THE GAS HOUSE
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
What begins as a solo performance by a recently fired talk radio “shock jock”
who was “paid to be a jerk” soon turns into an affecting two person play about
a doomed romantic relationship in Sacred Fools’ West Coast Premiere of William
Donnelly’s The Gas House.
(read more)
BUNNY BUNNY
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007
He called her Gilbert. She called him Zweibel, accent on the “bel.” She became
one of the most famous, funniest, and most beloved comediennes of the 1970s.
He wrote for the TV show that made her a star and later co-created a hit TV
sitcom. They loved each other for fourteen years, though each married
another. They were the best of friends until her untimely death. She was Gilda
Radner. He is Alan Zweibel. Bunny Bunny is the beautifully funny, affectionately
written, and exquisitely directed and performed “sort of romantic comedy” of
two lives intertwined.
(read more)
THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
The members of the Musical Theatre Guild are musical theater magicians. How
else could they create musical theater magic in just 25 hours of rehearsal time?
They’ve done it again, with a delightful, tuneful (book in hand and sans sets but
otherwise pretty much fully staged) production of Rupert Holmes’ The Mystery of
Edwin Drood (based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel). Their first of two
performances (at the Alex in Glendale last Monday) happened to coincide with
the mammoth Chess benefit, but I was able to catch yesterday’s reprise
performance at the much more intimate Janet & Ray Scherr Forum in Thousand
Oaks, which was a treat for the ears and the eyes.
(read more)
GOBLIN MARKET
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
Take two of the most phenomenally talented performers on the L.A. theater
scene, add a critically acclaimed director and a superb design team, and give
them an exquisite but little known musical to bring to life, and you have Syzygy
Theatre Group’s remarkable production of Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon’s Goblin
Market.
(read more)
DURANGO
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
Durango begins on a bare stage, with just a chair and guitar far right. A
young man wearing shorts and a t-shirt enters, sits, picks up the guitar and,
beginning to strum, sings a sadly nostalgic song. “Main Street isn’t busy much
anymore. A neon girl dressed up with nowhere to go.” He seems to be
recalling the past, a past which we begin in the next scene to discover.
(read more)
CHESS
Monday, September 17th, 2007
Those who attended last night’s Chess benefit (for Broadway Cares Equity
Fights AIDS) expecting “just a concert” were in for a dazzling surprise. What
had been advertised as “Chess in Concert” turned out to be a fully staged,
fully choreographed, fully off-book production of the 80s Broadway hit. And
what a production it was!
(read more)
HAIR
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
The year was 1968.
16,592 American soldiers lost their lives in Vietnam, the greatest number of
casualties for any year of the war. At home, assassins’ bullets killed Bobby
Kennedy and Martin Luther King. 10,000 or more enraged Americans
protested the Vietnam War outside the Democratic convention in Chicago,
leading to hundreds of arrests and police-inflicted injuries.
(read more)
AND NEITHER HAVE I WINGS TO FLY
Friday, September 14th, 2007
Ann Noble’s heartwarming And Neither Have I Wings to Fly feels like a theater classic that’s been around forever. Hard to believe it’s a fairly recent play which is only now getting its Southern California premiere, in an absolutely gorgeous production at the Road Theatre, directed by award winning Scott Cummins.
(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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