STEEL MAGNOLIAS
posted on September 12th, 2013 at 4:44 PM by Steven Stanley
You may have seen Steel Magnolias before, either on stage or on film, but you’ve never seen magnolias of steel quite like the six women now lighting up the stage at East West Players’ David Henry Hwang Theater. Robert Harling’s now iconic Southern belles are Asian-American this time round, their ethnicity adding new shadings to this sextet of women whose delicate exteriors mask tough-as-nails cores.
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Tags: East West Players, Los Angeles Theater Review, Robert Harling, Steel Magnolias
posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!
DEATH OF A SALESMAN
posted on September 9th, 2013 at 10:30 PM by Steven Stanley
What better way for South Coast Repertory to open its 50th Anniversary season than with what many consider the finest play of the 20th Century, Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Death Of A Salesman, and to do so with a twist—by casting the Lomans as an African-American family.
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Tags: Arthur Miller, Death Of A Salesman, Orange County Theater Review, South Coast Repertory
posted in Drama, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!
FUNNY GIRL
posted on September 8th, 2013 at 2:15 PM by Steven Stanley
In the forty-nine years since Funny Girl debuted on Broadway, this musical biography of Fanny Brice has pretty much faded into obscurity despite its eight Tony nominations, and if regional revivals have been few and far between, blame that on a leading role that’s a bear to cast, a book that’s been aptly dubbed problematic, and absolutely no Funny Girl sets or costumes available for rent.
3-D Theatricals solves two of these three problems in its sensational from-the-ground-up revival, and though Isobel Lennart’s book remains more than a bit of a hodgepodge, Nicole Parker’s absolutely stellar lead performance, Michael Matthews’ inspired direction, and brand new Broadway-caliber sets and costumes by Stephen Gifford and Cheryl Sheldon make this revival another 3-D-T winner.
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Tags: 3-D Theatricals, Fanny Brice, Funny Girl, Jule Styne, Nicole Parker, Orange County Theater Review
posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!
bare a rock musical
posted on September 7th, 2013 at 3:56 PM by Steven Stanley
A Catholic high school is hardly the most welcoming environment for two boys to fall in love, especially when one of them is deeply conflicted about his sexuality, as Jon Hartmere and Damon Intrabartolo’s bare made heartbreaking clear in its 2000 World Premiere at the Hudson Mainstage Theater.
Now, thirteen years later, glory|struck productions brings bare back to the city of its birth in an exciting revival that could easily turn into the season’s biggest intimate musical smash.
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Tags: bare a pop opera, Damon Intrabartolo, glory|struck Productions, Hayworth Theatre, Lindsay Pearce, Los Angeles Theater Review
posted in Los Angeles, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!
THE DREAM OF THE BURNING BOY
posted on September 6th, 2013 at 4:59 PM by Steven Stanley
There are as many shades of grief as there are survivors in David West Read’s powerful The Dream Of The Burning Boy, now getting its West Coast Premiere at Malibu Playhouse in a production that easily rivals the best of L.A.’s higher-profile 99-seat houses.
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Tags: David West Read, Los Angeles Theater Review, Malibu Playhouse
posted in Drama, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!
PROMETHEUS BOUND
posted on September 5th, 2013 at 6:01 PM by Steven StanleyNOT RECOMMENDED
There are a number of reasons to spend a September evening out in Pacific Palisades where the Getty Villa* is presenting its annual classic theater offering, the least of which is the play itself, for despite intense, committed performances, innovative design, and a couldn’t-be-better setting, Prometheus Bound remains that most acquired of tastes, Greek Tragedy.
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Tags: Aeschylus, Getty Villa, Greek Tragedy, Los Angeles Theater Review, Prometheus Bound
posted in Drama, Not Recommended, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN
posted on September 2nd, 2013 at 6:42 PM by Steven Stanley
New York has met its match as Moonlight Stage Productions lives up to its catchphrase “Broadway’s Best Under The Stars”—and then some—with an all-around sensational production of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein that gives SoCal audiences an open-air Broadway experience without the cramped seating, astronomical ticket prices, and hoity-toity attitude you might get on The Great White Way.
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Tags: Mel Brooks, Moonlight Stages, San Diego County Theater Review, Young Frankenstein
posted in Musical, San Diego County, Theater Review, WOW!
SHERLOCK THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
posted on September 2nd, 2013 at 1:06 PM by Steven Stanley
The world’s greatest detective meets the author of Alice of Wonderland in Gus Krieger’s Sherlock Through The Looking Glass, the latest from The Porters Of Hellsgate, and if Krieger’s play could stand some trimming, tightening, and clarifying, topnotch performances and exciting staging combine to further solidify the Porters’ reputation as one of L.A.’s most exciting young acting troupes.
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Tags: Alice In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, Los Angeles Theater Review, Porters Of Hellsgate, Sherlock Holmes, Whitmore-Lindley Theatre
posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!
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