RISE

posted on November 21st, 2012 at 5:38 PM by Steven Stanley


Take a man and a woman with a shared past, place them in an enclosed space with no intermission to lessen the tension, and you’ve got a recipe for dramatic sparks. Scottish playwright David Harrower did just this in his multiple-Scenie-winning Blackbird, and Cal Barnes follows that example in his Hollywood Fringe Festival hit Rise, currently keeping audiences on the edge of their seats at Elephant Stages.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

CALL ME MADAM

posted on November 20th, 2012 at 11:32 PM by Steven Stanley


Here’s a question for Los Angeles area musical theater lovers. Of the two Tony-winning musicals of 1951, Guys And Dolls and Call Me Madam, which one have you seen over and over again and which one have you never seen—or at least not until last night at Glendale’s Alex Theatre?

The answer to the second part of the question is, of course, Irving Berlin’s Call Me Madam, the mostly forgotten winner of three Tonys (for Best Score, Best Actress, and Best Featured Actor), a musical gem/chestnut that hundreds of Angelinos got to experience last night in Concert Staged Reading form, thanks to the oh-so talented triple-threats of L.A.’s Musical Theatre Guild.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, WOW!

THE MORINI STRAD

posted on November 19th, 2012 at 3:03 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

As any Colony Theatre regular can tell you, Burbank’s premier regional theater has had crowd-pleasing hit after hit with its series of “odd couple” two-character plays, from Rounding Third to Trying to Educating Rita to Visiting Mr. Green to Grace & Glorie to Shooting Star to Old Wicked Songs. That’s why, as a longtime Colony fan who loved each and every one of this magnificent seven, it pains me to report that their latest two-hander, The Morini Strad, failed to capture or hold my attention despite the best efforts of all concerned.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Drama, Not Recommended

WHEN LAST WE FLEW

posted on November 19th, 2012 at 12:01 AM by Steven Stanley


Playwright Harrison David Rivers and Diversionary Theatre score a pair of coups, the former in having his award-winning* when last we flew get its West Coast Premiere at San Diego’s esteemed LGBT theater, the latter in giving Rivers’ mystical, magical dramedy its first major, fully-staged production since its limited-run debut at the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival.  The result is one of the best (and most unique) coming of age stories I’ve seen onstage.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, San Diego County, WOW!

IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER

posted on November 17th, 2012 at 4:08 PM by Steven Stanley


The gods and goddesses of the West African Yoruba people are transformed into African-Americans living in the projects of San Pere, Louisiana in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s award-winning In The Red And Brown Water, now getting an impressive Los Angeles premiere at the Fountain Theatre.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

DOESN’T ANYONE KNOW WHAT A PANCREAS IS?

posted on November 16th, 2012 at 7:08 PM by Steven Stanley


Friends (and friends of friends) find themselves Looking For Love In Los Angeles in Carole Real’s funny, perceptive new comedy Doesn’t Anybody Know What A Pancreas Is?, now getting a sparkling World Premiere production by Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

TEA, WITH MUSIC

posted on November 16th, 2012 at 12:09 AM by Steven Stanley


When Velina Hasu Houston’s Tea was first staged back in 1987, the playwright could scarcely have imagined that one night, twenty-five years later, her poetic tribute to her mother and the 100,000 other Japanese “war brides” who came to the U.S. after World War II would one night become Tea, With Music, an exquisite new chamber musical now getting its World Premiere production by East West Players.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, WOW!

INTIMATE APPAREL

posted on November 12th, 2012 at 3:18 PM by Steven Stanley


Elegant writing, a fascinating place and time, and an African-American heroine rarely given center-stage status transform Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel from soap opera to Outer Critics Circle Award-winning drama, as Los Angeles audiences can now (re)discover in its impeccable big-stage revival at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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posted in Drama, Pasadena, WOW!

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