HAIRSPRAY

posted on November 26th, 2016 at 4:57 PM by Steven Stanley

Hairspray is back in town, and just in time to provide an honest-to-goodness live alternative to NBC’s upcoming Hairspray Live. More importantly, thanks to some sparkling lead and featured performances, Cupcake Theater’s mid-sized revival proves a surefire crowd pleaser for audiences from nine to ninety.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

MAMMA MIA!

posted on November 23rd, 2016 at 12:53 PM by Steven Stanley

Mamma Mia!, the jukebox musical that started it all, has come back to Costa Mesa in its Final Farewell Tour, its return to the Segerstrom Center For The Arts offering the Broadway mega-smash’s mega-multitude of fans not only two dozen of ABBA’s Greatest Hits but one of Thanksgiving week’s Greatest Reasons to give thanks.
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posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE

posted on November 22nd, 2016 at 5:56 PM by Steven Stanley


A fresh new crop of Cal State Fullerton musical theater majors breathe fresh new life into Broadway’s 2006 Valentine to musical theater, The Drowsy Chaperone, winner of 5 Tony Awards and a CSUF crowd-pleaser if there ever was one.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

UNBOUND

posted on November 20th, 2016 at 11:47 AM by Steven Stanley

Sympathy-defying characters in credibility-challenging situations make D.G. Watson’s Unbound a less than riveting follow-up to IAMA Theatre Company hits like A Dog’s House, The Recommendation, and The Accidental Blonde.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, World Premiere

PARADE

posted on November 19th, 2016 at 1:06 PM by Steven Stanley

The UCI Claire Trevor School Of The Arts’ Department Of Drama opens its 2016-2017 season with a powerful, superbly performed big-stage revival of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

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!

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