WICKED
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
The international smash musical sensation that is Wicked has arrived in Costa Mesa for a four-week run, two-to-four times longer than most of the Broadway Tours that play the Segerstrom Center For The Arts—and no wonder. Few musicals can rival Wicked in terms of song, romance, color, spectacle, and heart.
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CHICAGO
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
When a Broadway musical settles in for a long run on the Great White Way, it’s a pretty sure bet that your local big city CLO won’t be producing its own regional production for a good long while. That’s why you’re unlikely to see Musical Theatre West or Civic Light Opera Of South Bay Cities presenting Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys, The Lion King, Phantom Of The Opera, or Wicked anytime soon. That’s also why Inland Valley Repertory Theatre’s production of Chicago is big news indeed.
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THE WEDDING SINGER
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Fullerton’s Maverick Theater scores a coup by staging the 2006 Tony Award-nominated musical The Wedding Singer, and an entertaining production it is—a thoroughly enjoyable two hours of music, comedy, 1980s nostalgia, and romance.
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FOR THE RECORD: BAZ LUHRMANN
Saturday, March 5th, 2011
What do you get when you blend New York-style cabaret, an octet of Broadway and on-their-way-to-Broadway stars, a sensational backup band, music from the silver screen, and a trendy Hollywood-adjacent night spot?
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SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
Friday, March 4th, 2011
If it’s true that money can’t buy happiness or love, then it’s also true that money can’t guarantee a successful theatrical endeavor, the best example being the money pit that Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark has turned into. $65 million as of last count, which was back in November, so goodness (or in this case badness) only knows how much its cost has risen to as of March 2011. By the same token, terrific theater can be made for a pittance, as proven by Still Hungry Theater’s on-a-shoestring intimate revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday At The Park With George.
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A HOUSE NOT MEANT TO STAND
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
The McCorkles of Tennessee Williams’ A House Not Meant To Stand would seem to have more in common with the trailer trash of Del Shores’ Sordid Lives than with the lost souls of The Glass Menagerie or other early Williams’ plays. Perhaps that’s why I enjoyed Tennessee’s last play, now getting its West Coast Premiere nearly thirty years after it first opened in Chicago, so much. That, and the fact that it’s the latest offering by the only Intimate Theater in Los Angeles to win the L.A. Ovation Award for Production Of The Year four times.
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ROCK OF AGES
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
The ‘80s have taken over the O.C. as the Broadway smash Rock Of Ages arrives at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts. Long-haired rock stars, big-haired rock babes, and the hits of Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, Poison and Asia come together with a wisp of a jukebox musical plot to make for two hours and twenty minutes of joyous nostalgia and hard rock “noize” (as in Quiet Riot’s 1983 cover of “Cum On Feel the Noize.”)
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MATT BECOMES A MAN
Monday, February 28th, 2011
Many an actor has a tale to tell, and a goodly number of them have turned their stories into solo performances, most of which end up acts of shameless self-promotion. Well, perhaps that’s a bit of an overstatement, and one unbecoming a website which prides itself on “accentuating the positive in Los Angeles theater.” Still, there is some truth to this exaggeration, which is why when I tell you that I loved every minute of Matt McConkey’s Matt Becomes A Man, it is a statement to be taken seriously. The Scenie-Winning star of last year’s The Boys In The Band not only has a story worth telling, it’s also a story worth taking center stage with, as the handsome, talented, ingratiating, and very funny young actor does in his absolutely captivating hour of self-discovery.
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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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