 4th, 2013
The movie that turned Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan overnight into America’s romantic comedy sweethearts now makes a sparkling transition from film to stage as the Pasadena Playhouse presents the World Premiere of Sleepless In Seattle – The Musical.
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NEXT TO NORMAL
Sunday, June 2nd, 2013
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical Next To Normal gets its very first locally-produced Southern California production at the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, directed by the SoCal genius that is Nick DeGruccio and featuring some of our most brilliant L.A.-area talents. Need I say more?
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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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