INTO THE WOODS
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Since its Broadway premiere 21 years ago, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into The Woods has become one of the most performed musicals in the U.S.—in regional CLOs, on college and high school campuses, and in intimate theaters. Its first act, which magically combines some of the best loved of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and its second, which explores with considerable depth what happens after “happily ever after,” make for a show which retains its freshness and originality two decades after it first captivated Broadway audiences.
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PROBLEM CHILD
Sunday, November 16th, 2008
The comedy is dark indeed in George F. Walker’s Problem Child, and thanks to Walker’s twisted take on life and a quartet of pitch-perfect performances, this Bella Productions/Actor’s Workout Studio production is black comedy at its blackest and funniest.
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SHANGHAI MOON
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Those who adhere to strict standards of political correctness should not, I repeat NOT see Shanghai Moon, Charles Busch’s spoof of the “Oriental” melodramas of Hollywood’s Golden Era. All others will have a devilishly good time reliving the forbidden passions of such “classics” as Lady From Chungking, Daughter Of Shanghai, King Of Chinatown, Shanghai Express, and Daughter Of The Dragon, all of them starring the immortal Anna May Wong. After all, as the program cover states, “There is enchantment when East meets West under the Shanghai Moon.”
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O JERUSALEM
Friday, November 14th, 2008
What if several months before the events of 9/11, an important U.S. government official had learned of a planned terrorist attack—by air, on an Eastern city, in September? Could the attacks on the World Trade Center have been prevented had this official spoken to the right higher-ups? This hypothetical (or is it?) situation is the basis of O Jerusalem, by A.R. Gurney, now getting a first-rate Los Angeles premiere by The Production Company.
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THE JOY LUCK CLUB
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Fans of Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club or Wayne Wang’s 1993 film version will find much to relish in East West Players’ production of its stage adaptation by Susan Kim.
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THE MOST HAPPY FELLA
Monday, November 10th, 2008
Musical Theatre Guild once again astounds with their “Concert Staged Reading” of Frank Loesser’s 1956 Broadway musical drama The Most Happy Fella, their most vocally challenging project since Elmer Rice-Kurt Weill-Langston Hughes’ Street Scene nearly two years ago.
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CHARLES DICKENS’ OLIVER TWIST
Sunday, November 9th, 2008
Say the words Oliver Twist and the first thing that pops into mind may be a song—“Food Glorious Food,” “Where Is Love,” “You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two,” “Who Will Buy”… Lionel Bart’s songs are so inextricably linked to Charles Dickens’ original story that it’s hard to imagine an Oliver Twist without them, yet British writer-director Neil Bartlett has dared to do so in his 2004 adaptation (“in twenty-four scenes with several songs and tableaux”) entitled Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, now getting a magical L.A. premiere at A Noise Within.
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SILK STOCKINGS
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
Silk Stockings was songwriter Cole Porter’s last Broadway musical. The 1955 production ran for over a year, but unlike Porter’s biggest smash, the twice Broadway-revived Kiss Me Kate, Silk Stockings has pretty much vanished from view and memory. Thus, Musical Theatre West’s revisal of the Cold War comedy comes as something of an event, especially with a much rewritten book by Stuart Ross of Forever Plaid fame, who also directs.
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