ONE FOR MY BABY

posted on March 18th, 2025 at 8:09 AM by Steven Stanley

A musical can have hit potential where songs, dances, performances, and production design are concerned, however without a compelling, coherent book to grab an audience, it can still end up a miss, case in point the 3-plus-hour-long retro jukebox musical One For My Baby, now getting its World Premiere at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, World Premiere

CABARET

posted on March 15th, 2025 at 12:16 PM by Steven Stanley


Even constrained by the limitations of a rented set, master director Michael Matthews and an absolutely superb cast deliver a 5-Star Theatricals Cabaret resplendent with Matthews’ unique brand of brilliance.
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posted in Musical, Theater Review, Ventura County, WOW!

THESE SHINING LIVES

posted on March 11th, 2025 at 11:32 AM by Steven Stanley


Decades before Erin Brockovich played David to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Goliath, a young woman fought a similarly consequential battle in Ottawa, Illinois, events that playwright Melanie Marnich recounts in These Shining Lives, the stunning latest from Hollywood’s Actors Co-op.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

SUCH SMALL HANDS

posted on March 9th, 2025 at 12:13 PM by Steven Stanley


Adam Szymkowicz writes writes about Alzheimer’s from a spouse/caretaker’s point of view and does so with humor, compassion, and perception in Such Small Hands, a powerful Chance Theater World Premiere.
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posted in Drama, Orange County, Theater Review, Two-Hander, World Premiere, WOW!

BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL

posted on March 8th, 2025 at 12:46 PM by Steven Stanley


Nearly thirty years after its Los Angeles World Premiere, Bat Boy The Musical finally gets the sensationally staged and performed local revival it so richly deserves thanks to the always impressive Open Fist Theatre Company.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

WEST SIDE STORY

posted on March 4th, 2025 at 6:22 PM by Steven Stanley

A number of brilliant directorial choices make the first act of Nocturne Theatre’s West Side Story so thrillingly innovative that it comes as a disappointment that some less inspired ones in Act Two end up diminishing the overall impact of this otherwise impressive in-the-round revival of the 1957 Broadway classic.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, Theater Review

FROU-FROU: A MENAGERIE OF SORTS

posted on March 3rd, 2025 at 10:39 AM by Steven Stanley


If Tennessee Williams were alive today, he might have written Frou-Frou: A Menagerie of Sorts, John Anthony Loffredo’s deliciously daring queer riff on Williams’ A Glass Menagerie, with a little bit of A Streetcar Named Desire testosterone (and some extended full-frontal male nudity) thrown in for seductive measure.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Pasadena, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!

I LOVE YOU BECAUSE

posted on March 2nd, 2025 at 10:54 AM by Steven Stanley

I’m too much of a fan of Ryan Cunningham and Joshua Salzman’s “modern day musical love story” I Love You Because not to feel let down and put out by the overacted, misdirected Chromolume Theatre production now playing at the Zephyr Theatre.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, Theater Review

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