STEEL MAGNOLIAS
Monday, August 29th, 2011
Those Steel Magnolias are back, and Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre has got’em—in a simply couldn’t-be-better production, one which is blessed with six of the finest performances you’re likely to see all year.
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PRIVATE LIVES
Saturday, August 27th, 2011
For a comedy that’s now reached the ripe old age of seventy one, Noël Coward’s Private Lives remains as young, fresh, and lively as ever—and those in need of proof need simply check out the terrific Private Lives revival now playing at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
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LIFE ON THIS COUCH
Friday, August 26th, 2011
ec•cen•tric ([ik-sen-trik, ek-)—adjective: (of a person or behavior) Unconventional and slightly strange, as in “No one writes eccentric characters quite like Laura Richardson.”
For proof of the above, head on over to Open Fist Theatre where Richardson’s latest, Life On This Couch, is delighting audiences with the playwright’s unique, quirky, and thoroughly entertaining take on life. Like the eccentrics in Richardson’s Do Do Love and Come Back Little Horny, the people who live on and around Cece Taylor’s sofa are folks you might not want to live with 24/7, but it sure is fun to spend a couple hours observing the habits, mating and otherwise, of this wild and crazy bunch.
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BEAU JEST
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Perhaps the three best words of advice to offer any theater company hoping to stay in business year after year are the following: Know Your Audience. The post-retirement set who make up Glendale Centre Theatre’s loyal subscribers keep coming back again and again because they trust GTC to give them the kind of time-proven hit musicals and plays that they grew up enjoying, shows like this season’s Forever Plaid, To Kill a Mockingbird, Big River, and 1776, to name just a few.
Beau Jest, the current Glendale offering, isn’t going to win any “Drama Critics’ Circle” awards for sophistication, daring, or cutting-edgedness. In fact, the New York Times savaged a New Jersey production back in 1994 in a review which still shows up first if you Google the title. But tell that to last night’s mostly over-65 crowd, who loved every one of Beau Jest’s sitcommy jokes and archetypical characters, and you know what? Even though I’m not quite as up there in age as the majority of the aforementioned, I too had a ball from start to finish, thanks in great part to the terrific talent who’ve put together GCT’s latest offering.
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ENGAGING SHAW
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
If it’s true that the human brain is our largest erogenous zone, then things must have gotten pretty darned erotic between George Bernard Shaw and Charlotte Payne-Townshend, or at least such is the case in Engaging Shaw, John Morogiello’s highly intelligent, highly entertaining, and yes, highly engaging romantic comedy, now getting its West Coast Premiere at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre.
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HAIRSPRAY
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
Like the month of June, Edna and Tracy Turnblad seem to be “bustin’ out all over” these days, their smash Broadway hit musical Hairspray making the rounds of Southern California regional theaters to the delight of subscribers and single-ticket buyers alike. Residents of San Diego-adjacent Vista (and anyone lucky enough to be within driving distance of Moonlight Amphitheatre) are the latest to receive a visit from the full-figured mother-daughter team who first took the world of musical theater by storm in their 2003 Broadway debut.
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Monday, August 22nd, 2011
If William Shakespeare has been called an acquired taste, the time has come for this reviewer to confess to having—despite considerable kicking and screaming—acquired a taste for the Bard. No longer can I protest too much, as I have in years past, that (to quote from a 2008 review) “I often get lost in his convoluted plots, whole chunks of dialog whizzing past me or over my head without really sinking in.” Yes, Shakespeare’s plots can still be hard to follow, and yes, there are still passages that even the finest Shakespearean actor cannot render comprehensible to my 21st Century ears, but after having (in the past year alone) raved about productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (two of them!), The Comedy Of Errors, Measure For Measure, The Taming Of The Shrew, and The Merchant Of Venice, I’m actually starting to look forward to “Another Op’ning, Another Show.”
The Old Globe 2011 Shakespeare Festival production of Much Ado About Nothing can now be added to the above list, director Ron Daniels and an extraordinarily talented cast having come together to create a truly magical evening of romance and laughter under the San Diego stars.
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SMALL ENGINE REPAIR
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
If you grow up in New Hampshire, chances are your elementary school best friends will remain your besties for life, even in Manchester, its biggest city, whose population of 109,565 would make it hardly more than a small town here in Southern California.
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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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