PUTTING IT TOGETHER
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
You won’t find a more tuneful, sophisticated or better performed show around town than South Coast Repertory’s beautifully staged revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together.
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A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM
Friday, September 18th, 2009
In the days before Stephen Sondheim got serious with his 1970s hits Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, and Sweeney Todd, way back in the pre-Beatles early 60s, the soon-to-be multiple Tony Award-winner wrote A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Even now, forty-seven years later, this early Sondheim hit remains the perfect choice for those who complain that Sondheim is “too dark” or that his melodies are inaccessible. A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum is hilarious farcical fun, with no higher goal than to present “something for everyone, a comedy tonight.”
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MATTHEW MODINE SAVES THE ALPACAS
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
When a celebrity’s career has gone to pot, there’s nothing like a little humanitarian work to get him or her back on the A-List, or at least that’s what Matthew Modine has decided in Matthew Modine Saves The Alpacas, Blair Singer’s marvelously silly (and entertaining) mockumentary now diverting audiences at the Geffen.
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ART
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
“How do you like my new haircut?”
“Don’t you just love my new outfit?”
“What do you think about my new sunglasses?”
How many of us have not been asked one of these questions and been faced with the age-old dilemma—to tell the truth, i.e. the whole unpleasant truth, or to avoid trouble by telling a little white lie. “It looks marvelous on you! You’ve never looked better. I’m going right out to get some too!” How much easier it is to avoid hurting a friend’s feelings, and at the same time how frustrating and annoying, when what you really want is to tell your friend what an enormous mistake he or she has made.
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SECRETS OF A SOCCER MOM
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
You don’t have to be the mother of a budding soccer star to enjoy Stillspeaking Theatre’s latest offering. Still, San Marino’s professional theater couldn’t have picked a better play for the community which surrounds it than Kathleen Clark’s Secrets Of A Soccer Mom. My guess is that the carpool set will love it. After all, even this single male reviewer with no particular interest in raising children, playing soccer, or watching children play soccer had a fine time getting to know its three title characters.
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F*CKING MEN
Friday, September 11th, 2009
With a title like F*cking Men and the promise of full frontal male nudity, the latest Celebration Theatre production will have no problem attracting audiences. Joe DiPietro’s modern gay twist on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1900 classic La Ronde has been filling seats in London for the past two years and counting. What WeHo theatergoers will be getting, however, is much more than merely a sexually explicit title and some briefly viewed private parts. DiPietro’s play, particularly as directed here by the justly admired Calvin Remsberg, is a witty, perceptive, absolutely engrossing look at gay relationships, both sexual and romantic. F*cking Men says much about the way gay men meet and mate, but audiences of either sex or any sexual orientation are likely to recognize themselves in at least one of DiPietro’s diverse cast of characters.
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THE NIGHT IS A CHILD
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Who wouldn’t want to escape the winter cold of Massachusetts for the beaches of Rio De Janeiro? Certainly not 50ish widow-housewife-mother-grandmother Harriet Easton, who’s just arrived in the land of sun and samba. Harriet’s face lights up with joy at the simple fact of being in Brazil, but her smile hides a pain almost too excruciating to live with, the grisly reason for which is revealed pouco a pouco in Charles Randolph-Wright’s magical new play The Night Is A Child, now getting a stunning staging at the Pasadena Playhouse under the nuanced direction of Sheldon Epps.
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I LOVE YOU BECAUSE
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
I Love You Because is one of the funniest and most delightful new musicals of the past few years. It has one of the most tuneful, memorable scores you’re likely to hear this year or next. It’s also the most unabashedly romantic musical comedies ever. Its San Diego premiere at North Coast Repertory is a reminder that yes, indeed, there are times that big city L.A. theater is trumped by its neighbor to the south.
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