THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED

posted on June 18th, 2012 at 10:58 AM by Steven Stanley


The Little Dog Laughed, Douglas Carter Beane’s hilarious, edgy Hollywood-New York showbiz satire, has arrived in North Hollywood with its cutting-edge love story between a gay movie star and a bisexual hustler and its much touted (albeit brief) display of full-frontal male nudity. Though one of its four performances still needs considerably sharpening, director Jon Cortez and cast are largely successful in entertaining, titillating, and maybe even coaxing a tear or two from audiences in search of comedy with a bite.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

THE SAVANNAH DISPUTATION

posted on June 17th, 2012 at 1:14 PM by Steven Stanley


For socially liberal Christians, secular humanists, agnostics, and/or atheists, there may seem to be little difference these days between Catholics and Evangelicals. Both would appear to be anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-anything that contradicts the strict tenets of their faiths.

Pit a die-hard Pentecostal against a die-hard Papist, however, and you will stand corrected once each side begins attempting to prove the other wrong.

This is precisely what playwright Evan Smith does to hilarious and thought-provoking effect in The Savannah Disputation, his highly intelligent comedy now getting its Los Angeles Premiere after a New York debut and a slew of well-received regional productions.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy, WOW!

THE CRUCIBLE

posted on June 16th, 2012 at 1:03 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
When Arthur Miller’s The Crucible was written in 1953, it was considered an allegory for the McCarthy “witch hunts,” Communism taking the place Satan occupied in the original Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Today, as religious fundamentalists of various creeds use blind belief in dogma as a way to persecute those they disagree with, The Crucible stands stronger than ever as an indictment of religious fanaticism gone amok, making this election year a particularly fitting time to revive the Miller classic, one of a number of reasons to check out the production now playing at Hollywood’s Lillian Theatre.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Recommended

LANGUAGE ROOMS

posted on June 15th, 2012 at 4:28 PM by Steven Stanley


In his dramatic, suspenseful Back Of The Throat, Egyptian-American playwright Yussef El Guindi explored the plight of an Americanized young Arab who finds himself caught in the Hitchockean dilemma of being pursued for a crime he did not commit—in this case, of plotting terrorist acts in a post-9/11 world. By making Khaled an entirely likeable boy-next-door type with an American girlfriend and nary the trace of an Arabic accent, El Guindi got his audience firmly on the side of the accused before starting to plant seeds of doubt in our minds. Might Khaled actually be the terrorist he’s accused of being?

Language Rooms, El Guindi’s latest, takes a more comedic approach to the same post-9/11 world, but one no less powerful for the laughter it provokes, and has been brought down to Los Angeles lock, stock, director, cast, designers, and barrel by San Francisco’s Golden Thread Productions.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

LES MISÉRABLES

posted on June 14th, 2012 at 1:37 PM by Steven Stanley


Cameron Mackintosh’s New 25th Anniversary Production Of Boublil and Schönberg’s Les Misérables, now playing at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts, is not only the most gorgeous Les Miz you’ve ever seen, it’s one of the most gorgeous productions ever, so perfectly realized that it may make you wonder who ever thought this show needed the revolving stage of the London/Broadway original. Then again, designers back in 1985, when Les Misérables opened in London’s West End, could hardly have imagined the technical advances that make this revolutionary return to Victor Hugo-land a reality.
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posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, WOW!

THE LIGHTS ARE OFF

posted on June 14th, 2012 at 12:28 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
A pair of college roommates attempt to navigate their way through the college years in Matt Soson’s The Lights Are Off, a dark, edgy screwball comedy with a starkly dramatic twist.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Recommended

SHENANDOAH

posted on June 13th, 2012 at 1:08 PM by Steven Stanley


Musical Theatre Guild closes its strongest season in years with an imaginatively staged, powerfully performed “concert staged reading” of the 1975 Broadway hit Shenandoah.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, WOW!

HAIR

posted on June 13th, 2012 at 12:02 AM by Steven Stanley


A 2006 Cal State Northridge production of the 1960s Broadway smash Hair so impacted the student playing Woof that when several years later he established his own theater company, he named it theTRIBE Productions, after the musical’s band of anti-war, pro-peace-&-love hippies who called themselves “The Tribe.”
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, WOW!

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