ASPECTS OF LOVE
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Musical Theatre Guild once again proves its level of talent and versatility with
its latest “Broadway in Concert” presentation, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
Aspects Of Love. The talent is personified by Broadway’s Kim Huber and
Christina Saffran Ashford and National Tour/regional theater vets Roger
Befeler, Chuck Bergman, and Michael G. Hawkins. The versatility is proven by
this season’s selection of musicals. Following The Mystery Of Edwin Drood with
its big cast/big production numbers and the small cast, comedy skit filled As
Thousands Cheer, Musical Theatre Guild now undertakes very nearly an opera
with the entirely sung-through “Pucciniesque” Aspects of Love, which has a
cast of 13.
(read more)
ASSASSINS
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
If by some chance you’ve never seen or heard of Stephen Sondheim and John
Weidman’s Assassins, here’s what it’s about, in brief:
It’s about eight men and women who either assassinated, or attempted to
assassinate, a United States President.
Not your usual bill of fare for a musical, is it?
(read more)
CABARET
Friday, February 8th, 2008
When a musical has been around as long as John Kander and Fred Ebb’s
Cabaret has (the original Broadway production opened in 1966), it becomes a
show that most veteran theatergoers have seen multiple times. Thus,
whenever a new production opens, it is up to the performers and director to
keep it fresh and vital. I’m pleased to report that International City Theatre’s
Cabaret features a trio of fine lead performances and a director whose
concept and vision distinguish this Cabaret from others which have come
before.
(read more)
LI’L ABNER
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
It’s a typical day in Dogpatch, U.S.A.–typical, that is, until the U.S.
Government decides to bomb it to smithereens. Then, local residents scramble
to find something necessary about their beloved town, birthplace of the worst
Confederate General ever, Jubilation T. Cornpone. Meanwhile, marriage-
minded cutiepie Daisy Mae keeps on trying to convince Li’l Abner that there’s
more to life than goin’ fishin’ with his buds. That’s the plot (what there is of it)
of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank’s Li’l Abner, based on Al Capp’s classic
comic strip of the same name.
(read more)
DRIVING MISS DAISY
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy is perhaps best known from the 1989 film
adaptation which starred Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, and which
won Miss Tandy the Oscar at the age of 80. However “Miss Daisy” made her
first appearance in a tiny off-Broadway theater in 1987, with Dana Ivey and
Freeman creating the roles of Miss Daisy and her chauffeur Hoke. That Uhry’s
tale of an elderly Southern Jewish widow and the African American driver
foisted upon her by her adult son could work equally well on the big screen
and on a small stage is testimony to its power. Now, McCoy Rigby
Entertainment’s revival at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts
proves that Driving Miss Daisy is equally successful performed on a Broadway-
sized stage, especially in the hands of TV icon Michael Learned and her 3-time
Miss Daisy costar Lance C. Nichols, under the assured direction of Brian Kite.
(read more)
THE MONKEY JAR
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
STUDENT BRINGS GUN TO SCHOOL; THREATENS TEACHER
An everyday occurrence in inner-city high schools, yet in Richard Martin Hirsch’s
The Monkey Jar, now in its world premiere engagement at Theatre 40,
Bienvenida Charter School is not in the inner city but rather in an upscale West
Los Angeles suburb, and the child involved is just 10 years old.
(read more)
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
Thursday, January 31st, 2008<
“Doctor, help me! I keep seeing naked men!”
“From now on, we shall never have sex except in a linen cupboard.”
(Two of my favorite lines from What The Butler Saw.)
(read more)
ORSON’S SHADOW
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
The year is 1960. The place is Dublin, Ireland, more specifically the Gaiety Theatre,
where renowned film critic Kenneth Tynan has just arrived on a mission. He plans
to ask Orson Welles of Citizen Kane fame to direct “the greatest actor in the
English language” in a production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. The actor in
question is, of course Lawrence Olivier, fresh from his stage and screen triumph in
The Entertainer. There is one hitch to Tynan’s plan, however, and that is Welles’
belief that “Olivier destroyed me in Hollywood in 1948.”
(read more)
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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