LOVE SUCKS
Sunday, March 20th, 2011
When Rob Mersola’s Backseats & Bathroom Stalls debuted in 2008, the pansexual sex farce had me laughing out loud through its eighty-five minutes of outrageous surprises. With an eleventh hour “I didn’t see that one coming” twist I called “the best since The Crying Game or The Sixth Sense,” the entire package ended up winning four Scenies—for Best Production Comedy (Small Theater), Best Direction (Comedy), Best Ensemble (Comedy), and Best Performance By A Featured Actress (Comedy). Popular demand brought the production back for a second run at the tiny Lyric Hyperion Theatre, after which, as most shows do, it vanished into nostalgic memory, but not before catching the attention of a group of producers who saw its potential for even greater success.
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GLORY DAYS
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
For many of us, the best days of our lives start after high school, and if anyone doubts this, a quick look at the thousands of It Gets Better videos available for online viewing on will correct that misperception. At the same time there are those like Will in the Broadway musical Glory Days, who may spend the rest of their post-high school lives remembering how much better things were back then.
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HAVING IT ALL
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
A group of disparate (and perhaps desperate) strangers find themselves stuck in the same space and, not surprisingly, hate each other at first sight. As the minutes tick by, however, they begin talking—out of frustration or necessity—and little by little discover how wrong their first impressions have been. By the time their enforced proximity comes to an end, bonds have been formed, friendships even, and each of these strangers comes out changed for good (in both senses of the term). A proven formula for drama, comedy, and in the case of Having It All, for an original musical now earning cheers at North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts Center.
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PROOF
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
In the decade since David Auburn’s Proof premiered on Broadway, the four-character drama has become one of the most produced plays in the United States. For a time there, it seemed that just about every regional, intimate, or community theater in Los Angeles was doing, had done, or was going to do their own version of the Broadway hit—and no wonder. How many plays can you name that have won the Drama Desk Award for Best New Play, the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle and Tony Awards for Best Play, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama? Add to that the fact that it’s a one-set play which offers several of the best acting roles of this or any decade, and you’ve got a play that any theater in its right mind would want to have as part of its season.
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THE MERCY SEAT
Sunday, March 13th, 2011
What if a national tragedy offered you the chance to start a new life, in a new city, without the complications of a marriage you no longer wanted to be part of and children you didn’t want to put through the hell of a divorce? What if there was someone else in your life, someone you’d been seeing secretly for several years, someone who could start that new life with you somewhere far, far away if you simply pretended to be one of the missing-presumed-dead? Would you make the break for freedom? Would she be willing to join you?
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JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG
Sunday, March 13th, 2011
When Abby Mann wrote Judgment At Nuremberg for its 1959 telecast on Playhouse 90, the Eisenhower administration set about to insure that the production would never see the airwaves. A teleplay about Nazi war criminals on trial for their part in the Holocaust could impede efforts to make Germany an ally in the then-raging Cold War, officials maintained. Ultimately, though, the show did go on, but not without one of the program’s sponsors, American Gas, Inc., insisting on muting the words “gas ovens.”
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I LOVE YOU BECAUSE
Saturday, March 12th, 2011
I Love You Because is one of the funniest and most delightful new musicals of the past few years. It has one of the most tuneful, memorable scores you’re likely to hear this year or next. It’s also one of the most unabashedly romantic musical comedies ever. So, you may be asking yourself, “Why have I never heard of it?” to which this reviewer would add, “Why has this near perfect gem of a chamber musical comedy still not gotten its Los Angeles Premiere in the five years since it debuted off-Broadway?”
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THE NEXT FAIRY TALE
Friday, March 11th, 2011
If there were a book titled Everything I’ve Learned In Life, I’ve Learned From Fairy Tales, then what lessons could a pintsized LGBT-in-training gain from it? That Cinderella found her Prince? That a Prince awoke Sleeping Beauty with a kiss? That a kiss turned a Princess’s frog into a handsome Prince? Where’s a little boy or girl to look for fairytale inspiration when what they’re secretly dreaming of is a Prince for him, and a Princess for her?
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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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