SHAHEED: THE DREAM AND DEATH OF BENAZIR BHUTTO
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
Say the name Benazir Bhutto to a cross-section of Pakistanis and you’ll probably get as many different points of view as those expressed by the characters who people Anna Khaja’s Shaheed: The Dream And Death Of Benazir Bhutto.
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STREEP TEASE
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Meryl. Meryl. Meryl.
Is there any need to add a last name? Can there be a movie fan alive today who doesn’t know straight away that the Meryl in question is the most Oscar-nominated actress (or actor) in Academy Award history? (That’s 16 nominations in case you’ve forgotten.)
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THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer and actor, Will Rogers packed a whole lot of living into his fifty-five years. He circled the world three times, made over seventy movies, wrote thousands upon thousands of nationally-syndicated newspaper columns, became internationally famous, and even ran once for President of the United States, if only in jest.
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ELEVATOR
Sunday, June 20th, 2010
Take a bunch of strangers and trap them in an enclosed space for a significant enough length of time and it’s a sure bet they’ll come out changed by the experience—if plays and movies are to be believed. Take the jurors in Twelve Angry Men, Tom Hanks and assorted others in You’ve Got Mail, or the high school kids in The Breakfast Club. Eleven jurors changed their verdict, Tom decided to leave Parker Posey for Meg Ryan, and the Princess, Jock, Brain, Criminal, and Basket Case all revealed themselves to be night-and-day different from our first impression of them and bonded in the process. Such is the stuff of stage and screen fiction.
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AMADEUS
Friday, June 18th, 2010
For the past several years, August Viverito and T L Kolman have been stripping down big stage, big budget Broadway productions to their brilliant essentials on the matchbox stage of the Chandler Studio Theatre in North Hollywood. Now, to the ranks of their superb downscalings of M Butterfly, Equus, and Sweeney Todd can be added The Production Company’s equally outstanding re-envisioning of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus.
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AIN’T WE GOT FUN
Friday, June 18th, 2010
Ain’t We Got Fun, Ben Hensley and Michael Montiel’s nostalgic look back at early 20th Century vaudeville, makes for forty-five of the brightest minutes you’re likely to enjoy this year.
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A SHAYNA MAIDEL
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
On the surface, Rose White would appear to be the quintessential All American New Yorker circa 1946. She has her own West Side apartment, a good job, a fashionable wardrobe, and an independent lifestyle. Scratch a little deeper, however, and you’ll discover that Rose White is European-born Rayzel Weiss, the daughter of Polish Jews born just a decade before Hitler’s rise to power. Papa Mordechai and four-year-old Rose emigrated to America in the mid-1920s, but older sister Lusia came down with scarlet fever shortly before the family’s planned departure, so Mama and Lusia stayed behind. Then came the Nazis, and mother and daughter were shipped off to Auschwitz along with everyone else in their extended family. Only Lusia survived. Now, a year after the declaration of peace in Europe, older sister has come to America at last.
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DAS BARBECÜ
Monday, June 14th, 2010
Musical Theatre Guild concluded its 2009-10 season with a one-night-only concert staged reading of Das Barbecü, a show you’ve probably never heard of before, but one that proved a delightful 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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