DO I HEAR A WALTZ?

posted on November 16th, 2015 at 4:42 PM by Steven Stanley

If ever there were an ideal show for Musical Theatre Guild to revive, it is Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents’ Do I Hear A Waltz? Terrific songs. A book based on a successful play and movie. A couldn’t-be-more-romantic setting. Mixed reviews. Only 200 performances on Broadway. In short, a show you’re unlikely to see revived in any major sort of way any time soon.

Fortunately, thanks to MTG, L.A. audiences got treated to its many delights last night at Glendale’s historic Alex Theatre.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, Theater Review, WOW!

THE FEAST

posted on November 15th, 2015 at 2:35 PM by Steven Stanley

A suddenly meatless world serves as the pretext for what well may be the most bizarre dinner party in the history of contemporary theater in Celine Song’s absurdist black comedy The Feast, now being given a terrific Los Angeles New Court Theatre L.A. Premiere in precisely the kind of DTLA loft-with-view in which said dinner party might actually take place.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!

MIRAVEL

posted on November 14th, 2015 at 3:25 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED

Cyrano de Bergerac gets a jazz-infused contemporary update in Jake Broder’s play with music Miravel, a Sacred Fools World Premiere that scores high marks for performance, both vocal and instrumental, but could use some tweaking and tightening, particularly in its overlong first act.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Recommended, Theater Review

42nd STREET

posted on November 11th, 2015 at 1:04 PM by Steven Stanley

Three dozen pairs of “dancing feet” have arrived at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts, which as any Broadway buff will tell you can mean only one thing—42nd Street is in town, exciting news indeed for musical theater aficionados, particularly since the show’s latest national tour is just about as terrifically performed, directed, choreographed, and designed as national tours get.
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posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

posted on November 9th, 2015 at 2:04 PM by Steven Stanley

The “creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky” family known as The Addams have arrived at the Simi Valley Performing Arts Center in a production that proves an audience-pleaser even without Broadway sets and Equity performers, particularly as captained by a sensational George Chavez as Gomez Addams.
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posted in Musical, Theater Review, Ventura County, WOW!

EL GRANDE CIRCUS DE COCA-COLA

posted on November 8th, 2015 at 7:22 PM by Steven Stanley

Gracias a Doña Barbara Beckley, Don Pepe Hernandez and his El Grand Circus De Coca-Cola have moved arriba from their 99-seat-plan origins and brought their multiple Scenie-winning* 90 minutos of nonstop hilardad to Burbank’s Colony Theatre for what remains the funniest show you’re likely to see in todo el año de 2015.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Cabaret/Concert/Variety, Theater Review, WOW!

THE SPARROW

posted on November 7th, 2015 at 6:14 PM by Steven Stanley

A teenage girl’s return to her hometown following a ten-year absence takes both the introverted orphan and the audience observing her journey-into-adulthood on unexpected paths in The Sparrow, now getting a supremely theatrical West Coast Premiere by Coeurage Theatre Company, “Los Angeles’ only pay-what-you-want theatre.” (They’ve even trademarked the slogan.).
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

UNCLE VANYA

posted on November 6th, 2015 at 6:21 PM by Steven Stanley

You know from the moment Ilya Ilych Telegin, aka “Waffles,” starts the show off by singing and strumming along to Marvin Etzioni’s “The Mandolin Man” that The Antaeus Company’s West Coast Premiere of Annie Baker’s Drama Desk Award-winning adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya isn’t going to be like any Vanya (or perhaps any Chekhov) you’ve seen, and though I remain ambivalent about the talky Russian playwright, when the Anateus revival takes flight, it soars.
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posted in Classic Play, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

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