MISS SAIGON
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
It’s a long and winding road which leads a Broadway smash to regional theaters, one that can take years or even decades. In most cases, a show must finish its Broadway run and its national tours (that’s tours with an “s” because major hits often have three or more national tours). That’s why you won’t find still-running Broadway hits like The Phantom Of The Opera or Mamma Mia at your local CLO any time soon. And that is why Miss Saigon at Civic Light Opera Of South Bay Cities is such an event.
PEST CONTROL
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
Pest Control The Musical may well be the most visually and technically spectacular musical ever staged in a 99-seat L.A. area theater. Its cast is a mix of stars with major Broadway credits and some of our finest local talents. Director- choreographer James J. Mellon and his Open At The Top Productions have mounted a sensational world premiere musical where only the number of seats is small.
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PARK YOUR CAR IN HARVARD YARD
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Theatergoers who made the recent production of Trying a monster hit for the Colony Theatre are hereby advised to head on down to Long Beach for International City Theatre’s superb revival of Israel Horovitz’ 1981 two-hander, Park Your Car In Harvard Yard. Like Trying, Park Your Car takes two people who are different in every possible way (age, sex, education, religion, family background, etc.), puts them in the same space, and lets the sparks fly. Like Trying, affords an actor in his eighties the part of a lifetime. Like Trying, the actress playing opposite said actor gets the gift of a role so richly drawn that sinking her teeth into it proves a veritable feast, both for the actress and for the audience.
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SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE PALACE
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
A brief news clipping reporting the aftermath of a crime in 1980s Apartheid-ruled South Africa inspired renowned playwright Paul Slabolepszy to imagine the 90 minutes which might have led up to it. The harrowing result, Saturday Night At The Palace, had its Cape Town premiere at a time when it was illegal for black and white actors even to appear on stage together.
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THE INJURED PARTY
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
South Coast Repertory has a bonafide hit on its hands. Richard Greenberg’s latest, The Injured Party, is one of the most exciting plays I’ve seen since John Guare’s Six Degrees Of Separation, a work which it shares a number of common themes with. Both deal with family, love, art, money and ambition among New York’s very rich. Both are exceedingly smart without being pretentious. Like Six Degrees, The Injured Party features a gay lead character whose sexual orientation is not central to the story. Both plays keep you riveted from curtain up to curtain calls.
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I’D RATHER BE RIGHT
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
The folks who revived George and Ira Gerswhin’s 1925 Tip-Toes last year are back with another Broadway musical from days gone by, this time one by Rodgers and Hart. Is it Pal Joey? Babes In Arms? Think again. The Boys From Syracuse? A Connecticut Yankee? Wrong again.
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LADY
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Craig Wright may be most familiar as the writer/(executive) producer of TV’s Dirty Sexy Money and Six Feet under, but theatergoers know him as a prodigious playwright, the author of such radically different fare as Orange Flower Water, Grace, and Recent Tragic events, all three of which have had superb L.A. productions over the past two years. Orange Flower Water is a harrowing drama of adultery, Grace mixes that theme with evangelical Christianity, and Recent Tragic Events dares to imagine a screwball comedy taking place the day after 9-11. Now comes the West Coast Premiere of 2007’s Lady, and the trio of outstanding local productions of Wright’s work is now a quartet.
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A PIECE OF TIN
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Who would have thought that an original musical about Queen Victoria, with book, music, and lyrics by an unknown writer, would turn out to be a tuneful, funny, and emotionally moving surprise?
A Piece Of Tin, by Rhett Judice, is all three.
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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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