9 To 5

Working 9 to 5 may be “no way to make a living,” but watching office gals Judy, Violet, and Doralee triumph over their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss makes for one very entertaining evening or afternoon at the theater, particularly when 3-D Theatricals is offering Dolly Parton’s 9 To 5 as their 2013 season opener.
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OKLAHOMA!


Seventy years old has never seemed as fresh and alive and young as it does in Musical Theatre West’s 70th Anniversary revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, about as perfect a production of this R&H classic as any musical theater lover could possibly wish for.
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THE WORLD GOES ‘ROUND


You may think you’ve seen The World Goes ‘Round before—the hit musical revue featuring 30 mostly little-known Kander & Ebb songs performed cabaret-style by a cast of 5. Yes, indeed, you may think you’ve seen The World Goes ‘Round (or And The World Goes ‘Round if you will), but trust me, you’ve never seen The World Goes Round as Downey Civic Light Opera executive producer Marsha Moode has reconceived it as a TV variety show-style extravaganza featuring 41 Kander & Ebb songs,  including many of their Greatest Hits, as performed by cast of 37. Purists may carp, but for those in the Moode for two-and-a half hours of pure entertainment (with a bunch of Kander & Ebb trivia thrown in for good measure), the Downey Civic Light Opera’s The World Goes ‘Round more than fits the bill.
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COMPANY


“Phone rings, door chimes, in comes company!”

As any musical theater buff can tell you, the person whose phone is ringing and whose door is chiming and who is welcoming company into his Manhattan pad is none other than Robert, aka Bobby, aka Bob, aka Bobbo, aka Robby, aka Bobby Baby, aka Robert Darling, aka Bobby Honey, the bachelor lead of Company, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Tony-winning Best Musical of 1970, now getting its first L.A. production in what seems like eons—and a pretty darned terrific one at that—at North Hollywood’s Crown City Theatre.
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CHRISTMAS IN HANOI


East West Players takes a chance on something new—a ghost story set in contemporary Vietnam—and comes up with a winner in Eddie Borey’s Christmas In Hanoi. As brought to life by a topnotch creative team, Borey’s EWP’s playwriting competition-winning script makes for a strong 2013 opener for the country’s premier Asian-American theater.
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CHESS


After their phenomenal concert staged reading of Titanic The Musical, a production I dubbed “one of Musical Theatre Guild’s crowning achievements,” you might think that the triple-threats of MTG would want to take it easy for the rest of the 2012-2013 season.

Not so, as last night’s titanic staging of Chess (In Concert) at Glendale’s Alex Theatre made abundantly clear, and for those who missed this phenomenal achievement, you have but one more chance to catch it this coming Sunday afternoon in Thousand Oaks.
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BIRDS OF A FEATHER


What do a couple of gay male penguins immortalized in a controversial children’s book, an opposite-gender pair of red-tailed hawks nesting on a top-story ledge of a pricey Upper Manhattan co-op, and the marital woes of a former ABC/CBS/Fox/CNN news anchor have in common?

The answer is that all of the above take center stage in Birds Of A Feather, Marc Acito’s sweet, funny, topical, and ultimately quite moving one-act comedy now making its West Coast debut in a something-to-squawk-about production at San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre.
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YOU’RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN


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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