43 PLAYS FOR 43 PRESIDENTS
Friday, September 19th, 2008
Arriving just in time for the election season, 43 Plays For 43 Presidents is a lickety-split rollercoaster ride through the last 219 years of American history.
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WEHO
Friday, September 19th, 2008
Classic nighttime soaps, Dynasty and Melrose Place to name just two, get a hilarious gay spoofing in the Celebration Theater’s latest late night hit, WeHo, named after “the most dramatic city never to hit prime time. Some call it West Hollywood. We call it WeHo!”
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SPEECH & DEBATE
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
A Salem, Oregon high school teacher cruises school restrooms and gay.com to pick up 18-year-old students for sex. Salem’s conservative mayor is rumored to up to similar shenanigans, all the while promoting an anti-gay agenda. Sounds like the basis for a stark, current-as-today’s-headlines drama, right?
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SOUVENIR
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Several decades before Mrs. Elva Miller (known affectionately as “Mrs. Miller”) blithely and cluelessly massacred such 1960s hits as “Downtown” and “A Lover’s Concerto” in her vibrato-heavy, wobbly, off-key mezzo, there was an even more celebrated “pure coloratura” who achieved now legendary fame in the operatic concert world by performing arias in a voice that makes Mrs. Miller’s seem nearly magnificent by comparison.
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SEESAW
Monday, September 15th, 2008
What would L.A. musical theater lovers do without MTG? Who else but the musical theater magicians who make up Musical Theatre Guild would give Angelinos the chance to see a production of a rarely produced Broadway semi-hit like 1973’s Seesaw? Who else could do it with a mere 25 hours of rehearsal? And who else could achieve such overall excellence in a “concert staged reading” that it could easily hold its own against many a “fully staged production” on local stages?
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AN ITALIAN STRAW HAT
Sunday, September 14th, 2008
When most people hear the word “vaudeville,” those who’ve heard of it probably think of a staged variety show with singers, comics, dance acts, magicians, and trained monkeys … or something of the like. At least that’s how I would have defined vaudeville before seeing An Italian Straw Hat: A Vaudeville, at South Coast Rep.
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THE FRIENDLY HOUR
Friday, September 12th, 2008
Playwright Tom Jacobson finds greatness in the “small” lives of a group of South Dakota housewives in his newest play, The Friendly Hour, being given a splendid World Premiere Production at the always splendid The Road Theater.
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NO EXIT
Friday, September 12th, 2008
What a difference a director makes.
When I saw a production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit last April, I just didn’t get it. The bizarre costuming and makeup (the lead actor wore green glitter in his gelled jet black hair, dark glittery lipstick, heavy eye shadow, and rouge, and was attired in a waistcoat, dark green silk vest, tight black leggings and 8” platform boots) and robotic movements affected by the actors took me out of the story and not into the world they were striving to create.
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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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