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!

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!

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