StageSceneLA

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!

THE WHALE

posted on March 21st, 2013 at 12:16 AM by Steven Stanley

A morbidly obese man attempts to reconcile with his angry teenage daughter.

This is all I knew about Samuel D. Hunter’s The Whale going in, and if you wish to be as blown away by this absolutely brilliant, unexpectedly funny, devastatingly powerful new play as I was, ask no questions. Simply reserve your seat at South Coast Repertory and let Hunter, director Martin Benson, and five phenomenal actors do the rest. You’ll thank me for not having given anything but this away.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Orange County, WOW!

THE SECRET GARDEN

posted on March 19th, 2013 at 6:43 PM by Steven Stanley

You’d think that theaters in search of grown-up entertainment for the entire family would be jumping at the chance to program Lucy Simon and Marsha Norman’s musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic children’s novel The Secret Garden. 709 performances on Broadway, seven Tony Award nominations and two wins (for Norman’s book and Daisy Eagan’s performance as Mary). And as if that weren’t already enough, Norman’s book pays as much attention to the novel’s adult characters as it does its children while show’s Tony-nominated songs (music by Simon, lyrics by Norman) capture ever so gorgeously the sound and feel of the Yorkshire moors.

You’d think that this would be true, but you’d be wrong. The Secret Garden hasn’t had a big stage L.A.-area professional production for over a dozen years, all the more reason for Musical Theatre West to add it to this season’s Reiner Reading Series, a one-night-only event that not only brought Burnett’s classic story to unforgettable life, it did so after a mere twenty-five hours of rehearsal.
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posted in Concert Staged Reading, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

RAGTIME

posted on March 18th, 2013 at 11:46 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Kentwood Players takes on the many challenges of Ragtime, one of the most truly epic shows ever to have filled a Broadway stage, and achieves laudable results for a community theater production.
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posted in Musical, Recommended, West Side/Beverly HIlls

EURYDICE

posted on March 17th, 2013 at 11:43 AM by Steven Stanley

A Noise Within continues its Spring 2013 season, one with a decidedly more modern spin than is usual at California’s Home For The Classics, with Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl’s magical, mystical, poetic retelling of the Orpheus myth from the point of view of his bride.
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