CRIERS FOR HIRE

posted on February 18th, 2016 at 6:09 PM by Steven Stanley

A trio of SoCal Filipinas earning extra cash by weeping and wailing at funerals may provide the title (and the hook) for Giovanni Ortega’s Criers For Hire, but it’s the play’s mother-daughter reunion and its look at a teenage girl’s coming-of-age in a new land that give Ortega’s delightful, charming World Premiere comedy its emotional heart and punch.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

FUNNY GIRL

posted on February 17th, 2016 at 2:05 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED

The musical that made Barbra Streisand a Broadway superstar is back, and if 1964’s Funny Girl doesn’t hold up nearly as well as its mid-‘60s competitors Hello, Dolly!, Fiddler On The Roof, and Man Of La Mancha, its latest Southland revival proves an enjoyable season opener for Inland Valley Repertory Theatre.

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posted in Musical, Recommended, San Gabriel Valley, Theater Review

THE MOUNTAINTOP

posted on February 16th, 2016 at 7:12 PM by Steven Stanley

A sexy young maid’s late-night visit to a preacher’s Memphis motel room provokes unexpected consequences in Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop. That the preacher in question is Dr. Martin Luther King on the last night of his life is just one reason audiences should be lining up to catch the Olivier Award Winning Best New Play of 2009’s long-awaited Los Angeles Premiere at the Matrix.
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posted in Los Angeles, Theater Review, Two-Hander, WOW!

DOGFIGHT

posted on February 15th, 2016 at 11:17 AM by Steven Stanley

A mean-spirited U.S. Marine “tradition” yields unexpectedly touching romantic results in Dogfight, the Louise Lortel Award-winning Outstanding Musical of 2012, now being given a powerful Los Angeles and Orange County Premiere by Anaheim Hills’ illustrious Chance Theater.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

WEST SIDE STORY

posted on February 14th, 2016 at 8:29 PM by Steven Stanley

The musical many consider the greatest in Broadway history gets a magnificent big-stage production, the kind most West Side Story lovers can only dream of, as Musical Theatre West debuts their 59th-anniversary revival of the Arthur Laurents-Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim-Jerome Robbins classic.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

CLOSER THAN EVER

posted on February 13th, 2016 at 2:31 PM by Steven Stanley

Over two dozen simply gorgeous songs by Maltby and Shire, four sensational triple-threat performances, and inspired direction by Todd Nielsen add up to yet another triumph for Long Beach’s International City Theatre in their fabulous season-opening revival of the off-Broadway classic Closer Than Ever.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical Revue, Theater Review, WOW!

SALOME

posted on February 12th, 2016 at 6:34 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED

You may love it, you may hate it, you may leave the theater scratching your head and wondering “WTF was that about?” … but one thing is certain. There’s nothing else in town quite like the “militantly erotic epiphany for the 21st Century” that is Christopher Adams-Cohen’s Salome, the playwright/actor’s “radically queer reinvention of the ancient tale of [you guessed it] Salome.”
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Recommended, Theater Review, WOW!

BARCELONA

posted on February 11th, 2016 at 6:51 PM by Steven Stanley

A tour-de-force star turn by Betty Gilpin and a magnificent Carlos Leal are just two reasons not to miss Barcelona, Bess Wohl’s funny, thought-provoking, and ultimately quite moving look at European-American relations as seen from the starting-off point of a hot-and-heavy one-night stand.
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posted in Theater Review, Two-Hander, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

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