THE MUSCLES IN OUR TOES
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
The last time there was a 20th high school reunion at the El Portal Forum Theatre, the returning grads were a quartet of 60s-hits-singing housewives who called themselves The Marvelous Wonderettes. In Stephen Belber’s just opened The Muscles In Our Toes, the returnees are four male buddies and the music providing a soundtrack to their reunion is performed by Culture Club, Eurythmics, and other 1980s icons. Whereas The Marvelous Wonderettes was light and fluffy fun, The Muscles In Our Toes makes for far darker fare, at times shocking, but often hilarious in its own edgy way.
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OKLAHOMA!
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
As the overture reaches its climax, lights come up on a middle-aged woman sitting alone on stage working a butter churn. Behind the woman is a farmhouse and fields of corn as high as an elephant’s eye, and her full-length country dress tells us we are in the early 1900s. From offstage comes a male voice singing a cappella, “There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow…” The voice grows louder until the man enters, wearing a cowboy hat and chaps. “Oh what a beautiful morning… Oh what a beautiful day,” serenades the man to the farm woman, who continues her churning.
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THE GREEN ROOM
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
There’s some exciting news for High School Musical fans who’ve moved on to higher education. College Musical has arrived! Well, in actual fact the show in question is entitled The Green Room, but in many ways it’s like a PG-13 post-graduation spin-off of the über popular Disney franchise. Like HSM, this enjoyable world premiere features young, ready-for-their-close-up triple-threats who spend more time singing, dancing, and pairing up than doing their assignments. Then again, who would pay to see a show about homework?
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COLLECTED STORIES
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
The mentor-pupil relationship of an acclaimed author of short stories and her most promising student is charted over a period of six years in Donald Margulies’ compelling drama Collected Stories. Now returning with its original star to South Coast Repertory (where it had its world premiere in 1996), this much awaited revival proves a sterling example of big-stage professional theater at its best.
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COME BACK LITTLE HORNY
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
Meet the Maloneys, your average upper-middle class Palo Alto family:
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THE MIRACLE WORKER
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Helen Keller. Annie Sullivan.
Few Americans can hear these names without recalling William Gibson’s Tony-winning The Miracle Worker. It’s been fifty years since the now classic biodrama debuted on Broadway, so long ago that to today’s theatergoers, it seems scarcely possible that there was a time before this extraordinary true story became part of our consciousness. Few are those who have not seen either the Oscar-winning 1962 film or its two TV remakes (Patty Duke won the Oscar (and Tony) for playing Helen and the Emmy for playing Annie) or one of its countless school or community theater productions. Major professional revivals are less common, though, all the more reason to greet Joel Daavid’s powerful new production with excitement.
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SETUP & PUNCH
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
Nine years following her acrimonious split from Brian, Vanya (nee Yvonne Patricia) takes pen to paper to write (yes, write, not email) her onetime creative partner with a request. “Dear Brian,” she writes. “I know I can’t make up with you but I hope we can be friends.”
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ONCE UPON A MATTRESS
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
Once Upon A Mattress is a popular choice for high school musicals and community theaters, but I can’t recall a professional production here in L.A., so the Lyric’s totally entertaining revival of this 1959 Broadway gem comes as particularly welcome news, especially in these gloomy economic times.
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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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