DATES AND NUTS

posted on June 6th, 2014 at 5:12 PM by Steven Stanley

Eve wants nothing more from a man than “a small commitment that will eventually turn into marriage.” Is that too much for a girl to ask?

Such is the conundrum of the 30something heroine of Dates And Nuts, Gary Lennon’s hilarious romantic comedy now getting its West Coast Premiere at Bootleg Theater nineteen years after it debuted at New York City’s now-defunct Theater Off Park.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!

NICKEL MINES

posted on June 4th, 2014 at 11:44 AM by Steven Stanley

On October 2, 2006, a 32-year-old husband and father entered an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, took hostage ten girls ages 6 to 13 , shot five of them to death, critically injured the remaining five, then took his own life. Hardly the stuff of your average, everyday musical, and in fact Andrew Palermo’s Nickel Mines (co-written with Shannon Stoeke and Dan Dyer) proves neither average nor everyday but something quite extraordinary indeed, tragedy turned into art, and the power of grace as it may never have been shown before.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

BACKYARD

posted on June 2nd, 2014 at 4:54 PM by Steven Stanley

Some teenagers turn to sex. Others turn to drugs. Still others turn to rock ‘n’ roll. The teenagers in Mickey Birnbaum’s violent but exhilarating Backyard turn to wrestling, and so too do the adults in their lives.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

LES MISÉRABLES

posted on June 1st, 2014 at 3:26 PM by Steven Stanley

Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert are duking it out on the stage of the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts in what may well be the L.A. musical theater production of the year as the international phenomenon that is Boublil And Schönberg’s Les Misérables gets its long-awaited Los Angeles Regional Premiere from the theater that has brought audiences spectacular big-stage productions of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Miss Saigon, and Peter Pan in the last two or so years alone.
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posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

DORIAN’S DESCENT

posted on May 31st, 2014 at 12:11 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

A quartet of stellar performers, a gifted composer/musical director, and L.A.’s costume designer du jour at his most over-the-top fabulous can’t, unfortunately, save the Oscar Wilde-based World Premiere musical Dorian’s Descent from descending into three hours’ worth of clichéd dialog and lyrics, jarring tonal shifts, and good intentions gone disastrously bad.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Not Recommended, Theater Review, World Premiere

DEATH OF THE AUTHOR

posted on May 30th, 2014 at 5:52 PM by Steven Stanley

An accusation of plagiarism is but the opening shot in Death Of The Author, Steven Drukman’s academia-set World Premiere drama that unfolds like an edge-of-your-seat suspense-thriller from its “gotcha” hook to the unexpectedly satisfying way Drukman manages to tie the whole thing up some ninety minutes later.
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posted in Drama, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, World Premiere, WOW!

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES

posted on May 27th, 2014 at 9:50 PM by Steven Stanley

A series of Gruesome Playground Injuries (and other assorted wounds, both external and internal) provide the ties that bind two wounded souls from ages eight to thirty-eight in Rajiv Joseph’s aptly-titled Gruesome Playground Injuries, an imperfect play turned into a powerful theatrical experience thanks to the kind of superb performances, direction, and design that have become the hallmark of Rogue Machine.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!

DARRYL STEPHENS

posted on May 26th, 2014 at 9:16 AM by Steven Stanley

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posted in Interview

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