SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Before Parade, before The Last Five Years, before 13, the now-renowned composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown made his first big splash on the New York musical theater scene with Songs For A New World, a song cycle about facing the “new world” that unexpected life changes can bring about. This glorious collection of songs now returns to the L.A. area in a terrific revival at Long Beach’s International City Theatre, masterfully directed by Jules Aaron.
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DADDY LONG LEGS
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Jean Webster’s 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs, a favorite children’s book for nearly a hundred years now, has been turned into an exquisite gem of a musical, and one not just for youngsters. In fact, it’s hard to think of another musical so absolutely right for ages eight to eighty. In the inspired hands of composer-lyricist Paul Gordon and writer-director John Caird, the Rubicon Theatre’s production of Daddy Long Legs proves to be one of the most enthralling, entertaining, and moving love stories I’ve seen on the American musical theater stage.
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MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
Hollywood legend has it that movie mogul David O. Selznick shut himself, director Victor Fleming, and script doctor Ben Hecht inside his office for five straight days, the three men subsisting entirely on a diet of bananas and peanuts, as Hecht rewrote the entire script of Gone With The Wind, a book he’d never read.
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DEATHTRAP
Friday, October 9th, 2009
For a record-breaking four years, New York audiences found themselves both riveted and tickled to death by the multitude of plot twists and turns in Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, that is when they weren’t laughing in utter delight at the sheer brilliance of Levin’s five-character, one-set, two-act mystery-comedy, still the longest running thriller in Broadway history. Angelinos can now find out what all the excitement was about simply by driving down to San Pedro to catch Little Fish Theatre’s terrific revival of the comedy-suspense classic.
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STEEL MAGNOLIAS
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Steel Magnolias: (n) any of those Southern women whose delicate exterior hides a tough-as-nails core
Anyone who’s seen the star-studded 1989 movie adaptation of Robert Harling’s off-Broadway play doesn’t need to consult Websters to know what a Steel Magnolia is. We all remember Sally Field’s M’Lynn, whose petite stature belied her inner strength in the face of tragedy, or Shirley MacLaine’s Ouiser, the curmudgeon with a marshmallow heart hidden deep inside. On the other hand, no matter how many times you’ve seen the movie or watched it on DVD (and laughed and cried at all the most memorable moments), seeing the original Harling play live on stage is a treat, and when performed by a cast as all-around terrific as the one assembled at the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, the treat is a tasty one indeed.
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THE HAPPY ONES
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
It’s 1975 in sunny Garden Grove, California, and Walter Wells is one of The Happy Ones. With his own business, a home in the suburbs, and a wife and two young children, things couldn’t be better for Walter, a man living the quintessential American Dream. “Beautiful women. Beautiful children. Great neighbors. Fantastic jobs. Gorgeous weather.” Walter and his fellow Garden Grovians could hardly imagine a world any different from the one in which they live such perfect lives.
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SAMMY
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
Say the name Sammy to anyone over a certain age and the first (and perhaps the only) person to come to mind will be the one and only Sammy Davis Jr. It’s therefore entirely fitting that Davis’s musical biography, now playing to audience cheers at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, should be titled Sammy. Just Sammy. Simply Sammy. A name that is synonymous with entertainment.
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SWEENEY TODD
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
Anyone in need of proof that theatrical miracles can indeed take place in our fair city need look no further than The Production Company’s miraculous new revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd—miraculous because who could possibly imagine Sondheim’s big-stage, big-cast musical scaled down to a stage area about one-tenth the size of the Ahmanson’s with a cast totaling only ten—and having it work to near perfection?
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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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