THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

posted on March 31st, 2013 at 12:00 PM by Steven Stanley


What’s in a name? Well, to Gwendolen Fairfax, whose “ideal has always been to love someone of the name Earnest,” it means just about everything, so much so that her beau Earnest Worthing dare not let it slip that “Earnest” is merely a moniker he assumes when in big city London, his real name Jack being reserved for the rest of his life in the Hertfordshire countryside.

Any theater buff worth his or her salt can surely tell you that the “Earnest” in question is but one of two bogus “Earnests” in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest, now getting a dandy revival at North Hollywood’s Theatre Banshee under the assured direction of Sean Branney.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

ON THE SPECTRUM

posted on March 29th, 2013 at 2:00 PM by Steven Stanley


Young man with Asperger syndrome and young woman with autism fall in love to his single mom’s dismay.

Rarely has a play had as Hollywood-ready a “log line” as On The Spectrum, now getting its West Coast Premiere at The Fountain Theatre, and though Ken LaZebnik’s dramedy is not at the level of the stellar production it is being given at the Fountain, a pair of breathtaking lead performances and an extraordinary video/sound design are more than enough put it on every L.A. theater lover’s must-see list.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

MASTER CLASS

posted on March 25th, 2013 at 3:20 PM by Steven Stanley


Behind every great voice there must surely be a story, though few great voices have behind them a story as compelling as that of Maria Callas, the Greek soprano known the world over as La Divina, or so L.A. theatergoers will discover as Master Class, Terrence McNally’s Tony-winning Best Play of 1996, returns to our stages in an all-around superb production at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
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posted in Drama, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

CHICAGO

posted on March 24th, 2013 at 10:22 PM by Steven Stanley


It’s taken a good long while—over sixteen years to be precise—for the longest-running American musical in Broadway history to make it to our Southern California regional theaters. Then again, considering that Chicago is currently closing in on 7000 performances on The Great White Way, it’s a wonder theaters like Escondido’s Lawrence Welk don’t find themselves on a mile-long waiting list to get their hands on the Kander & Ebb mega-revival, all the more reason to head down south a ways and catch Chicago, smashingly up-close-and-personal at the Welk.
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posted in Musical, San Diego County, WOW!

A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER

posted on March 24th, 2013 at 8:00 PM by Steven Stanley


Imagine how it might have played out had Downton Abbey’s distant cousin Mattthew Crawley actually wanted to inherit the Grantham estate, not just wanted it but wanted it so badly that to get it, he needed to dispose of more than half a dozen Granthams standing in the path of his succession.

I realize this is a lot to imagine, but if I ask you to do so, it’s simply to give you an idea of the world inhabited by the characters of the delicious new period musical A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder, a world of manners and money and Edwardian morality, a world in which a poor relation might have no other recourse than to bump off the competition one by one if he wanted to go from rags to riches.

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posted in Musical, San Diego County, WOW!

SPRING AWAKENING

posted on March 24th, 2013 at 12:25 PM by Steven Stanley


Broadway’s Spring Awakening gets a fresh re-envisioning as the maiden entry in La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts’ brand new “On Stage” series, which takes the usual stage area of the 1251-seat theater and converts it into a 200-seat thrust-stage theater-within-a-theater, giving audiences a Spring Awakening that not only stands out for its originality in concept and staging, but one that has every ticket-holder seated within seven rows of the performance area, insuring the kind of up-close-and-personal experience no big-stage La Mirada production could possibly offer.

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posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, WOW!

NUTTIN’ BUT HUTTON

posted on March 22nd, 2013 at 5:53 PM by Steven Stanley


The Blonde Bombshell. Annie Oakley. Fred Astaire’s Let’s Dance Co-Star. The Incendiary Blonde. Texas Guinan. Paramount Pictures’ Biggest Star. The Perils Of Pauline’s Pauline. Blossom Dearie. Dean Martin’s “Hetty Button.”

Miss Betty Hutton was all of the above, either in real or onscreen life, and Diane Vincent pays tribute to her Greatest Hits in the terrific new World Premiere Musical/Musical Revue Nuttin’ But Hutton, now delighting audiences at North Hollywood’s NoHo Arts Center under the direction of the ever inventive Larry Raben.
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posted in Musical Revue, North Hollywood, WOW!

CHAPTER TWO

posted on March 21st, 2013 at 4:50 PM by Steven Stanley


Widower meets divorcee and romantic sparks ignite if only the happy couple can prevent memories of his not-too-long-deceased wife from intruding on their happiness.

Ask any avid theatergoer (or Neil Simon aficionado in particular) to name the play and the answer is obvious. It’s Simon’s 1977 dramedic gem Chapter Two, the latest charmer from San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre, as fresh and funny as ever, its Internet, cell phone, and social media-free New York City making it a delightful period piece as do mentions of As The World Turns, Merv Griffin, and Fresca.
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posted in Comedy, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

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