A CHRISTMAS MEMORY

posted on December 20th, 2013 at 1:47 AM by Steven Stanley


A much loved autobiographical short story by Truman Capote makes its holiday season comeback as a full-length musical as the Laguna Playhouse offers audiences the West Coast Premiere of Duane Poole, Larry Grossman, and Carol Hall’s overlong but entertaining—and ultimately quite moving—A Christmas Memory.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY CHRISTMAS

posted on December 16th, 2013 at 6:34 PM by Steven Stanley


The spirit of the smash Fox sitcom Married With Children lives on in Dysfunctional Family Christmas, now getting its World Premiere at North Hollywood’s newly rechristened BrickHouse Theatre, and if Paul Storiale’s first original holiday comedy is still rough around the edges, topnotch performances and non-stop laughs make it a nontraditional December treat.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

LIGHT UP THE SKY

posted on December 15th, 2013 at 1:40 PM by Steven Stanley


An all-around splendid cast light up the Reuben Cordova stage as Beverly Hills’ venerable Theatre 40 serves up its topnotch revival of Light Up The Sky, Moss Hart’s affectionate skewering of the world of “The Theater.”
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posted in Comedy, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

WALKIN’ IN A WINTER ONE-HIT-WONDERLAND

posted on December 14th, 2013 at 2:09 PM by Steven Stanley


The Troubies celebrate their tenth December at Toluca Lake’s Falcon Theatre with a “Greatest Hits” cabaret retrospective of their first nine holiday shows—along with a side trip to A Christmas Carol-land for supporting player-turned-leading man Winter Warlock—as the Troubadour Theater Company presents their latest surefire SRO smash Walking In A Winter One-Hit-Wonderland for Holiday Season 2013.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical Spoof, Theater Review, WOW!

THE INVISIBLE PLAY

posted on December 13th, 2013 at 6:42 PM by Steven Stanley


Have you ever felt so unnoticed by those around you that you said to yourself, “I might as well be invisible.” Well, that’s exactly how office worker Colin feels in Alex Dremann’s existential romantic comedy The Invisible Play (aka THE :NV:S:BLE PLAY), and though T:P could have benefited from some tightening and sharpening before making its West Coast Premiere, it proves a terrific acting showcase for Criminal Minds’ Kirsten Vangsness and her fellow company members at Hollywood’s Theatre of NOTE.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

ALADDIN AND HIS WINTER WISH

posted on December 12th, 2013 at 6:58 PM by Steven Stanley


The musical theater genre known as Panto may have been born in the United Kingdom, but with Lythgoe Family Productions now giving Los Angeles audiences their fourth annual December taste of it with this year’s Aladdin And His Winter Wish, this distinctively English form of musical entertainment has clearly found its home away from home in sunny Southern California, this year for the second time at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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posted in Musical, Pasadena, Theater Review, WOW!

EVITA

posted on December 11th, 2013 at 5:06 PM by Steven Stanley


There’s no place quite like Broadway when it comes to reviving musical theater classics, as the recent national tours of Anything Goes and West Side Story have made abundantly clear. Now, as if further proof were necessary, comes Michael Grandage and Rob Ashford’s spectacular re-envisioning of the 1978 Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice blockbuster Evita, a revival that debuted in London’s West End in 2006 before transferring to Broadway in 2012, where it received three Tony nominations, including Best Revival Of A Musical and Best Choreography.

Southern California audiences now get the chance to see what all the hoopla’s been about as the revival’s First National Tour pays a two-week visit to Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

BECAUSE IT’S CHRISTMAS

posted on December 9th, 2013 at 9:59 PM by Steven Stanley


It wouldn’t be December in Claremont without Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre’s annual original Christmas musical, and this year’s, Because It’s Christmas, makes for an evening or afternoon of delightful, tuneful holiday entertainment for children, parents, grandparents, and everyone in-between.
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posted in Musical, San Gabriel Valley, Theater Review, WOW!

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