EDITH CAN SHOOT THINGS AND HIT THEM
Monday, October 29th, 2012
How times have changed for gay American teens over the past two decades. Kenny Tolentino could scarcely have conceived of Gay Straight Alliances or “It Gets Better” videos or out celebrities like Ricky Martin and Zachary Quinto (Mr. Spock, no less!) when he was sixteen just twenty years ago, a coming of age now chronicled by A. Rey Pamatmat in his absolutely wonderful Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them.
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42nd STREET
Sunday, October 28th, 2012
The audience has only just finished applauding this Broadway classic’s “Greatest Hits” overture when the curtain rises to reveal the legs—and only the legs—of thirty long-legged hoofers tap-dancing as if their Broadway careers depended on it (as they indeed do) … and the audience erupts in high-decibel cheers.
Anyone who knows musical theater can surely identify the show in question. It’s the Broadway megahit 42nd Street (3486 performances in its original run and another 1524 in its smash revival), now playing to sold-out houses at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West in a production that sets the bar spectacularly high for any other company with the chutzpah to follow in their foot-taps.
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THE BEAT GOES ON
Saturday, October 27th, 2012
Talent is ageless in The Beat Goes On, Jackie “Pink Lady” Goldberg’s latest senior-citizen song-and-dance showcase designed to entertain audiences from eighteen to eighty (and beyond) .
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CYMBELINE
Saturday, October 27th, 2012
A plucky young heroine who dons male apparel as disguise. A villain who plots to make our hero suspect his young wife of adultery. A potion that simulates death without that pesky fatal result. A royal father who rejects his beloved daughter. Children separated at birth and reunited at long last in adulthood. An ambitious queen without a moral scruple to her name. A bit of Ancient Roman history thrown in for good measure.
Care to venture a guess as to which Shakespeare play I’m talking about?
The answer, as any true Shakespeare buff will surely tell you, is neither As You Like it, Othello, Romeo And Juliet, King Lear, A Comedy Of Errors, Hamlet, or Antony And Cleopatra (though the abovementioned plot threads appear to have been borrowed from this half-dozen or so of Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits). No, it’s Cymbeline, reputedly Shakespeare’s fifth-from-last play, originally classified as a tragedy, later redubbed a romance, and as performed at A Noise Within under the truly inspired direction of Bart DeLorenzo, about as hilarious a comedic romp as any theatergoer seeking escapist entertainment could wish for.
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I OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES
Thursday, October 25th, 2012
There was a time a while back there that every Broadway season seemed to feature a World Premiere Neil Simon hit. 1980’s I Ought To Be In Pictures arrived smack dab in the middle of those prolific years, and though its fame may pale in comparison to better known Simon classics like Barefoot In The Park, The Odd Couple, Lost In Yonkers and the Brighton Beach Trilogy, even minor Simon can provide major entertainment as its current revival at The Falcon Theatre makes quite clear.
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A BRIGHT NEW BOISE
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012
A great big bear of a man stands alone at night in a deserted Boise, Idaho parking lot and repeats and repeats a single word like a cry to heaven. “Now. Now. Now.” The “now” Will is begging for is the moment in which the “dead in Christ” and those who are still alive will be “caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord”—in other words, The Rapture. In the meantime, the Boise newcomer has taken a part-time job at the local Hobby Lobby superstore, the better to get to know teenage cashier Alex, the son he gave up for adoption eighteen years ago.
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COLLECTED STORIES
Sunday, October 21st, 2012
Two of L.A.’s most gifted actresses ignite the stage in The Group Rep’s production of Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize finalist Collected Stories, giving performances every bit as brilliant as one might expect to see on the stages of our finest regional theaters.
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SLICE
Sunday, October 21st, 2012
“Hel-lo… It’s the 14th Century!” an exasperated Aiko Matsuda reminds her ne’er-do-well son Kai, invisible phone receiver to her ear, in Paul Kikuchi’s World Premiere screwball comedy Slice, and she’s not kidding. It really is the Age Of The Samurai in Japan, and 20something Kai can’t seem to get with the program. Mom is still waiting for Kai to throw out the trash, “which I asked you to do three days ago,” but Kai would rather while away the hours designing the world’s greatest sword, one which Lord Ito is bound to love … which will mean he’ll endorse it … which will mean that every samurai will want one! “It’s my duty as your mother to give you a sanity check,” declares Aiko in no uncertain terms. “Are you an idiot?!”
If this all sounds too sitcom silly for words, then you should probably skip Slice and opt for whatever Noël Coward revival might be playing locally. If, on the other hand, you simply want to spend a laugh-filled seventy minutes being entertained by a castful of zanies as seen through the eyes of a Japanese-American Mel Brooks, then check out the latest from the playwright who brought us Ixnay and Wrinkles. (Kikuchi does like those one-word titles.)
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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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