FISHING

posted on August 31st, 2012 at 5:00 PM by Steven Stanley


Playwright David J. Duman has taken his years of toiling in assorted San Francisco Bay Area restaurants and used them as food for laughter in Fishing, his sexy, spicy, fly-on-the-wall look at the staff and customers of a trendy seafood eatery, now getting its first Los Angeles production at Downtown L.A.’s Archway Studio/Theatre.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

DADDY LONG LEGS

posted on August 27th, 2012 at 8:35 PM by Steven Stanley


A brand new cast makes PCPA Theaterfest’s production of Daddy Long Legs, Paul Gordon and John Caird’s exquisite gem of a musical, seem fresh and new, even for those like this reviewer who fell in love with it in previous engagements at the Rubicon and La Mirada. Though Jean Webster’s 1912 novel Daddy-Long-Legs fits squarely in the Children’s Books section of your local library or Barnes And Noble, its musical adaptation (minus hyphens) once again proves absolutely right for ages eight to eighty.
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posted in Musical, Santa Barbara County, WOW!

MISS SAIGON

posted on August 27th, 2012 at 1:56 PM by Steven Stanley


Having now seen a grand total of seven major productions of Miss Saigon, I’m going to go out on a limb and say: If Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre’s reimagining of the 1991-2001 Broadway megasmash isn’t the very best of the bunch (which it may well be), it is certainly the freshest, grittiest, and most original staging I’ve seen since first experiencing Miss Saigon’s First National Tour at the Ahmanson way back in 1995.
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posted in Musical, San Gabriel Valley, WOW!

GHOST-WRITER

posted on August 25th, 2012 at 4:23 PM by Steven Stanley


Wikipedia defines a “ghostwriter” as someone who “writes books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person.” Add a hyphen and a “ghost-writer” is something quite different indeed—or so we learn in Michael Hollinger’s Ghost-Writer, now getting a classy West Coast Premiere at Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

posted on August 24th, 2012 at 5:36 PM by Steven Stanley


Inspired direction, imaginative choreography, splendid performances, and an in-the-round stage make Glendale Centre Theatre’s revival of the cult musical classic Little Shop Of Horrors one of the very best of the many this reviewer has seen over the past decade.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, WOW!

THE GRÖNHOLM METHOD

posted on August 22nd, 2012 at 3:27 PM by Steven Stanley

 


Catalan playwright Jordi Galcerán casts a cynical, bemused eye on the cutthroat world of international big business in his darkly comedic The Grönholm Method, the most exciting play to make the transatlantic crossing in an English translation since Yasmina Reza’s God Of Carnage stunned Broadway in 2009.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy-Drama, WOW!

WAR BRIDE

posted on August 20th, 2012 at 5:51 PM by Steven Stanley


When returning WWII G.I. Alvin Rhodes told his mother Catherine he’d be bringing a surprise back to Merced with him, she thought he meant a lovely tea set. About the last thing she was expecting was a Japanese bride. After all, it was only the month before that the “Japs” had surrendered, and as far as Catherine was concerned, they were still our enemy. How dare Alvin play this sick joke on her? How dare he commit treason in this way!

Thus begins Samantha Macher’s highly original and often quite gripping War Bride, now getting its World Premiere production by SkyPilot Theatre, astutely directed and imaginatively choreographed by Nancy Dobbs Owen.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

TICK TOCK BOOM CLAP

posted on August 20th, 2012 at 1:45 PM by Steven Stanley


L.A. stage favorites Melissa Fahn and Sam Zeller light up the big screen in Tick Tock Boom Clap, an enchanting movie dramedy that combines the tried-and-true romcom genre with a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making theater, whether it be a big-bucks Broadway production or a small-potatoes community theater musical like the one around which Tick Tock Boom Clap revolves.
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posted in Comedy, WOW!

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