HOUSE OF THE RISING SON
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
“There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I’m one”
The New Orleans mansion Trent Varro shares with his father Garrett and grandfather Bowen may indeed prove the ruin of Felix Martin, or so it would seem when the young Angelino catches sight of the shocking tableau which ends Act One of Tom Jacobson’s World Premiere drama House Of The Rising Son. (No, the last word isn’t misspelled.)
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THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
Neil Simon revealed a considerably darker side than was his wont in his 1973 hit The Prisoner Of Second Avenue, which Jason Alexander now stars in at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre in a production that rivals the best of Broadway revivals.
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THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas’s The Light In The Piazza is the most exquisite new musical to grace Broadway in the past ten years. How’s that for a reason to catch its first big-stage L.A.-area production since the National Tour played the Ahmanson in 2006—especially one as gorgeous as that of Civic Light Opera Of South Bay Cities?
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COMPLETENESS
Sunday, April 24th, 2011
The KISS principle tells us to “Keep it simple, Stupid!” In other words, it’s a simple design (or romance for that matter) that works best, unnecessary complexity being the enemy of a successful outcome.
Nerds-in-love Elliot and Molly learn the truth of KISS in Itamar Moses’s Completeness, the popular young playwright’s latest World Premiere comedy, now playing at South Coast Repertory. If only the computer scientist and the molecular biologist could just keep it simple, maybe their fledgling romance might have a chance of not imploding.
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THE BOY IN THE BATHROOM
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
No theatrical genre is more quintessentially American than the musical. From Show Boat to Oklahoma to West Side Story to A Chorus Line to Rent to Spring Awakening, the American musical continues to evolve, breaking new ground and exploring new themes, and nowhere more so than in the intimate “chamber musical.” Daddy Long Legs, Adding Machine: The Musical, Hello Again, Loving Repeating, Group: A Musical, and Glory Days are but a half dozen chamber pieces raved about on these pages over the past half dozen months, and to this list can now be added The Boy In The Bathroom, currently getting its World Premiere at The Chance Theater.
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THE IDIOT BOX
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
Six 20somethings live in perfect harmony in a New York penthouse. Their lives are laugh track-accompanied, and canned audience “ooohs” and “aaahs” are heard at sentimental moments. They are cute, ditzy, dumb, wisecracking, and a bit dull.
No, this is not the latest network sitcom or a rerun of Friends, but rather Michael Elyanow’s clever, highly satisfying tour-de-force comedy The Idiot Box, one of my favorite new plays of the past ten years.
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THE CHINESE MASSACRE: ANNOTATED
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Late 19th century Los Angeles history comes to vivid, complex, highly theatrical life in The Chinese Massacre (Annotated), award-winning playwright Tom Jacobson’s latest World Premiere, and once again (as with Jacobson’s Ouroboros, Bunbury, and The Twentieth Century Way), audiences are in for something special indeed.
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CHERRY SMOKE
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
The going-nowhere existences of a quartet of 20somethings living in an unemployment-plagued Donora, Pennsylvania are brought to painfully vivid life by playwright James McManus in his award-winning Cherry Smoke, now getting a first-rate West Coast Premiere by the brand new Lucky Mellon Collective, an exciting addition to the Los Angeles theater scene.
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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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