MEMORY LANE IS A DESERT ROAD

posted on April 6th, 2025 at 4:38 PM by Steven Stanley


A daughter sifts through her war correspondent father’s photos to better understand his life and her own in Nabra Nelson and Michael B. Nelson’s autobiographical gem Memory Lane Is A Desert Road, a World Premiere drama strikingly staged and terrifically performed by the young artists of Eight Ball Theatre.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

1984

posted on April 6th, 2025 at 4:23 PM by Steven Stanley

Leif Gantvoort’s powerful lead performance and Danny Cistone’s ingenious production design are the chief selling points of Robo & Bash’s production of George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984. Its tonally off first act and less accomplished supporting cast not so much.

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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review

INTO THE WOODS

posted on March 31st, 2025 at 8:39 AM by Steven Stanley


Over a dozen star turns make Musical Theatre West’s staging of a Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine classic that rarity among Into The Woods revivals, a big-stage, big-talent triumph that captures the magic of the 1987 Broadway original while treating audiences to inspired new interpretations of the fairytale musical’s now iconic roles.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

ONE JEWISH BOY

posted on March 29th, 2025 at 3:46 PM by Steven Stanley


Is love enough to keep a couple together when one of them has been the victim of hate crime he simply can’t get past? This is the question posed by English playwright Stephen Laughton in his gut-punchingly powerful One Jewish Boy, now getting a compelling West Coast premiere at Echo Theater Company.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, Two-Hander, WOW!

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE

posted on March 25th, 2025 at 10:44 AM by Steven Stanley

The audience greeted curtain calls with cheers, but for this reviewer at least, Musical Theatre Guild’s one-performance-only concert staged reading of the 2006 Broadway hit The Drowsy Chaperone failed to live up to the company’s next-best-thing-to-fully-staged standards.
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posted in Concert Staged Reading, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

posted on March 23rd, 2025 at 11:11 AM by Steven Stanley


Wisteria Theater Company scores their second hit in a row with their completely captivating take on the 2005 Broadway hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, impressively directed by Brayden Hade.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

DRAT! THE CAT!

posted on March 22nd, 2025 at 11:03 AM by Steven Stanley


Sixty years after it flopped big time on Broadway, the largely forgotten Drat! The Cat! has been given fresh new life by director Bruce Kimmel in a delightful, six-decades-postponed West Coast Premiere at the Group Rep Theatre.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!

posted on March 19th, 2025 at 8:39 AM by Steven Stanley

There’s some very good work being done on the Westchester Playhouse stage in Kentwood Players frontal-nudity-free staging of Love! Valour! Compassion!, Terrence McNally’s three-and-a-half-hour-long celebration of gay love and friendship in the time of AIDS.
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posted in Drama, South Bay, Theater Review

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