BUNNY BUNNY—GILDA RADNER: A SORT OF ROMANTIC COMEDY


He called her Gilbert. She called him Zweibel, accent on the “bel.” She became one of the most famous, funniest, and most beloved comediennes of the 1970s. He wrote for the TV show that made her a star and later co-created a hit TV sitcom. They loved each other for fourteen years, though each married others. They were the best of friends until her untimely death. She was Gilda Radner. He is Alan Zweibel. Bunny Bunny—Gilda Radner: A Sort Of Romantic Comedy, now playing at the Falcon Theatre, is the delightfully funny, affectionately written, and exquisitely directed and performed tale of two lives intertwined.
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NIGHT WATCH


What’s an insomnia-plagued Manhattan matron to do when she catches sight of a dead body inside the abandoned building across the street from her elegant apartment but scream, scream, and scream some more … and then call the cops? And what’s a concerned husband to do when the police investigation turns up no corpse, no fingerprints, no sign of anyone’s having entered the neighboring flat but suggest that his apparently delusional wife seek psychiatric help? And what’s an audience to do while watching Lucille Fletcher’s Night Watch but sit back and enjoy this takeoff on Gaslight, one whose surprise twist ending I’m absolutely itching to reveal here … but won’t.
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ABOVE THE FOLD


Three white North Carolina college frat boys accused of gang-raping an African-American stripper provide the incendiary framework for Above The Fold, Bernard Weinraub’s bracingly acidic look at politics circa 2014, race relations in today’s South, and print journalism in an increasingly cyber age—the World Premiere latest from the Pasadena Playhouse.
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THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA


An absolutely exquisite production of the century’s most exquisite musical —Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s The Light In The Piazza —has arrived at South Coast Repertory. Need I say more?
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THE PRODUCERS


A stupendous cast and a topnotch directorial/choreographic team recreating the Tony-winning work of Broadway superstar Susan Stroman have come up with an all-around splendid revival of the megasmash hit musical The Producers, once again providing proof positive that a 3-D Theatricals production is the next-best-thing to Broadway—and a heck of a lot more convenient.
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BELFRY


A lonely Irish sacristan looks back on the brief shining moments in his life when he loved another man’s wife in Billy Roche’s exquisite gem of a memory play, Belfry, at last getting its West Coast Premiere at a revitalized Malibu Playhouse under the assured, nuanced direction of Veronica Brady.
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CHICAGO


You may have seen Kander & Ebb’s Chicago at your nearby regional, community, or 99-seat theater, but you haven’t seen Chicago in all its Broadway brilliance till you’ve seen the National Tour of the Walter Bobbie-directed, Ann Reinking-choreographed 1996 revival, now dazzling Southern California audiences this week only at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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CALL ME MADAM


Musical theater lovers can once again thank Ken and Dottie Reiner and Musical Theatre West’s Reiner Reading Series for bringing back to life a musical theater gem grown too obscure to inspire a fully staged production. (After all, given the choice of the two Tony-winning musicals of 1951, Guys And Dolls and Call Me Madam, which one would you choose to program as part of an upcoming season?)
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