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!

CAKE

posted on November 3rd, 2015 at 3:00 PM by Steven Stanley

The lives of nine college town residents intersect in Wendy Gough Soroka’s World Premiere comedy Cake, the latest from Theatre Unleashed and a crowd-pleaser despite its unnecessarily lengthy scene changes.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

BREAKING THROUGH

posted on November 2nd, 2015 at 4:22 PM by Steven Stanley

The tale being told may not be “as old as time,” but it’s certainly as old as the recording industry, or so aspiring singer-songwriter Charlie Jane discovers in Breaking Through, a World Premiere musical that, while breaking no new ground storywise, at the very least features a catchy pop-rock score, some exciting choreography, and a bunch of thoroughly winning performances.
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posted in Musical, Pasadena, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

MY FAIR LADY

posted on November 1st, 2015 at 1:42 PM by Steven Stanley

My Fair Lady with a cast of seventeen, minimal sets, and a two-piano orchestra is hardly the My Fair Lady you and I have grown up seeing, but Rubicon Theatre’s chamber adaptation of the Lerner & Lowe classic works mostly as well as (and in some ways better than) a more traditional production.
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posted in Musical, Theater Review, Ventura County, WOW!

BOOTY CANDY

posted on October 31st, 2015 at 10:30 AM by Steven Stanley

Growing up gay and black serves as the point of departure for Robert O’Hara’s hilarious, daring, provocative bunch of one-acts collectively titled Booty Candy, the latest from Celebration Theatre and the first in their spiffy new LGBT Center-adjacent digs at Hollywood’s Lex Theatre.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

COMPANY

posted on October 29th, 2015 at 2:11 PM by Steven Stanley


Company’s dropped by Candlelight Pavilion to celebrate Bobby’s 35th birthday as Inland Valley Repertory Theatre debuts its marvelously performed midweek revival of Company, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s Tony-winning Best Musical of 1970.
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posted in Musical, San Gabriel Valley, Theater Review, WOW!

ABUNDANCE

posted on October 29th, 2015 at 12:00 AM by Steven Stanley

Imagine a big-screen Technicolor Western Epic told as if women had run the studios with a contemporary indie sensibility back in Hollywood’s Golden Era and you’ll get an idea of Beth Henley’s Abundance, the Crimes Of The Heart scribe’s look back at a quarter-century of Wyoming history in a play now celebrating its 25th-anniversary with a pitch-perfect South Coast Repertory revival.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

NEED TO KNOW

posted on October 27th, 2015 at 4:58 PM by Steven Stanley

Among the many advantages to New York City living, moving in next door to a man like Mark Manners is not one of them, or so a couple of L.A.-to-NYC transplants discover in Jonathan Caren’s seductively suspenseful comedy Need To Know, now getting a world-class World Premiere at Rogue Machine.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

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