LAVENDER MEN
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022
Queer playwright Roger Q. Mason explores the love that dared not speak its name between Abraham Lincoln and his “close friend” Elmer Ellsworth in Lavender Men, at once a gay American history fantasia, a very public therapy session for its self-described “black, fat, femme” author, and one of the most stunning productions in town.
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TROUBLE THE WATER
Monday, August 22nd, 2022
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum pays tribute to a little-known figure in African-American history in Ellen Geer’s illuminating, emotion-packed biodrama Trouble The Water, freely adapted from Rebecca Dwight Bruff’s award-winning 2019 novel of the same name.
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MUD
Monday, August 22nd, 2022Loft Ensemble imagines a dystopian future populated by ten nameless, genderless global calamity survivors in Mud, a World Premiere drama I found alternately pretentious and preachy
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ROMEO & JULIET: CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENDING
Monday, August 15th, 2022
Should Romeo woo Juliet or should he court Rosaline? This is just the first of three major life decisions left up to an audience vote at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Ann and Shawn Fraistat’s Romeo & Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending, a hilariously clever new take on a centuries-old classic.
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BEACH PEOPLE
Sunday, August 14th, 2022
A quartet of sunbathers philosophize on the sand in Charles A. Duncombe’s absurdist existential comedy Beach People, a City Garage World Premiere impressively acted by a skin-revealing cast of four.
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THE PROM
Thursday, August 11th, 2022
A gaggle of liberal-minded Broadway narcissists descend on conservative Middle America to aid an Indiana teen who just wants to dance in public with the girl she loves in The Prom, the multiple-Tony-nominated musical that now ranks sky-high on my list of 21st-century favorites.
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THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
Tuesday, August 9th, 2022
Set in the Eisenhower 1950s and featuring a Goodness Gracious Great Bunch of Top 40 oldies, Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum’s The Merry Wives Of Windsor takes comedic flight as the inspired vision of director Ellen Geer, who’s not afraid to alter the text if it earns laughter to do Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel proud.
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THE ADDAMS FAMILY
Monday, August 8th, 2022
Torrance Theatre Company’s finger-snappingly fabulous The Addams Family redefines what a community theater can accomplish with a crackerjack volunteer-actor cast and just as much talent behind the scenes.
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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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