LEGALLY BLONDE
Monday, March 11th, 2013
When rights to a hit Broadway musical get released to regional theaters, it often takes longer than you’d expect for a show to reach L.A. Take the case of Legally Blonde. Though its rights were made available way back in September of 2011, it had until recently made its way only as close as Vista (94 miles away), with Thousand Oaks not scheduled to get it till this coming July, and Fullerton (a “mere” 26 miles away) not till October of 2013. And who knows when it will actually reach L.A. County?
All the more reason to zip on up to relatively nearby Simi Valley (only half an hour from downtown L.A.) where right this very minute Elle Woods is discovering the joys of higher education in Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Simi’s terrific (if not quite perfect) staging of the 2007 Broadway adaptation of the 2001 movie smash, solidly directed by David Daniels.
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YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN
Saturday, February 9th, 2013
Fans of Lucy, Linus, Schroeder, Sally, and Snoopy will want to head up to Thousand Oaks to join the pint-sized Peanuts icons in a celebration of the life of a boy named Charlie Brown in the crowd-pleasing musical You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, the second production in Cabrillo Music Theatre’s 2012-2013 season.
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SPRING AWAKENING
Saturday, November 3rd, 2012
More than a dozen talented young Southland triple-threats have brought Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s Spring Awakening to the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, where they star in a topnotch staging of the Tony-winning musical adaptation of Frank Wedenkind’s groundbreaking 1891 drama.
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DAMN YANKEES
Monday, September 17th, 2012RECOMMENDED
Simi Valley Performing Arts Center hit the jackpot earlier this year with productions of the Broadway hits Hairspray and Pippin that rivaled those of bigger-stage, bigger-budget companies like Thousand Oaks’ Cabrillo Music Theatre and Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West. Their latest, a revival of the 1950s Broadway smash Damn Yankees, while not in the same league as its predecessors, does offer sufficient pleasures to recommend it to Simi Valley audiences (with a couple of reservations).
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MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
Sunday, July 22nd, 2012RECOMMENDED
Director Linda Kerns, choreographer Heather Castillo, and a terrifically talented cast make the most of Cabrillo Music Theatre’s summer offering, a revival of the short-lived 1989 Broadway adaptation of the 1944 MGM movie musical Meet Me In St. Louis. Though the material being brought to life doesn’t hold up nearly as well as our rose-colored memories of the Judy Garland classic would like it to, the resulting production has much to recommend in it.
PIPPIN
Monday, May 7th, 2012
Picture a hundred thirty or so dancing, glow-in-the-dark fingertips spiraling and swirling around on an otherwise pitch-black stage as the orchestra launches into “Magic To Do” and you’ll have some idea of just how fresh and new the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center revival of Pippin is. Then again, few musicals lend themselves to as many different interpretations as the Stephen Schwartz classic. Reprise did it sexy and Chicago-esque some years back, East West Players took an Asian hip-hop approach to the material, and Deaf West at the Taper featured not one but two Pippins, one deaf and one hearing. SCVAC describes their Pippin as taking place in the “intriguing and wacky world of Steampunk Carnivale,” and an exciting new interpretation it is.
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ONCE UPON A MATTRESS
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
For musical theater fans in search of something out of the ordinary, Cabrillo Music Theatre has just the show for you, a star-studded revival of the 1959 Broadway hit Once Upon A Mattress and a terrific companion piece to Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which Cabrillo just happens to have staged two summers ago.
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HELLO! MY BABY
Monday, March 26th, 2012
“You Made Me Love You” “Ballin’ The Jack” “I Don’t Care” “If You Were The Only Girl” “Some Of These Days”
Tin Pan Alley circa the 1910s comes to singing/dancing life in Cheri Steinkellner’s World Premiere musical Hello! My Baby, and though its book could use some tweaking to give the tale a more contemporary sensibility, the tuneful confection proves a terrific showcase for its talented cast under Brian McDonald’s spirited direction.
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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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