CAROLE COOK DIED FOR MY SINS

posted on October 25th, 2024 at 10:43 AM by Steven Stanley

A sumptuous production design and a theatrical venue in L.A.’s hip Los Feliz district help distinguish Mason McCulley’s Carole Cook Died For My Sins from the slew of autobiographical solo performances on stage each summer at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
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posted in Los Angeles, Solo Performance, Theater Review, World Premiere

SOMEONE LIKE ME / IN WHOSE EYES?

posted on October 22nd, 2024 at 9:43 AM by Steven Stanley

Art Of Acting Studio debuts two very different World Premiere one-acts, Richard Gustin’s Someone Like Me and George Kappaz’s In Whose Eyes?, and in the case of the former, you’ll be seeing a quite different play than the one reviewed here.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Short One-Act, World Premiere, WOW!

AUGUST WILSON’S THE PIANO LESSON

posted on October 21st, 2024 at 9:36 AM by Steven Stanley


To sell or not to sell. That is the question at the heart of the Pulitzer Prize-winning August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, an October gift from A Noise Within to the playwright’s many fans, and even for those like this reviewer who’d prefer it if Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle decalogy didn’t run a hefty three hours each, this is easily one of his most entertaining and powerful works.
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posted in Drama, Pasadena, Theater Review, WOW!

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

posted on October 20th, 2024 at 12:42 PM by Steven Stanley


Inspired direction, pitch-perfect performances, and a gorgeous production design combine to make Antaeus Theatre Company’s 2024 season opener about as perfect a The Importance Of Being Earnest as any Oscar Wilde lover could wish for.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Classic Play, Comedy, Theater Review, WOW!

GUYS AND DOLLS

posted on October 18th, 2024 at 10:27 AM by Steven Stanley


Damon Runyon’s picturesque band of New York denizens continue to delight audiences almost seventy-five years after their Broadway debut in Altadena Music Theatre’s lively outdoor revival of the 1950 Broadway classic Guys And Dolls.
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posted in Musical, Pasadena, Theater Review, WOW!

KIMBERLY AKIMBO

posted on October 17th, 2024 at 11:22 AM by Steven Stanley


It only took me only seconds to fall madly in love with Kimberly Akimbo at the Pantages. No wonder then that David Lindsay-Abaire and Jeanine Tesori’s tuneful, touching adaptation of the former’s outrageously funny, deeply moving play of the same name won five 2023 Tonys including the big one, Best Musical.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, National Tour, Theater Review, WOW!

I, DANIEL BLAKE

posted on October 16th, 2024 at 9:00 AM by Steven Stanley

Brilliant performances and dazzling production design aside, Dave Johns’ unrelentingly bleak stage adaptation of I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach’s Kafkaesque 2016 film about a good man living a British bureaucratic nightmare is the most depressing  90 minutes I’ve spent in a theater in a very long time.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review

¡PASAJE!

posted on October 14th, 2024 at 9:19 AM by Steven Stanley

If I were grading on good intentions alone, then J Quiroz and Asdru Sierra’s ¡Pasaje! would earn high marks. Unfortunately, this musical salute to la vida latina in South El Monte is no In The Heights.
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posted in Musical, San Gabriel Valley, Theater Review, World Premiere

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