NATALIE PORTMAN THE MUSICAL

posted on June 18th, 2013 at 10:52 AM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

Natalie Portman The Musical has arrived at the Hollywood Fringe Festival following last year’s successful run (and return engagement) at Chromolume Theatre At The Attic in what appears to be a considerably stripped-down-for-The-Fringe production.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Not Recommended, Theater Review

A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE

posted on June 18th, 2013 at 1:23 AM by Steven Stanley


Sometimes wishes do come true.

Back in September of last year, following a superb concert staged reading of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s A Man Of No Importance, I ended my review with a wish: “Isn’t it time that A Man Of No Importance got a fully-staged L.A. production?”

Now, a mere nine months later, that wish comes true as director-choreographer extraordinaire Janet Miller and her new Good People Theater Company offer Los Angeles audiences that fully-staged A Man Of No Importance, as all-around perfect a production as this or any musical theater lover could possibly have wished for.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

posted on June 17th, 2013 at 6:15 PM by Steven Stanley


No sequins. No glitz. No feathers. No frills. Nothing but glorious songs and dances and a heartstrings-tugging story to transport you back in time and space to a Jewish shtetl in early 20th Century Tsarist Russia. This is Fiddler On The Roof, the Broadway classic whose (almost) 50th Anniversary production makes for a memorable PCPA Theaterfest summer season opener under Roger DeLaurier’s assured direction.
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posted in Musical, Santa Barbara County, Theater Review, WOW!

REVOLVER

posted on June 16th, 2013 at 12:21 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED

A gay man seeking vengeance on the bashers who killed his first love years before. Jesus dancing a tango in heaven with the disciple whose betrayal led to his death on the cross. A closeted mega-rich movie star and the openly gay starving actor who was once his one true love. Antagonistic friends of a recently od’ed crystal meth addict sorting through his things. An angry gay activist being interviewed by a young journalist who idolizes him. A murdered gay man and one of his killers meeting once again in heaven.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Recommended, Theater Review

YES, PRIME MINISTER

posted on June 14th, 2013 at 11:51 PM by Steven Stanley


The country is England, the time is now, and the PM’s country house retreat Chequers is in crisis mode. The coalition government finds itself representing a divided electorate, the British Pound Sterling is waning in value, and an ongoing European Council conference seems headed for disaster. With all these problems and more on his table, what’s a Prime Minister to do?

In Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn’s hilariously farcical Yes, Prime Minister (now getting its US Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse), the answer comes in the form of a potential ten-trillion dollar bailout from a former Soviet republic the authors have dubbed Kumranistan. All the PM has to do is provide the Kumranistani foreign secretary with a trio of call girls for a totally illegal (and immoral and unethical) sex orgy.
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posted in Comedy, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

DANIEL J. SELF

posted on June 12th, 2013 at 10:56 AM by Steven Stanley

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posted in Interview

GIRL CRAZY

posted on June 11th, 2013 at 11:18 PM by Steven Stanley


Musical theater lovers who might have wondered just how revolutionary Oklahoma! was when it redefined the Broadway musical in 1944 got a tangy taste of what came before it at Monday night’s terrifically entertaining Musical Theatre Guild concert staged reading of George and Ira Gershwin’s Girl Crazy.

Fully integrated songs and dances? No way. Lyrics that advanced the plot? Forget it. Serious subject matter? You must be kidding! And as for 21st Century political correctness, there was no such thing back in 1930 when Jews, Mexicans, Gypsies, Asians, Gays, Women, you name it, were deemed joke-worthy.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, Theater Review, Ventura County, WOW!

DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE

posted on June 10th, 2013 at 4:33 PM by Steven Stanley

If there’s nothing more annoying than the sudden sound of a cell phone going off in a public place, how about when the owner of said phone just lets it ring … and ring … and ring? No wonder Jean, the heroine of Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone, finally loses her patience and goes over to give the negligent phone owner a piece of her mind. It’s only then that she discovers that the man with the annoying cell phone has, as they say, met his maker.

Thus begins Ruhl’s whimsical Helen Hays Award-nominated comedy, a sure bet to entertain audiences at Long Beach’s International City Theatre, particularly with director Richard Israel imaginatively in charge.
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posted in Comedy, Long Beach/San Pedro, Theater Review, WOW!

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