ARCADIA

posted on September 12th, 2016 at 11:53 AM by Steven Stanley

Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia can prove quite a head-scratcher when not done right. Fortunately, despite brain-teasing elements that can challenge even the sharpest intellect, all-around superb acting and incisive direction make A Noise Within’s 25th-season opener as entertaining and accessible as Arcadias get.
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posted in Comedy, Pasadena, Theater Review, WOW!

ANDREW LIPPA’S WILD PARTY

posted on September 11th, 2016 at 9:17 PM by Steven Stanley

Kristina Miller ignites the stage as Queenie in Quentin Garzón’s passion-project intimate staging of the 2000 off-Broadway musical adaptation of Joseph Moncure March’s 1928 epic poem The Wild Party, one which Garzón and company have redubbed “Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party,” the better to distinguish it from the Michael John LaChiusa Wild Party that played on Broadway the same year.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Theater Review

CHARM

posted on September 10th, 2016 at 12:53 PM by Steven Stanley

Edward J. Olmos’s Jaime Escalante did it in Stand And Deliver. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Louanne Johnson did it in Dangerous Minds. Sidney Poitier’s Mark Thackery did it in To Sir With Love. And now Lana Houston’s Mama Darleena Andrews does it in Charm, transforming the lives of a classroomful of rebellious teens, only this time round the teacher in question is a transgender sexagenerian and her students an unruly bunch of homeless LGBT teens. Talk about a setup for an edgy, funny, and (you guessed it) heartstrings-tugging crowd-pleaser, the latest all-around winner from Celebration Theatre.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

NOSFERATU, A SYMPHONY IN TERROR

posted on September 9th, 2016 at 1:52 PM by Steven Stanley

A silent horror movie classic inspires Crown City Theatre’s excitingly original Nosferatu, A Symphony In Terror, arriving just in time to greet the Halloween season with its stunning blend of movement and dance performed to a gloriously symphonic soundtrack.
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posted in Dance, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

LIKE BLOOD FROM A CHEAP CIGAR

posted on September 7th, 2016 at 9:24 AM by Steven Stanley

An effective use of reverse chronology and a luminous Genevieve Joy are the two best reasons to catch Like Blood From A Cheap Cigar, Joy’s short, bittersweet look at love gone bad, now concluding a limited run at Hollywood’s Hudson Guild Theatre following its Hollywood Fringe Festival debut this past June.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Short One-Act, Theater Review

DUTCH MASTERS

posted on September 6th, 2016 at 9:47 PM by Steven Stanley

A classic setup—Hitchcock called it Strangers On A Train—is given an excitingly edgy contemporary spin in Greg Keller’s edge-of-your-seat two-hander Dutch Masters, a Rogue Machine Theatre West Coast Premiere that will keep you guessing throughout its riveting seventy-five minutes, then have you talking about what you’ve seen long after its powerful final fadeout.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, Two-Hander, WOW!

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

posted on September 5th, 2016 at 2:23 PM by Steven Stanley

The Pride Of Saint Tropez, The Envy Of The Cabaret World, The Jewel Of The Riviera, in other words Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage Aux Folles, has opened its doors in beautiful downtown Claremont as Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre debuts its absolutely fabulous big-stage revival of the 1980s Broadway classic, directed and choreographed with abundant flair by Roger Castellano.
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posted in Musical, San Gabriel Valley, Theater Review, WOW!

MUTUAL PHILANTHROPY

posted on September 4th, 2016 at 5:42 PM by Steven Stanley

Copiously consumed whisky and wine fuel a dinner party for four as playwright Karen Rizzo puts a personal face on the social divide between the super-wealthy and the other 99% of us Angelinos in her explosive dark comedy Mutual Philanthropy, now getting an excitingly acted World Premiere by Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere

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