AMERICAN MISFIT

posted on April 19th, 2013 at 10:58 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
America’s first ever serial killers come back to surreal life in American Misfit, Dan Dietz’s overreaching yet frequently entertaining historical dramedy with music, now playing at The Theatre @ Boston Court under Michael Michetti’s imaginative direction.
(read more)

posted in Comedy-Drama, Pasadena, Recommended

CABARET

posted on April 18th, 2013 at 5:54 PM by Steven Stanley


The “Great War” had ended and Berlin was uncontested as Europe’s nightlife capital, a city of booze and drugs and sex of just about every permutation, that is until Nazism began to cast its dark shadow over the entire continent … and the world exploded.

Director-choreographer Cate Caplin captures Berlin at its most glitzy and at its most grim as Inland Valley Repertory Theatre presents the 1966 Broadway classic Cabaret, its 50th production, a revival sparked by a pair of stellar performances and choreography as imaginative and ably-executed as you’d see in many an Equity production.
(read more)

posted in Musical, San Gabriel Valley, WOW!

BILLY ELLIOT

posted on April 17th, 2013 at 12:00 PM by Steven Stanley


Musicals don’t get much bigger or more spectacular than the international smash Billy Elliot, a nearly three-hour song-and-dance extravaganza that never forgets that it is, at heart, the intimate story of a boy who, in the words of Gene Kelly, has simply “Gotta Dance.”

L.A./Orange County audiences now have the next two weeks to experience the laughter, the tears, the thrills, and the sheer joy that is Billy, winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical, and in a Broadway first, a Best Leading Actor Tony awarded to all three Broadway Billys.
(read more)

posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, WOW!

A CATERED AFFAIR

posted on April 16th, 2013 at 4:45 PM by Steven Stanley


While it may be true that no musical is too big for Broadway, Spider Man being a case in point, it’s equally true that some musicals are simply too small, too intimate, too “chamber” to make it on the Great White Way, one more reason to celebrate Musical Theatre Guild for bringing these delicate gems back to life, if only for an evening or afternoon of musical theater bliss.

Such is the case with 2008’s A Catered Affair, which despite its pedigree (music and lyrics by John Bucchino and book by Harvey Fierstein, based on a screenplay by Gore Vidal and a teleplay Paddy Chayefsky) and a cast which included Tom Wopat, Faith Prinze, and Fierstein, closed on Broadway after a mere 143 performances and previews.
(read more)

posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, WOW!

SLIPPING

posted on April 15th, 2013 at 5:53 PM by Steven Stanley


A young man’s traumatic journey from adolescence to adulthood comes to vivid, heartbreaking, yet ultimately hopeful life in Daniel Talbott’s 2009 drama Slipping, whose Los Angeles premiere reunites its pair of New York stars under the incisive direction of its multitalented writer.
(read more)

posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

A CHORUS LINE

posted on April 15th, 2013 at 11:30 AM by Steven Stanley


Musical Theatre West follows its superb 70th Anniversary revival of Oklahoma! with a first-rate production of the considerably more recent yet equally groundbreaking A Chorus Line.

Now the fifth-longest-running musical in Broadway history, A Chorus Line (book by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and concept and original direction/choreography by Bennett) remains as fresh, as entertaining, and as powerful as ever with Roger Castellano directing and recreating Bennett’s iconic choreography.
(read more)

posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, WOW!

SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS

posted on April 14th, 2013 at 6:04 PM by Steven Stanley


Glenn Casale and Patti Colombo dust the cobwebs off Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, the stage adaptation of the 1954 MGM musical movie classic, offering audiences at the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts far more than simply two hours of old-fashioned G-rated family entertainment. With Casale and Colombo in the driver’s seat, this ‘50s chestnut seems fresh and new, honest and real, and thrillingly grown-up.
(read more)

posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, WOW!

GREASE

posted on April 13th, 2013 at 2:05 PM by Steven Stanley


Danny Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski fall in summer love all over again—with the movie’s Doody and Putzie in charge of the whole nostalgic shebang—as Cabrillo Music Theatre revives the 3,388-performance Broadway megahit Grease to the delight of teen and adult audiences alike.
(read more)

posted in Musical, Ventura County, WOW!

Next PagePrevious Page