THE PAJAMA GAME

posted on June 2nd, 2012 at 12:41 PM by Steven Stanley


Carousel, Funny Girl, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma!, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, South Pacific … Probably no local Civic Light Opera so consistently revives classic musical comedies from Broadway’s Golden Age as Downey CLO, and their first-ever production of 1954’s The Pajama Game is one of their best revivals ever.
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posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, WOW!

COMPLEAT FEMALE STAGE BEAUTY

posted on June 1st, 2012 at 5:22 PM by Steven Stanley


When Restoration-era diarist Samuel Pepys wrote about “the prettiest woman in the whole house” and “the handsomest man,” in both cases he was referring to the same person—English actor Edward Kynaston. Known throughout mid-17th Century London for his portrayals of Shakespearean heroines Desdemona, Ophelia, and Juliet, Kynaston achieved more recent fame when Billy Crudup played him on the big screen opposite Claire Danes in 2004’s Stage Beauty. North Hollywood’s Crown City Theatre Company now presents the fascinating play upon which Stage Beauty was based—Jeffrey Hatcher’s Compleat Female Stage Beauty, and a gem of a production it is.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

AMERICAN IDIOT

posted on May 30th, 2012 at 1:09 PM by Steven Stanley


Green Day’s American Idiot has arrived in the OC for a head-bangingly exciting one-week engagement at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, WOW!

A5678

posted on May 29th, 2012 at 4:53 PM by Steven Stanley


Escondido’s Welk Resort Theatre brings back the good old-fashioned Musical Comedy Revue with its “World Premiere Revival” of Barbara Epstein’s A5678, a show which debuted at L.A.’s The Zephyr Theatre way back in 1976.
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posted in Musical Revue, San Diego County, WOW!

WHERE THE GREAT ONES RUN

posted on May 29th, 2012 at 4:18 PM by Steven Stanley


Mark Roberts writes plays about abuse, adultery, addiction, illness, incest, and suicide in the American Midwest, or at least that’s the terrain he covered in Parasite Drag, reviewed here a couple years back. Rogue Machine Theatre produces dark, edgy dramas like Small Engine Repair and Blackbird, which swept virtually every major theater award in town this past year. That’s why Roberts’ and Rogue Machine’s maiden collaboration, Where The Great Ones Run, comes as such a surprise. Though alcoholism, domestic violence, homosexuality, and a rather long bit of full-frontal male nudity would doubtless make this Mark Roberts play rather too daring for, say, Actors Co-op, coming from Rogue Machine, Where The Great Ones Run seems downright sunny, more Horton Foote than Sam Shepard, and if you’re anything like this reviewer you’ll love every minute of Roberts’ only slightly acidic valentine to small-town Indiana life. (read more)

posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

REX PICKETT’S SIDEWAYS THE PLAY

posted on May 26th, 2012 at 2:18 PM by Steven Stanley


Longtime best friends Miles and Jack set off on “the ultimate road trip, the last hurrah” in Rex Pickett’s Sideways The Play, now getting a terrific World Premiere staging by Santa Monica’s The Ruskin Group Theatre Co.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

PANACHE

posted on May 25th, 2012 at 5:58 PM by Steven Stanley


Here’s a question for romantic comedy buffs. When is the last time you saw a stage play that drew you into its spell and held you throughout laughter (and a tear or two) to a picture perfect fade-out in the same way that romcom favorites like You’ve Got Mail, While You Were Sleeping, and Notting Hill have been doing for decades on the silver screen. It’s been years since this reviewer (and romcom lover) has seen a comedy as intoxicatingly romantic as Don Gordon’s Panache, now in the homestretch of its six-week run at San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre. As I write this review, you’ve got only two more chances not to miss out on his romantic comedy gem.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

IT IS DONE

posted on May 23rd, 2012 at 10:54 AM by Steven Stanley


When a playwright plunks down three strangers in a bar ninety miles from nowhere on a dark and stormy night, it’s a sure bet sparks are going to fly, and fly they do (though probably not as you’d ever suspect) in Alex Goldberg’s edge-of-your-seat thriller It Is Done, now getting its West Coast Premiere at Hollywood’s Pig ‘N Whistle.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

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