MODIGLIANI

posted on May 11th, 2012 at 8:03 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
A bravura lead performance by Matt Marquez as early 20th Century artist Amedeo Modigiliani and electric support by Nicole Stuart as his partner in art and sex are the two best reasons to catch Open Fist Theatre and Amedeo Production’s revival of Dennis McIntyre’s Modigliani.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Recommended

THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS

posted on May 8th, 2012 at 2:33 PM by Steven Stanley


Racism in the early 20th Century South may seem an unlikely subject for a Broadway musical—let alone two—yet wonder of wonders, just as Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade draws to a close at San Diego’s Cygnet Theatre comes the West Coast Premiere of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s The Scottsboro Boys at the Old Globe, and as was the case with its predecessor, this is indeed cause for celebration.
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posted in Musical, San Diego County, WOW!

PIPPIN

posted on May 7th, 2012 at 12:08 AM by Steven Stanley


Picture a hundred thirty or so dancing, glow-in-the-dark fingertips spiraling and swirling around on an otherwise pitch-black stage as the orchestra launches into “Magic To Do” and you’ll have some idea of just how fresh and new the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center revival of Pippin is. Then again, few musicals lend themselves to as many different interpretations as the Stephen Schwartz classic. Reprise did it sexy and Chicago-esque some years back, East West Players took an Asian hip-hop approach to the material, and Deaf West at the Taper featured not one but two Pippins, one deaf and one hearing. SCVAC describes their Pippin as taking place in the “intriguing and wacky world of Steampunk Carnivale,” and an exciting new interpretation it is.
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posted in Musical, Ventura County, WOW!

SUKIE AND SUE: THEIR STORY

posted on May 5th, 2012 at 1:29 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
A demonic Raggedy Ann doll wreaks havoc on a pair of nurses in Sukie And Sue: Their Story, Michael John LaChiusa’s offbeat trifle of a horror movie spoof now playing at The Blank Theatre.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Recommended

SPRING AWAKENING

posted on May 4th, 2012 at 4:44 PM by Steven Stanley


Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik’s Spring Awakening has awakened once again, this time as a showcase for a group of very talented, mostly college-age performers and a director whose vision has already impressed this reviewer on more than one occasion.
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posted in Musical, South Bay, WOW!

TICKLED PINK

posted on May 2nd, 2012 at 5:28 PM by Steven Stanley


Taking her comic novel Tickled Pink as inspiration, Las Vegas headliner Rita Rudner and husband Martin Bergman have penned a two-act comedy not coincidentally titled Tickled Pink—and the results now onstage at the Laguna Playhouse are likely to tickle the fancy of anyone in the mood for a couple hours of laughs … along with a well-earned tear or two thrown in for good measure.
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posted in Comedy, Orange County, WOW!

THE HEIRESS

posted on April 30th, 2012 at 1:14 PM by Steven Stanley


The Heiress may have reached the ripe old age of sixty-five, but you’d hardly know it from the latest revival of Ruth and Augustus Goetz’s 1947 Broadway hit, adapted from Henry James’ classic novel Washington Square and currently engrossing and delighting audiences in equal measure at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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posted in Drama, Pasadena, WOW!

REBORNING

posted on April 29th, 2012 at 12:27 PM by Steven Stanley


The past continues to haunt the present of the two women whose lives intersect in Zayd Dohrn’s powerful personal drama Reborning, now getting its Southern California Premiere—and only its second production—at Orange County’s illustrious Chance Theater, with Resident Artists Casey Long, Jennifer Ruckman, Karen Webster doing some of their best work ever under Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen’s inspired direction.
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posted in Drama, Orange County, WOW!

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