THE MATCHMAKER
Tuesday, May 14th, 2013
Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi is once again “arranging things,” this time at Hollywood’s Actors Co-op, but don’t expect any singing waiters to be belting out a Jerry Herman show tune this time round. It’s the comedy that started Dolly on the path to Broadway legendhood, aka Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker, that the Co-op is reviving—and a tiptop revival it is.
(read more)
PARADE
Monday, May 13th, 2013
3-D Theatricals commemorates the one-hundredth anniversary of the death of thirteen-year-old Georgia factory worker Mary Phagan, along with the kangaroo court that subsequently found Jewish Northerner Leo Frank guilty of her murder and the lynch mob that ultimately robbed Frank of his own life, in its all-around phenomenal T.J. Dawson-directed revival of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade.
(read more)
THE WOMEN
Sunday, May 12th, 2013
Godfather Vito Corleone’s advice to “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” could easily have been inspired by a night at the theater—had the play in question been Clare Boothe Luce’s comedy classic The Women, now getting a mostly top-notch revival at L.A.’s venerable Theatre West.
(read more)
COPS AND FRIENDS OF COPS
Friday, May 10th, 2013
A man walks into a bar and all hell breaks loose in Ron Klier’s edge-of-your-seat World Premiere suspense thriller Cops And Friends Of Cops, the latest offering from VS. Theatre Company and one that suits their spiffy new Mid-City space to a T.
(read more)
FLASHDANCE THE MUSICAL
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013
The ‘80s come exhilaratingly back to life as Alex Owens once again pursues her dream of leaving behind her drab steel mill-worker-by-day, nightclub-dancer-by-night life and becoming a serious ballerina in Flashdance The Musical, now playing at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For the Arts. And the verdict? Despite a book that still needs work, last night’s Opening Night standing ovation leaves no doubt that Flashdance is a bona fide crowd-pleaser.
(read more)
PETER PAN: THE BOY WHO HATED MOTHERS
Monday, May 6th, 2013
He’s been the hero of a play, a novel based on that play, a prequel, a sequel, a silent film, several stage adaptations of the original play, an oft-revived and televised Broadway musical, a Disney animated feature (and its sequel), a live-action feature film, a Japanese anime, an animated TV series, a theme-park ride, and most recently a mammoth “360-degree” staging and a Broadway prequel, the winner of five 2012 Tony awards.
With all of the above behind him, you’d think that at the ripe old age of 109, Peter Pan, aka The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, would be ready to call it quits, but you’d be wrong, since just when most centenarians would be poised to take their final bows, along comes Michael Lluberes’ Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers, proving that a) there’s still life in the young/old boy and b) that you don’t need a gazillion dollars (or however much the budget of Peter Pan threesixty° was) to make theatrical magic.
(read more)
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
Saturday, May 4th, 2013NOT RECOMMENDED
The late great Joe Orton wrote three of 20th Century England’s most outrageously funny, audacious, and sexually provocative screwball farces, though you’d hardly know it from the misguided revival of 1969’s What The Butler Saw now playing at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre under Ben Lupejkis’ direction.
(read more)
THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
Saturday, May 4th, 2013
The Tony-winning 2006 Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone makes for a terrifically entertaining Spring Musical over at Cerritos College, starring a trio of Cal State Fullerton triple-threats under the expert supervision of director Patrick Pearson, musical director Hector Salazar, and choreographer Kelly Todd.
(read more)
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
COPYRIGHT 2026 STEVEN STANLEY :: DESIGN BY