SUNSET BOULEVARD

posted on July 15th, 2013 at 4:35 PM by Steven Stanley


Let me put it simply. Musical Theatre West’s revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard is the theatrical event of the Summer Of 2013—bar none.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

NINE

posted on July 13th, 2013 at 3:02 PM by Steven Stanley


DOMA Theatre Company follows its smash 99-seat revival of Dreamgirls with another dreamgirl-packed Tony-winning musical, a mostly quite successful downsizing of the big-stage Broadway hit Nine.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Theater Review, WOW!

FATHERS AT A GAME

posted on July 12th, 2013 at 3:15 PM by Steven Stanley


A pair of night-and-day different dads cheering on their teenage sons at a high school football game would seem more likely to inspire an odd-couple comedy à la Richard Dresser’s hilarious Rounding Third than an electrifyingly edge-of-your-seat thriller, but this is precisely what Trey Nichols has concocted in his one-act Fathers At A Game, now completing a brief Best Of Fringe extension following its original Hollywood Fringe run.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Theater Review, WOW!

BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON

posted on July 11th, 2013 at 11:02 PM by Steven Stanley


Rowdy, outrageous, exhilarating, brash, and entertaining as all get-out—Chance Theater’s Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is all this and more, a slice of American history as told by a wild and crazy bunch of punk rockers that will have you cheering … and send you straight to Wikipedia to separate fact from fiction re our 7th President, “Old Hickory” himself.

Created by Alex Timbers and Michael Friedman, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson had its 2008 premiere at L.A.’s Kirk Douglas Theater before heading first to off-Broadway, then to Broadway, and now back to Southern California where director Kari Hayter, choreographer Kelly Todd, musical director Robyn Wallace, and a cast of some of SoCal’s most exciting triple-threats have joined forces to create the Orange County Musical Theater Event of the Summer ‘13.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, Theater Review, WOW!

WATSON AND THE DARK ART OF HARRY HOUDINI

posted on July 9th, 2013 at 5:44 PM by Steven Stanley


What do you do when you’re writer-director Jaime Robledo and your play Watson: The Last Great Tale Of The Legendary Sherlock Holmes has won just about every award in the book? Elementary, my dear reader. You do what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did after creating his mystery-solving supersleuth in A Study In Scarlet (and what Universal Pictures kept doing year after year for their own inimitable Sherlock, Basil Rathbone). You write and direct a sequel, in this case Watson And The Dark Art Of Harry Houdini, and if the results don’t match the original in sheer brilliance, Watson 2.0 does for the most part avoid the dreaded sophomore curse.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!

SOUTH PACIFIC

posted on July 8th, 2013 at 12:12 PM by Steven Stanley


Inspired by the thrilling 2008 Broadway revival, and making splendid use of its gorgeous National Tour sets and costumes, Moonlight Stage Productions now brings Southern California audiences an unforgettable outdoor staging of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific under the inspired direction of its new artistic director Steven Glaudini.
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posted in Musical, San Diego County, Theater Review, WOW!

SWEET KARMA

posted on July 6th, 2013 at 1:36 PM by Steven Stanley


He was a 35-year-old physician when the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia, and barely escaped the holocaust that took the lives of more than a quarter of his countrymen. He was a refugee-turned-movie actor, winning an Oscar for his film—and acting—debut as real-life Cambodian journalist Dith Pran. He was a humanitarian who worked to rebuild his shattered country. And after surviving the killing fields, he met his death in the streets of Los Angeles, murdered by members of a predominantly Cambodian street gang.

This was the life—and death—of Dr. Haing S. Ngor, explored by playwright Henry Ong in the powerful Sweet Karma, now getting an exquisitely designed, imaginatively directed, and beautifully acted West Coast Premiere at the Grove Theatre Center.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Drama, Theater Review, WOW!

KISMET

posted on July 2nd, 2013 at 9:06 PM by Steven Stanley


A dozen supremely talented musical theater triple-threats and an inspired director-choreographer joined forces this past weekend to bring back the Golden Age Broadway hit Kismet, demonstrating once again that the “concert staged reading” may well be the very best way to revive forgotten musical theater gems.
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posted in Concert Staged Reading, Long Beach/San Pedro, Theater Review, WOW!

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