IN THE HEIGHTS

posted on October 22nd, 2017 at 6:24 PM by Steven Stanley

Musical Theatre West gives In The Heights, the thrilling, entertaining, emotionally powerful Tony-winning Best Musical of 2008, not only its first major L.A. County staging since its creator Lin-Manuel Miranda played the Pantages, its MTW debut proves the most brilliant of the eight productions I’ve now seen since that 2010 First National Tour.
(read more)

Tags: , , ,
posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

BRIGHT STAR

posted on October 21st, 2017 at 5:47 PM by Steven Stanley

There’s no brighter star lighting up L.A. stages this month and next than the dazzling Carmen Cusack, reprising her Tony-nominated star turn as Alice Murphy in Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star, a musical so stunningly staged and gorgeous to the ear that it’s easy to go easy on its Stella Dallas/Imitation Of Life-style soap.
(read more)

Tags: , , , ,
posted in Los Angeles, Musical, National Tour, Theater Review, WOW!

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

posted on October 20th, 2017 at 11:33 PM by Steven Stanley

Forget every A Tale Of Two Cities you’ve seen before, and that includes the 1935 MGM classic. A Noise Within’s United States Premiere of Mike Poulton’s thrillingly reconceived 2014 stage adaptation is in a class by itself, Dickens retold for a 21-century audience, instantly compelling, gorgeous to look at, profoundly moving, and as directed by Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliot, the absolute must-see production of ANW’s all-around smashing Fall 2017 season.
(read more)

Tags: , , ,
posted in Drama, Pasadena, Theater Review, WOW!

WICKED LIT 2017

posted on October 19th, 2017 at 5:33 PM by Steven Stanley

The Mountain View Mausoleum And Cemetery is once again the undisputed star of this year’s ninth-annual Wicked Lit, a venue so mysterious and spooky that audiences keep coming back year after year for the three-and-a-half-hour indoor-outdoor Halloween-season extravaganza.
(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Drama, Pasadena, Theater Review, WOW!

RUNAWAY HOME

posted on October 17th, 2017 at 6:00 PM by Steven Stanley

A fourteen-year-old far too smart, self-assured, and resourceful for her own good takes to the streets of New Orleans three years after Hurricane Katrina lay waste to the city’s Lower Ninth Ward in Jeremy J. Kamps’ Runaway Home, a Fountain Theatre World Premiere that proves every bit as compelling a slice-of-post-Katrina-life as it is a bona fide crowd-pleaser.
(read more)

Tags: , , ,
posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

EXIT STRATEGY

posted on October 16th, 2017 at 10:54 PM by Steven Stanley

A longtime teacher’s unexpected reaction to the impending closure/demolition of the beleaguered Chicago inner city school she has for decades called home serves as catalyst to Exit Strategy, playwright Ike Holter and the L.A. LGBT Center’s gripping, gut-punching follow-up to their 2015 critical/box-office smash Hit The Wall, and one of Fall 2017’s must-see productions.
(read more)

Tags: , , ,
posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN

posted on October 16th, 2017 at 10:51 PM by Steven Stanley

Fans of Sarah Ruhl’s particular brand of whimsy, magical realism, and romance will fall especially hard for With Love And A Major Organ, Julia Lederer’s quirky, charming romcom now getting a playwright’s-dream West Coast Premiere at The Theatre @ Boston Court.
(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Comedy, Pasadena, Theater Review, WOW!

MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION

posted on October 15th, 2017 at 11:12 AM by Steven Stanley

A Noise Within has once again done what it does best in George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession. It has taken a theatrical classic of centuries past and staged it as if it had been written today, and with the always edgy Michael Michetti in the director’s chair, ANW’s slogan “Classic Theatre, Modern Magic” has rarely felt more apt.
(read more)

Tags: , ,
posted in Classic Play, Pasadena, WOW!

Next PagePrevious Page