ICEBERGS

posted on November 18th, 2016 at 7:05 PM by Steven Stanley

An indie filmmaker and his actress wife invite a trio of friends into their Silver Lake home for ninety minutes of contemporary American playwriting at its most entertaining in Alena Smith’s timely and touching, humorous and human Icebergs, a World Premiere dramedy that proves one of the Geffen Playhouse’s best.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

KENTUCKY

posted on November 18th, 2016 at 10:49 AM by Steven Stanley

Thomas Wolfe to the contrary, you can go home again. Just don’t expect to have fun once you’ve arrived, not if the family you’ve left behind in the Appalachians is as dysfunctional as Hiro’s in Leah Nanako Winkler’s Kentucky, an entertaining but hit-and-miss East West Players West Coast Premiere that could be a whole lot better without tonal shifts that take it back and forth from over-the-top sitcomish to authentically real.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere

THE SPITFIRE GRILL

posted on November 14th, 2016 at 3:27 PM by Steven Stanley

With its compelling storyline, colorful cast of small-town characters, gorgeous folk-meets-Broadway score, and much-needed message of forgiveness and redemption, James Valcq and Fred Alley’s The Spitfire Grill gave Musical Theatre Guild audiences ample reason to stand up and cheer (and wipe away a few tears) at last night’s one-night-only concert staged reading at Glendale’s historic Alex Theatre.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, Theater Review, WOW!

THE SUPER VARIETY MATCH BONUS ROUND!

posted on November 13th, 2016 at 1:09 PM by Steven Stanley

Playwright Deb Hiett pokes gentle fun at the Red State-Blue State divide in her undeniably hilarious, unexpectedly moving, and utterly unique World Premiere comedy The Super Variety Match Bonus Round!, the latest from Rogue Machine Theatre.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

MilkMilkLemonade

posted on November 12th, 2016 at 6:59 PM by Steven Stanley

An eleven-year-old girly boy named Emory, the barnyard chicken who’s his best friend, his caring but Leviticus-spouting granny, and the self-loathing, Emory-loving bad-boy-next-door add up to an hour-and-a-quarter of delightful, insightful, ultimately quite touching adult storybook fun in Joshua Conkel’s MilkMilkLemonade, the latest from Santa Ana’s Theatre Out.
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posted in Comedy, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN NOVEMBER ON THE BANKS OF THE GREATEST OF THE GREAT LAKES

posted on November 11th, 2016 at 6:34 PM by Steven Stanley

There may indeed be “no place like home for the holidays,” but there’s surely never been a holiday home quite like the Wemblys’ in Kate Benson’s A Beautiful Day In November On The Banks Of The Greatest Of The Great Lakes, now getting a weird, wacky, wonderful West Coast Premiere at Hollywood’s Theatre Of NOTE.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

posted on November 8th, 2016 at 12:50 PM by Steven Stanley

Ten of L.A.’s finest actresses (and a couple of equally talented guys) deliver superb performances, and the production they are starring in proves one of the year’s most stunningly designed. Still, as was the case when I saw Lily Tomlin perform it as a one-woman showcase back in 1987, I found The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe, Jane Wagner’s collection of (mostly women’s) monologs and occasional multi-character scenes only intermittently engaging in its Los Angeles LGBT Center intimate-stage “revisitation.”
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review

URINETOWN

posted on November 6th, 2016 at 5:03 PM by Steven Stanley

Annie, Cabaret, Dreamgirls, Grease, Hair, Mame, Pippin, Rent. One-word-titled Broadway smashes go all the way back to the birth of the modern American musical. (Showboat or Oklahoma!, you take your pick.) Still, there’s never quite been a modern American musical like Urinetown, proof positive of which can be marveled at in director Kari Hayter’s exhilarating intimate-stage revival, the latest from L.A.’s “Pay What You Want” Coeurage Theatre Company.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

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