THE MIRACLE WORKER

posted on April 21st, 2013 at 10:22 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
A pair of powerhouse performances would make Actors Co-op’s revival of William Gibson’s Tony-winning The Miracle Worker must-see theater if only attention been paid to sightlines, or had the Co-op staged it at the David Schall Theatre next door.
Note: See update at end of review.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Recommended

ALL SHOOK UP

posted on April 21st, 2013 at 7:30 PM by Steven Stanley


With its hit-filled score made up of over two dozen Elvis classics, its clever, funny book by Joe DiPietro, its delicious cast of characters, and ample opportunities for a choreographer to strut his or her stuff, All Shook Up, “The Elvis Musical,” is not only one of the most thoroughly entertaining Broadway shows of the past decade, it makes for an ideal talent showcase for the gifted Cal State Fullerton students who play its ten leading roles and for its sensational triple-threat ensemble as well.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

[title of show]

posted on April 20th, 2013 at 1:36 PM by Steven Stanley


Following last fall’s gem of a production of Adam Gwon’s Ordinary Days, the students of Cal State Fullerton’s prestigious Musical Theater BFA program have returned to Santa Ana’s blackbox Grand Central Theatre for Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen’s [title of show], which like Ordinary Days serves as a couldn’t-be-better showcase for a quartet of triple-threats (two juniors and two seniors) on their way to successful careers in musical theater.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

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