VIOLET

posted on May 17th, 2015 at 12:19 AM by Steven Stanley

L.A. audiences can at last discover one of the unsung treasures of contemporary musical theater as Kelrik Productions presents the Los Angeles County Premiere of Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley’s 1997 musical gem Violet, and a superbly performed L.A. debut she makes.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

THE ELLIOTS

posted on May 15th, 2015 at 1:33 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED

Readers have been rooting for Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth to rekindle their long-lost love since Jane Austen’s Persuasion first hit the book stalls back in 1817. L.A. theatergoers can now follow their example as South Pasadena’s Fremont Centre Theatre debuts A.J. Darby’s 2015 adaptation, retitled The Elliots. Yes, both Darby’s play and its World Premiere production could stand some tweaking, but Persuasion fans will find much to enjoy in two hours spent with Austen’s now iconic characters.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Pasadena, Recommended, Theater Review, World Premiere

THE WHO’S TOMMY

posted on May 14th, 2015 at 6:11 PM by Steven Stanley

A fabulous, primarily Asian-American cast, design elements with a Far East flavor, and a 1960s-though-‘80s time frame that inspires a slew of innovative costumes and choreography …

All of this (and more) add up to an exciting East West Players revival of the now iconic The Who’s Tommy.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

MACBETH

posted on May 11th, 2015 at 11:19 AM by Steven Stanley

Macbeth in sixty minutes. What sweeter words are there to those for whom Shakespeare is a taste not quite acquired (or those with only an hour to spare), especially when it’s Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group’s Macbeth, adapted and directed by Denise Devin. Now, that’s my way to see The Scottish Play (or Playlet as the case may be).
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

MUD BLUE SKY

posted on May 11th, 2015 at 12:14 AM by Steven Stanley

If three middle-aged flight attendants spending the night with a 17-year-old high school boy in a Chicago hotel room sounds like the setup for a 1960s sex farce à la Boeing-Boeing, think again. Marisa Wegrzyn’s Mud Blue Sky, the latest from The Road Theatre Company, turns out to be not just a laugh-out-loud comedy but a touching look at friendship, parenting, life choices, sisterhood, loneliness, growing older, and coming of age in the 21st Century.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

SAMSARA

posted on May 10th, 2015 at 12:27 PM by Steven Stanley

A 30something NoCal couple hire a surrogate in faraway India to give birth to the child neither is biologically capable of conceiving in Lauren Yee’s imaginative, funny, at times overly cutesy, but ultimately quite moving Samsara, now getting a splendidly acted and directed West Coast Premiere at Anaheim Hills’ Chance Theater.
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posted in Comedy, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

posted on May 9th, 2015 at 2:35 PM by Steven Stanley

It took legendary Hollywood producer Mike Todd around $50,000,000 in today’s currency to bring science fiction writer Jules Verne’s Around The World In Eighty Days to the Todd-AO 70mm big screen back in 1958.

Actors Co-op does the same in 2015 with maybe about one-half-percent the budget, and I defy anyone to find the Co-op’s supremely imaginative, endlessly inventive small-stage revival any less entertaining than its Hollywood blockbuster predecessor.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

GUS’S FASHIONS & SHOES

posted on May 8th, 2015 at 4:57 PM by Steven Stanley

Plays don’t get much more testosterone-fueled than Gus’s Fashions & Shoes, the grittily dramatic, darkly comedic latest from writer-director Ron Klier, whose Cops And Friends Of Cops kept Vs. Theatre audiences glued to the edge of their seats two years back.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

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