THE RECOMMENDATION
posted on February 25th, 2014 at 3:55 PM by Steven Stanley
What starts out as an Odd Couple comedy about a pair of mismatched Brown University roommates develops into something considerably more edgy (and edge-of-your-seat) once a third character enters the mix in Jonathan Caren’s The Recommendation, now getting its first Los Angeles production—and its first with a SoCal-based cast—as IAMA Theatre Company introduces L.A. audiences to Caren’s multiple Scenie-winning hit, one guaranteed to keep you guessing from its exhilarating start to its suspenseful finish.
Tags: IAMA Theatre Company, Jonathan Caren, Los Angeles Theater Review
posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!
SEX AND EDUCATION
posted on February 24th, 2014 at 7:25 PM by Steven StanleyRECOMMENDED
The venerable Colony Theatre enters the 21st Century with a 4-letter-word-propelled bang as it reaches out to extend its subscriber base beyond the blue-hair set with an envelope-pushing production of Lissa Levin’s Sex And Education.
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Tags: Colony Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Stephanie Zimbalist
posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy, Recommended, Theater Review
NOËL COWARD’S BRIEF ENCOUNTER
posted on February 23rd, 2014 at 2:11 PM by Steven Stanley
Married housewife Laura meets married physician Alec when a cinder gets in her eye at a London train station and he kindly removes it for her. Shared tea and conversation in the station tea room lead to another meeting, and another, until Laura and Alec can no longer deny their love, nor the knowledge that as an adulterous middle-class couple living in 1938 London, there is no possibility of a happily-ever-after.
Noël Coward’s Brief Encounter now comes to magical, imaginative, supremely theatrical onstage life as the Wallis Annenberg Center For The Performing Arts presents the Cornwall-to-London-to-Broadway-to-Beverly Hills production of Kneehigh Theatre’s Tony-nominated adaptation of David Lean’s über-romantic 1945 film classic, itself based on Coward’s one-act gem Still Life.
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Tags: Brief Encounter, Kneehigh Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Noël Coward, Wallis Annenberg Center For The Performing Arts
posted in Downey/La Mirada, National Tour, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!
THE FOREIGNER
posted on February 21st, 2014 at 5:14 PM by Steven Stanley
A shy, repressed Englishman with the personality of a wet noodle discovers his own inner greatness by pretending not to speak a word of his native tongue in Larry Shue’s The Foreigner, not only one of the 20th Century’s funniest plays, but one of the century’s truly great comedies, one whose revival by Crown City Theatre Company will leave you delirious with laughter and brimming with joy.
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Tags: Crown City Theatre Company, Larry Shue, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Foreigner
posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE
posted on February 20th, 2014 at 6:42 PM by Steven Stanley
Playwright Joseph Kesselring may have written only one enduring hit in his lifetime, but endure Arsenic And Old Lace most certainly has, its latest revival by Inland Valley Repertory Theatre providing 2014 audiences with as many laughs as must have greeted the black comedy’s Broadway debut back in 1941.
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Tags: Arsenic And Old Lace, Inland Valley Repertory Theatre, Joseph Kesserling, Los Angeles Theater Review
posted in Comedy, San Gabriel Valley, Theater Review, WOW!
THE MUSIC MAN
posted on February 18th, 2014 at 5:03 PM by Steven Stanley
Musical Theatre West takes one of the truly great 20th Century musicals and gives it a splendid 21st Century revival, one that would be even more splendid with an age-appropriate leading man.
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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Meredith Willson, Musical Theatre West, The Music Man
posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!
LYSISTRATA JONES
posted on February 17th, 2014 at 9:05 PM by Steven Stanley
Lysistrata Jones may have flopped on Broadway a couple seasons back, but the Tony-nominated musical proves itself a winner at Chance Theater while at the same time providing a terrific way for audiences to discover the Chance’s brand spanking new digs down Anaheim Hills way.
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Tags: Chance Theater, Douglas Carter Beane, Lewis Flinn, Lysistrata Jones, Orange County Theater Review
posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!
JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH
posted on February 16th, 2014 at 7:09 PM by Steven Stanley
Centipede, Earthworm, Ladybug, Miss Spider, Old-Green-Grasshopper, and their human chum James all come to life “on the legitimate stage” as South Coast Repertory presents Roald Dahl’s James And The Giant Peach, the best possible gift any parent could give his or her child (age four and up) this month.
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Tags: James And The Giant Peach, Orange County Theater Review, Roald Dahl, South Coast Repertory, Theatre For Young Audiences
posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!
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