ALIVE AND WELL
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
She: I never apologize cause I am never wrong.
He: Neither am I!
Is this any way to start a relationship? Well, in the world of romantic comedies it is. Think of all the great screen couples whose road to love began with out-and-out hatred, or at least some good old-fashioned dislike. Think Gable and Colbert in It Happened One Night, Crystal and Ryan in When Harry Met Sally, or last year’s Reynolds and Bullock in The Proposal. Couples like these carry on a great tradition begun perhaps by Will Shakespeare in The Taming Of The Shrew, or who knows, maybe from as far back as Adam and Eve.
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URINETOWN
Saturday, March 27th, 2010
Musicals with one-word titles are a grand Broadway traditon. There’s Annie, Brigadoon, Cabaret, Dreamgirls, Grease, Hair, Kismet, Mame, Oklahoma!, Oliver!, Pippin, and Rent—to name just a dozen. Still, neither Rodgers and Hammerstein nor Jerry Herman nor Lerner and Lowe could ever in their wildest of dreams have conceived of titling a musical Urinetown. From its one-of-kind title alone, you know from the get-go that Urinetown is not going to be your parents’ or grandparents’ musical.
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VIOLET
Friday, March 26th, 2010
Besides offering audiences some of the finest musical theater productions around, Los Angeles and its environs house some of the country’s finest university level musical theater programs. Just check the performers’ bios the next time you see a show at a local CLO and you’ll find ample proof of the caliber of triple-threats UCLA, USC, Cal State Fullerton, and UC Irvine (to name just four) are turning out.
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
There’s Shakespeare, and then there’s Shakespeare at A Noise Within. No In The Park, Under The Stars, or 99-Seat Plan Shakespeare guarantees the consistent excellence that A Noise Within’s team of world-class actors, directors, and designers deliver, time after time after time. Their current mounting of Much Ado About Nothing is no exception.
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BOEING-BOEING
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
If laughter is indeed the best medicine, then there’s no better cure for the blues than a rollicking romp of a farce. British farces, like the recently reviewed See How They Run and No Sex Please, We’re British, have become a particular favorite of this reviewer. The word farce does come from the French, however, so it should come as no surprise that English masters of farce like Ray (Move Over, Mrs. Markham) Cooney have their Gallic counterparts, most notably the late Marc Camoletti, author of Boeing-Boeing and Don’t Dress For Dinner.
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SWEENEY TODD
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
Downsizing may be the best thing that’s ever happened to Stephen Sondeheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street. First came the 2004 London-to-New York transfer that had a cast of ten actor-musicians who not only performed the roles but became the show’s onstage orchestra. More true to its source material than that this “high-concept” revival was The Production Company’s brilliant 2009 downscaling (once again to ten actors) in North Hollywood’s 34-seat Chandler Studio Theatre. To this reviewer, at least, The ProdCo’s “Teeney Todd” felt more like the real thing than its West End-Broadway counterpart, and the same holds true with Cygnet Theatre Company’s superb eleven-actor midsized revival down in Old Town San Diego.
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ABOVE THE LINE
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
a•bove-the-line: (ə-bŭv’-THə-līn’) adj. the part of a film’s budget that covers the costs associated with major creative talent: the stars, the director, the producer(s) and the writer(s)
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A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
What a difference a director, a cast, and an orchestra can make! The Reprise! Theatre Company production of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum is the third I’ve reviewed in less than two years, and though numbers one and two were each excellent in their own way, David Lee’s direction, an all-Equity cast, and a 22-piece orchestra elevate this Forum to a whole new level of brilliance.
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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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