WATERFALL
Monday, June 8th, 2015
Lovers don’t get any more star-crossed than Noppon and Katherine, the star-crossed lovers of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire’s uber-romantic musical tearjerker Waterfall, now getting a gorgeously staged, gorgeously performed World Premiere production at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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THE ELLIOTS
Friday, May 15th, 2015RECOMMENDED
Readers have been rooting for Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth to rekindle their long-lost love since Jane Austen’s Persuasion first hit the book stalls back in 1817. L.A. theatergoers can now follow their example as South Pasadena’s Fremont Centre Theatre debuts A.J. Darby’s 2015 adaptation, retitled The Elliots. Yes, both Darby’s play and its World Premiere production could stand some tweaking, but Persuasion fans will find much to enjoy in two hours spent with Austen’s now iconic characters.
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GUS’S FASHIONS & SHOES
Friday, May 8th, 2015
Plays don’t get much more testosterone-fueled than Gus’s Fashions & Shoes, the grittily dramatic, darkly comedic latest from writer-director Ron Klier, whose Cops And Friends Of Cops kept Vs. Theatre audiences glued to the edge of their seats two years back.
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MR. WOLF
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015RECOMMENDED
Rajiv Joseph takes a provocative look at the human consequences of a despicable crime twelve years after its perpetration in his hit-and-miss World Premiere drama Mr. Wolf, a play I found powerful and affecting in its more realistic moments but frustrating and perplexing in its attempts at the poetic and profound. In either case, performances alone make it worth a look-see.
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JANE AUSTEN’S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, A MUSICAL
Monday, April 20th, 2015
If a World Premiere musicalization of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in which the 19th-century novelist figures not only as part of its title but as one of the its leading players seems fraught with peril, then Austen fans can rest assured. To quote from La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts’ next-up Mary Poppins, Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice, A Musical is practically perfect in every way.
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RECORDED IN HOLLYWOOD: THE MUSICAL
Monday, April 13th, 2015
When you think about history-making 20th-century African-American music impresarios, Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones and perhaps two or three other names probably top the list. A less likely name to spring to mind is that of John Grayton Dolphin, an omission that Recorded In Hollywood: The (World Premiere) Musical sets out to rectify … and does so so crowd-pleasingly under Denise Dowse’s pizzazzy direction that it could easily end up giving the Broadway smash Memphis a run for its money.
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OF GOOD STOCK
Monday, April 6th, 2015
“Sisters. Sisters. There were never such devoted sisters,” warbles one of the three female siblings created by playwright Melissa Ross in her crowd-pleasing new comedy Of Good Stock, though considering the squabbling going on in their Cape Cod family home at this weekend’s summer family reunion, “devoted” might not be the first word that comes to mind when describing the oh-so dysfunctionally bound Jess, Amy, and Celia.
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A DOG’S HOUSE
Monday, March 30th, 2015
The webs we weave when first we practice to deceive don’t get any more tangled than the latticework of lies one couple tells another in Micah Schraft’s A Dog’s House, the latest IAMA Theatre Company World Premiere, and every bit the hilariously edgy, high-impact experience IAMA has been offering L.A. audiences for the past eight years.
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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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