THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE

posted on January 14th, 2012 at 2:04 PM by Steven Stanley


Irish playwright Martin McDonagh might well have entitled his first play, The Beauty Queen Of Leenane, No Exit, for that’s how trapped its mother-daughter protagonists find themselves in the 1996 black comedy that put McDonagh on the playwriting map. Nominated for a 1998 Best Play Tony Award and winner of Best Play Drama Desk, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, The Beauty Queen Of Leenane now gets an intimate Los Angeles staging that ends up easily The Production Company’s finest effort since moving into its larger Hollywood digs a year ago.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

NERVE

posted on January 13th, 2012 at 3:14 PM by Steven Stanley


Try to recall the most disastrous blind date you’ve ever had, then multiply that by ten, and you’ll have some idea of just how bad Elliot and Susan’s blind date is in Adam Szymkowicz’s quirky, romantic, highly original Nerve, now getting its Los Angeles premiere under the inspired direction of Michael Matthews.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

FRUIT FLY

posted on January 9th, 2012 at 1:25 PM by Steven Stanley


Leslie Jordan answers the age-old question—“Do gay men really become their mothers?”—in his latest autobiographical one-man show, Fruit Fly, and as anyone who’s ever seen the Chattanooga native in Sordid Lives or on Will And Grace can well imagine, there’s not likely to be a more delightful autobiographical one-man show in any foreseeable future.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Solo Performance, WOW!

HAIRSPRAY

posted on January 8th, 2012 at 9:29 PM by Steven Stanley


The smash hit Broadway musical Hairspray has arrived at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center in an intimate staging so all-around terrific, it’s hard to know where to start singing its praises.
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posted in Musical, Ventura County, WOW!

HAIRSPRAY

posted on January 7th, 2012 at 2:32 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Following more than six years on Broadway, a pair of National Tours, and numerous regional theater productions, the smash hit musical Hairspray is at last being licensed to community theaters across the land, the better to spread its message of love and acceptance and equality to cities large and small. Moorpark’s High Street Arts Center is first out of the gate this year with a production which, while no match for MTW’s nigh-on perfect Equity staging this past November, nonetheless offers numerous delights to Ventura County audiences.
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posted in Musical, Recommended, Ventura County

CHICO’S ANGELS # 2 LOVE BOAT CHICAS

posted on January 6th, 2012 at 2:11 PM by Steven Stanley


“This just in at our news desk. International superstar Charo narrowly escaped an attempt on her life tonight when backup dancer Bunny took the bullet intended for the Queen Of Cuchi-Cuchi just as she was belting out the last note of “I’ve Got The Cuchi In Me.” Sources inform us that the Spanish diva has hired none other than Chico’s Angels to investigate.”
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, WOW!

ASKANCE

posted on December 24th, 2011 at 4:10 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
The sins of the past play havoc with the lives of a trio of seniors about to be booted from their retirement home in Kerr Seth Lordygan’s World Premiere drama Askance. Though still a work in progress, Askance is capably directed for the Eclectic Company Theatre by Sabrina Lloyd, features several particularly strong performances, and concludes with some satisfying Act Two surprise twists and revelations.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Recommended

BANANAS! A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOSEPHINE BAKER

posted on December 23rd, 2011 at 2:39 PM by Steven Stanley


When Halle Berry became the first African American to win a Best Actress Academy Award in 2002, she dedicated her golden statuette to a trio of pioneering black performers—Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, and Diahann Carroll—for opening the door to Berry’s Oscar win. In retrospect, Berry could just have easily added a fourth name to the list, that of Josephine Baker, the first African-American female to star in a major motion picture, the first to perform before an integrated audience in an American concert hall, and the first to see her fame spread throughout the world.
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posted in North Hollywood, Solo Performance, WOW!

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