THE WHIPPING MAN

posted on March 22nd, 2014 at 12:08 AM by Steven Stanley

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House, at long last ending what is still the deadliest war in United States history. Five days later, President Abraham Lincoln was dead, the victim of an assassin’s bullet. And during this fateful week in our country’s history, Jews in both North and South observed Pesach, the festival of Passover, celebrating the freeing of the Israelites from centuries of slavery in Egypt.

Inspired by this bit of historical coincidence, and armed with the knowledge that there were indeed Jewish slaveholders (and Jewish slaves) in the pre-Civil War Deep South, playwright Matthew Lopez sat down to write The Whipping Man, a gripping, eye-opening look at three Jews—two black, one white—in the days just following Appomattox, now getting its Los Angeles Premiere at the Pico Playhouse.
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posted in Drama, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

REUNION

posted on March 20th, 2014 at 6:43 PM by Steven Stanley

A trio of onetime high school best friends reunite for the first time since grad night twenty-five years before in Gregory S. Moss’s edgy comedy-turned-gut-punching drama Reunion, the latest World Premiere from South Coast Repertory.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Orange County, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE

posted on March 19th, 2014 at 1:48 AM by Steven Stanley


From its smash 2011 Los Angeles debut only a few blocks from CBS Television City and its subsequent hit Chicago run, I Love Lucy® Live on Stage has now arrived as a great big National Tour for one all-too-brief Southern California stop at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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posted in Comedy, National Tour, Theater Review, WOW!

CINNAMON GIRL

posted on March 17th, 2014 at 10:22 AM by Steven Stanley


Velina Hasu Houston and Nathan Wang transport us to another time, another place, another world in their magical, mystical, marvelous new musical Cinnamon Girl, now playing at the Greenway Court Theatre.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

FLYIN’ WEST

posted on March 16th, 2014 at 8:44 PM by Steven Stanley


12 Years A Slave’s recent Oscar wins make Flyin’ West, Pearl Cleage’s post-Civil-War slice-of-African-American-life-on-the-Kansas-plains, a particularly serendipitous choice as International City Theatre’s latest crowd-pleaser. That director Saundra McClain and her cast of six have come up with a particularly fine production of Cleage’s 1992 hit is icing on the cake, or in the case of Flyin’ West, ice cream on the apple pie.
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posted in Drama, Long Beach/San Pedro, Theater Review, WOW!

TOP GIRLS

posted on March 16th, 2014 at 8:33 PM by Steven Stanley


English playwright Caryl Churchill examines what it takes to be a “top girl” in the dog-eat-dog world we call business in her challenging, thought-provoking 1982 drama Top Girls, the terrific latest from The Antaeus Company and a tailor-made showcase for a baker’s dozen of L.A.’s finest working actresses.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

CARNIVAL

posted on March 11th, 2014 at 6:06 PM by Steven Stanley


Bob Merrill and Michael Stewart’s 1961 hit Carnival may have run a healthy 719 performances on Broadway, but unlike its fellow early-’60s Tony winners The Sound of Music, Gypsy, Bye Bye Birdie, How to Succeed .., Funny/Forum, and Oliver!, regional revivals of Carnival have been few and far between, hence its inclusion in Musical Theatre West’s Reiner Reading Series as a one-night-only concert staged reading, one that reminded those in attendance on Sunday that even forgotten Broadway gems have much to offer.
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posted in Concert Staged Reading, Long Beach/San Pedro, Theater Review, WOW!

SPRING AWAKENING

posted on March 10th, 2014 at 5:00 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
A talented young cast and some imaginative directorial touches highlight Spring Awakening at Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson, a laudably bold programming choice for the venerable Westside community theater despite certain deficiencies in design, particularly sound, that prevent the Steven Sater/Duncan Sheik musical from being an unqualified success.
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posted in Musical, Recommended, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls

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