CELEBRITY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Monday, July 19th, 2010
How’s this for a clever idea? Gather a bunch of famous performers and have each one read a passage from the autobiography of a famous person, for example Brooke Shields reading from Touch Me: The [Autobiographical] Poems Of Suzanne Somers, emoting poetic gems like “we were making wild and crazy love before the ice had settled in our drinks … though I can barely remember your name …” And that’s only the start of ninety minutes of non-stop fun.
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40 IS THE NEW 15
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
What a difference a few tweaks can make!
40 Is The New 15, Larry Todd Johnson and Cindy O’Connor’s musical about five former high school classmates turning 40 and reflecting on the ways their lives have changed over the past quarter century, has made a triumphant return to North Hollywood a year after its workshop run. What was already an entertaining, moving, and very promising evening of musical theater has come back the polished gem that only years of rewrites and workshops can achieve.
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[title of show]
Friday, July 16th, 2010
West Hollywood’s Celebration Theatre celebrates its twenty-eighth year of presenting quality live theater to the LGBTQQIA community—and has its third big musical hit in just the past twelve months—with the Los Angeles Premiere of Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen’s award-winning off-Broadway hit [title of show]. Directed with consummate panache by Celebration Artistic Director Michael A. Shepperd, [title of show] is the perfect musical for show queens of any gender or sexual orientation.
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BECKY’S NEW CAR
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
“When a woman says she wants new shoes, what she really wants is a new job. When she says she wants a new house, what she really wants is a new husband. And when she says she wants a new car, what she really wants is a new life.”
Imparting these words of wisdom is Rebecca (Becky) Foster, middle-aged wife and mother and the title character of Steven Dietz’s Becky’s New Car, now getting a splendid Southern California Premiere production at Venice’s Pacific Resident Theatre.
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BLANK
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
If it takes guts merely for an actor to stand up in front of an audience and play a role, imagine how much more courage is required when there’s no one else on stage to be his safety net—and the role that he’s playing is himself.
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LIFE COULD BE A DREAM
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
When Roger Bean’s Life Could Be A Dream opened at Los Angeles’s 99-seat Hudson Theatre last summer, I wrote, “Don’t be surprised if the show is still running a year from now. Rave reviews and enthusiastic word-of-mouth should guarantee full houses and standing ovations for months to come.”
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[title of show]
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
In the spring of 2004, New York City writing partners Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen sat down to create a new musical in just three weeks, that being precisely the period of time remaining before the New York Musical Theatre Festival’s submission deadline. Joined by friends (and fellow performers) Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff, the quartet met the deadline with a 90-minute musical about itself, from its first spark of inspiration to its opening night on Broadway. As for the show’s title, having rejected such candidates as Festival Of Dreams, Your Arms Too Short To Write This Musical, and RENTT (with two t’s), the creative team decided to stick with what was on the application form: [title of show]. And wonder of wonders, their dream became a reality.
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THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE
Saturday, July 10th, 2010
Every musical theater aficionado has his or her own pet shows, ones that can be seen again and again without ever losing their appeal, especially when new performers put their stamps on favorite roles. My own personal favorites include The Last Five Years, The Light In The Piazza, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, all of which I have reviewed in numerous productions since StageSceneLA’s 2007 premiere.
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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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