THE ESCORT
Thursday, April 7th, 2011
The title character of Jane Anderson’s The Escort isn’t a policeman assigned to guard a VIP or an older bachelor providing a spare arm to a wealthy widow at a society function, and she’s not that Ford compact car that ceased production back in 2002. (That would just be silly.) The title character of Jane Anderson’s The Escort (getting its World Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse) is a young woman of the sort who used to be called a hooker, a lady of the evening, a whore, or just plain prostitute. That being said, the escort Anderson introduces us to in the person of actress Maggie Siff is so all-American adorable that any of those crude monikers would seem as out of place as a, well, as a whore in church on Sunday.
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THE 25TH ANNUNAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Sunday, March 20th, 2011
Anyone who knows me knows how much I love The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Since first hearing the Original Cast Recording in 2005 and then a year and a half later getting to see the National Tour, Spelling Bee has earned the Number Three spot on my list of Most Seen Musicals, its latest incarnation at Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson Theatre the eighth of what may end up to be a dozen or more different Bees at the rate I’m going. And no wonder. I adore The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and treasure each chance I get to see a new group of actors put their own stamps on the sensational roles Rebecca Feldman has conceived for them.
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PARADE
Friday, March 18th, 2011RECOMMENDED
Here’s a question for musical theater enthusiasts. What do five of the following six musicals—Annie, Brigadoon, Grease, Oklahoma!, Oliver, Parade—have in common and which one doesn’t belong on the list?
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JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG
Sunday, March 13th, 2011
When Abby Mann wrote Judgment At Nuremberg for its 1959 telecast on Playhouse 90, the Eisenhower administration set about to insure that the production would never see the airwaves. A teleplay about Nazi war criminals on trial for their part in the Holocaust could impede efforts to make Germany an ally in the then-raging Cold War, officials maintained. Ultimately, though, the show did go on, but not without one of the program’s sponsors, American Gas, Inc., insisting on muting the words “gas ovens.”
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AfterMath
Sunday, February 27th, 2011
When mathematician Bob Goldstein committed suicide by jumping into the Hudson River, he left behind the following short note: “I can’t take it anymore. Take care of the kids. Sell the car.” And that was all he wrote.
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GIGI
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
You can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of movie musicals that have been turned into Broadway shows. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Thoroughly Modern Millie. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. Gigi. If you don’t count Disney animated films like Beauty And The Beast (in a class by themselves) and movies like Footloose and Saturday Night Fever (whose characters don’t burst into song), the list is a short one indeed.
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ADDING MACHINE: A MUSICAL
Sunday, February 6th, 2011
“I’m sorry to lose an old and faithful employee, but you see, in an organization like this, efficiency is the first consideration. You will, of course, draw your salary for the full month. We couldn’t do anything less for such a valued and loyal employee. And I’ll direct my secretary to give you an excellent letter of recommendation.”
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THE BREAK OF NOON
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
An embittered pink-slipped employee enters his former workplace and, automatic weapon in hand, murders thirty-seven of his ex-coworkers yet spares number thirty-eight, leaving the massacre’s sole survivor to wonder why. Why was he alone shown mercy? To whom does he owe this inexplicable stroke of salvation?
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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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