KIMBERLY AKIMBO
posted on July 26th, 2013 at 12:17 PM by Steven Stanley
Kimberly Levaco is not your average, everyday teenager. After all, how many teens do you know who are saddled with an alcoholic dad, a hypochondriac mom, and a con artist of an aunt? And how many of them suffer from all of the above, plus a body that’s aging at supersonic speed? Sixteen-year-old Kimberly lives her life in the body of someone more than four times her age, someone with a life expectancy of sixteen, give or take a year or so. How many teens do you know who are saddled with that?
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire makes Kimberly the heroine of his funny, touching 2000 dramedy Kimberly Akimbo, the latest offering from The Theatricians, a company of actors whose youth turns out to be the only major strike going against an otherwise excellent production.
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Tags: David Lindsay-Abaire, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Theatricians
posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!
MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT
posted on July 25th, 2013 at 12:26 AM by Steven Stanley
The hills around Solvang will be alive with the sound of laughter over the next several weeks as PCPA Theaterfest presents their couldn’t-be-better, couldn’t-be-funnier production of the 2005 Broadway smash Monty Python’s Spamalot.
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Tags: Eric Idle, Monty Python, PCPA Theaterfest, Spamalot, Ventura County Theater Review
posted in Musical, Theater Review, Ventura County, WOW!
THE ISLAND
posted on July 23rd, 2013 at 6:57 PM by Steven StanleyRECOMMENDED
It’s one thing (and an admirable one at that) for Skypilot Theatre to have as its slogan “New Plays, Written, Developed, and Performed In Los Angeles.” It’s something even more noteworthy for the company to undertake that most difficult genre of all, the musical. After all, it’s hardly uncommon for a new musical to be “in development” for half a dozen years or more.
I don’t know where The Island is on its trajectory from inspiration to final form. There are certainly aspects of this World Premiere’s book and songs that could, as they say, “use some work.” Notwithstanding, I quite enjoyed this “musical re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, flaws and all.
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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, SkyPilot Theatre Company, The Tempest, William Shakespeare
posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Recommended, Theater Review
LES MISÉRABLES
posted on July 22nd, 2013 at 9:31 PM by Steven StanleyRECOMMENDED
A quarter century after its Broadway debut, rights to the international musical phenomenon Les Misérables have at long last been released to community theaters across the U.S., news that may lead diehard Les Miz lovers to wonder if community theaters should even attempt to put on one of the world’s most spectacular musicals (emphasis on spectacle).
If the community theater in question is Actors Repertory Theatre Of Simi, the answer is a qualified yes.
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Tags: Actors Repertory Theatre Of Simi, Les Misérables, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, Ventura County Theater Review
posted in Musical, Recommended, Theater Review, Ventura County
SHREK THE MUSICAL
posted on July 22nd, 2013 at 12:17 AM by Steven Stanley
3-D Theatricals follows its phenomenal revival of Jason Robert Brown’s deep, dark, fact-based Parade with its polar opposite, the bright, breezy, and entirely fanciful Shrek The Musical, in its own way every bit as triumphant as its extraordinary predecessor.
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Tags: 3-D Theatricals, David Lindsay-Abaire, Jeanine Tesori, Los Angeles Theater Review, Orange County Theater Review, Shrek
posted in Musical, Orange County, South Bay, Theater Review, WOW!
LEGALLY BLONDE
posted on July 20th, 2013 at 1:45 PM by Steven Stanley
Cabrillo Music Theatre now treats Ventura County residents (and SoCal musical theater lovers farther afield) to a sensational staging of Legally Blonde, 2005’s textbook example of how to turn a hit celluloid romcom into a nigh-on-perfect musical comedy, particularly as directed at Cabrillo with assurance and flair by Legally Blonde Broadway vet Tiffany Engen.
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Tags: Cabrillo Music Theatre, Elle Woods, Legally Blonde, Ventura County Theater Review
posted in Musical, Theater Review, Ventura County, WOW!
THE 39 STEPS
posted on July 20th, 2013 at 11:22 AM by Steven Stanley
Glendale Centre Theatre proves that you don’t need a cast of dozens and a seven-figure budget to bring John Buchan’s The 39 Steps to life, despite a plot that takes hero-on-the-run Richard Hannay on an adventure from London to Edinburgh to the Scottish moors and back (during which he crosses paths with a hundred fifty characters or so). All you need are four crackerjack actors, an inventive design team, a tireless stage crew, and directorial whiz Todd Nielsen on hand to bring Buchan’s classic spy novel to vibrant, hilarious life.
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Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Glendale Centre Theatre, John Buchan, Los Angeles Theater Review, Patrick Barlow
posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy, Theater Review, WOW!
PACK UP THE MOON
posted on July 16th, 2013 at 4:20 PM by Steven StanleyNOT RECOMMENDED
A gay couple still dealing with the sudden crib death of their adopted child decide a year later to become parents again—this time through surrogacy. Could there be a more current, hot-button topic for a world premiere play?
If only Christina Cigala’s Pack Up The Moon lived up to that promise.
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Tags: Brimmer Street Theatre Company, Gay Surrogacy, Los Angeles Theater Review
posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Not Recommended, Theater Review
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.
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