NOISES OFF
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Nobody loves farce more than the British, whether it’s plays like No Sex Please, We’re British, or Joe Orton’s What The Butler Saw, or Alan Ayckbourn’s Taking Steps, or any of Ray Cooney’s frantically-paced comic gems (Move Over Mrs. Markham, Run For Your Wife, etc.) These British farces are so popular that they not only get major professional productions throughout the world, they have also become a staple of community theaters, where unfortunately they don’t always get the caliber of actors required. Only performers with a) total command of their lines, b) perfect coming timing, and c) absolute readiness to enter and exit on cue can do these comedies justice.
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DIVORCE! THE MUSICAL
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
Imagine you’re a multitalented young writer-musician-performer with two failed marriages under your belt—and you’re not yet thirty. Would you consult a lawyer? Too late for that now. See a therapist? Been there, done that. Write an original musical about your experiences on the divorce battlefield? Now THAT’s an idea!
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THE GRADUATE
Friday, February 13th, 2009
Say the words The Graduate and the first thing likely popping into your head will be the voices of Simon and Garfunkel singing “Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson” or perhaps “The Sounds Of Silence.” Then there’s the famous movie poster of a very young Dustin Hoffman gazing at Anne Bancroft’s stockinged leg filling the foreground. And who can forget Hoffman’s semi-incredulous, “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me,” one of the American Film Institute’s 100 most famous movie lines … ever.
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TIME STANDS STILL
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner With Friends held a microscope up to the lives of two married couples, a foursome of best friends for a decade. Throughout the course of the play’s two acts, the audience sees the two couples as they see one another … and as they see themselves in the privacy of their own homes.
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LOST IN YONKERS
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
If anyone is wondering why Neil Simon’s Lost In Yonkers won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, head over to the La Mirada Performing Center For The Arts. The McCoy Rigby Entertainment production of this Simon favorite is a textbook example of how to make an 18-year-old comedy seem as fresh as if it were only now getting its world premiere.
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JESUS HATES ME
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
Life in small town South Central Texas is anything but dull in Jesus Hates Me, Wayne Lemon’s quirky dark comedy getting its West Coast Premiere in a beautifully acted and directed (by Oanh Nguyen) production at Anaheim Hill’s Chance Theater.
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THE TWILIGHT OF THE GOLDS
Friday, February 6th, 2009
What would you do if a simple test early in pregnancy could determine whether or not your child would be born with a physical defect or a propensity towards a debilitating illness? What if such a test could even tell you what your unborn child’s sexual orientation might be?
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STORMY WEATHER
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
The legendary Lena Horne is brought to vivid life by a pair of stellar performers in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Stormy Weather. Like the Playhouse’s electric Ray Charles Live, Sharleen Cooper Cohen’s bio-musical (under the assured direction of Michael Bush) revisits the life of a show biz superstar through the eyes of her grown-up self, played here by triple-threat stage, screen, and recording star Leslie Uggams. Young Lena is the equally gifted Nicki Crawford, and together they take the audience on a half-century journey from Harlem’s Cotton Club to the stages of the world—punctuated by some of the greatest songs of the era.
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