MARY POPPINS

posted on April 18th, 2015 at 1:25 PM by Steven Stanley

Mary Poppins The Broadway Musical has arrived at Cabrillo Music Theatre to enchant audiences of all ages, and though Opening Night was technically rough around the edges, this is one terrifically entertaining production, particularly with Juliana Hansen and Wesley Alfvin filling Julie Andrews’ and Dick Van Dyke’s shoes quite marvelously indeed.
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posted in Musical, Theater Review, Ventura County, WOW!

THE POWER OF DUFF

posted on April 18th, 2015 at 11:01 AM by Steven Stanley

All hell breaks loose—or is it heaven?—when TV anchor Charlie Duff offers an impromptu (and decidedly prayerful) tribute to his just-deceased father at the end of the nightly news, thereby setting off a firestorm of pro-and-con reactions in Stephen Belber’s The Power Of Duff, a play that is one part dark comedy, one part satire, but ultimately the deeply moving story of one man’s inadvertent quest for redemption.
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posted in Drama, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS

posted on April 16th, 2015 at 5:51 PM by Steven Stanley

Glendale Centre Theatre offers musical theater lovers a mid-week treat with the 2005 Tony Best Musical nominee Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, giving its audiences one of Broadway’s (and GCT’s) most laugh-out-loud hilarious shows ever.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

GUYS AND DOLLS

posted on April 15th, 2015 at 10:26 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED

Damon Runyon’s colorful New York denizens have set up shop this week in Costa Mesa, and if the revival of Frank Loesser’s Guys And Dolls now playing at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts isn’t the bona fide “Broadway National Tour” we expect on the SCFTA stage (the scenic design in particular doesn’t stand up to Segerstrom standards), it features all-around terrific performances and the most exciting “Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat” I’ve ever seen.
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posted in National Tour, Orange County, Recommended, Theater Review

RECORDED IN HOLLYWOOD: THE MUSICAL

posted on April 13th, 2015 at 3:24 PM by Steven Stanley

When you think about history-making 20th-century African-American music impresarios, Berry Gordy and Quincy Jones and perhaps two or three other names probably top the list. A less likely name to spring to mind is that of John Grayton Dolphin, an omission that Recorded In Hollywood: The (World Premiere) Musical sets out to rectify … and does so so crowd-pleasingly under Denise Dowse’s pizzazzy direction that it could easily end up giving the Broadway smash Memphis a run for its money.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES

posted on April 13th, 2015 at 12:17 AM by Steven Stanley

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes may have played nearly 750 performances on Broadway, turned Carol Channing into a star, featured hit songs like “Bye, Bye, Baby” and “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” and got turned into a Hollywood Movie Classic starring Marilyn Monroe, but when’s the last time you saw it onstage?

The answer may well be “Never,” because that’s what happens to 60something Broadway hits that aren’t Kiss Me Kate, South Pacific, or Guys And Dolls … or rather that’s what would happen without Musical Theatre Guild’s much-loved concert staged readings, the latest of which brings that “little girl from Little Rock,” aka blonde bombshell Lorelei Lee, and her brunette chum Dorothy Shaw, back to entertaining 21st-century musical life.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

LES MISÉRABLES

posted on April 12th, 2015 at 12:08 PM by Steven Stanley

A twenty-year wait for the rights to the international phenomenon that is Boublil And Schönberg’s Les Misérables pays off at long last for Musical Theatre West in an absolutely spectacular big-stage, big-cast, big-budget production that gives Broadway a run for its money.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

SWEENEY TODD

posted on April 11th, 2015 at 12:00 PM by Steven Stanley

A cast of eighteen, ten of them members of Actors’ Equity, bring Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street to thrilling life on the intimate stage of North Hollywood’s Monroe Forum Theatre, a powerful reminder that should Equity’s 99-seat plan bite the dust per AEA’s wishes, productions of this size, scope, and caliber may soon be a much-mourned memory of our Los Angeles theater past.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

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