DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS

posted on July 11th, 2016 at 2:51 PM by Steven Stanley

Few 21st-century musicals have put the Comedy back into Musical Comedy like Best Musical Tony nominee Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, at long last getting the big-stage professional production SoCal musical theater lovers have been waiting for since its National Tour stopped at the Pantages a full decade ago, and what a production it is thanks to the Musical Comedy Pros at Musical Theatre West.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

A CHORUS LINE

posted on July 10th, 2016 at 10:44 AM by Steven Stanley

It takes balls to reimagine a classic and an abundance of talent to pull it off, particularly when the classic in question is the 1975 megaclassic A Chorus Line. Fortunately, Chance Theater’s Oanh Nguyen and Hazel Clarke have both, resulting in an A Chorus Line that might provoke protests from purists who’d have Michael Bennett’s direction and choreography set in stone but will likely thrill everyone else, this reviewer included.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

posted on July 9th, 2016 at 4:13 PM by Steven Stanley

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has set up shop at the Sierra Madre Playhouse for the next two months in a 99-seat production sure to delight both Bee newbies and veteran Bee buffs like this reviewer, who enjoyed Bee 14.0 every bit as much as his very first thanks to Robert Marra’s zesty direction/choreography and a cast to rival the best I’ve seen.
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posted in Musical, San Gabriel Valley, Theater Review, WOW!

FOOL FOR LOVE

posted on July 8th, 2016 at 5:09 PM by Steven Stanley

I may never go gaga for Fool For Love, but if ever a production could make me a believer in Sam Shepard’s overheated take on Greek tragedy in today’s Wild Wild West, it’s the one now playing at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre thanks to some refreshingly subtle directorial touches and a quartet of superb performances, chief among them star turns by Burt Grinstead and Charlotte Gulezian.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

SMOKE

posted on July 4th, 2016 at 6:13 PM by Steven Stanley

Fearless only begins to describe Patrick Stafford and Emily James’ stunning performances in Kim Davies’ walk-on-the-wild-side two-hander Smoke, now running in raw, risk-taking Rogue Machine rep with the similarly single-word-titled Honky and Bull.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

BULL

posted on July 4th, 2016 at 11:02 AM by Steven Stanley


Youtube videos would like bullied teens to believe “It Gets Better” once high school days are over and done. Not so in the dog-devour-dog business world of Mike Bartlett’s Bull, where it’s one pitiful runt going head to head against a pair of vicious pit bulls. Sorry, make that one pit bull and one pit bitch. Now running in rep with Rogue Machine’s Honky and Smoke, Bull makes for one devastatingly funny, mercilessly soul-shattering fifty-five minute ride.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

CHURCH & STATE

posted on July 3rd, 2016 at 1:48 PM by Steven Stanley

A North Carolina senator’s “Road To Damascus” conversion from staunch 2nd Amendment advocate to gun control champion may sound about as improbable as Barbara Boxer suddenly turning pro-life, but it makes for powerful, thought-provoking comedy (that’s right, comedy) in Jason Odell Williams’ Church & State, now being given a sensationally acted and directed NNPN Rolling World Premiere* by Skylight Theatre Company.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

A FEW GOOD MEN

posted on July 2nd, 2016 at 10:54 AM by Steven Stanley

An edge-of-your-seat suspense-filled script, a mystery it would take a Sherlock Holmes to solve, courtroom sequences that would do Perry Mason proud, razor-sharp direction by Tony Pauletto, a topnotch production design, and crackerjack performances by a cast of twenty-four, most particularly by KC Clyde in the role that scored a pair of Toms (Hulce and Cruise) respective Tony and Golden Globe nominations, all of the above add up to a NoHo Arts Center guest production of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men that rivals work being done by L.A.’s finest intimate theater companies.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

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