PEACE IN OUR TIME

posted on October 23rd, 2011 at 11:31 PM by Steven Stanley


It’s November of 1940 and the folks gathered at The Shy Gazelle are precisely those you’d expect to run into in a London pub just a month after the Battle Of Britain. Gregarious manager Fred Shattock and his affable wife Nora are offering pub regulars their customary warm welcome as they serve the usual libations to entertainer Lyia Viven and her lover George Bourne, magazine editor Chorley Bannister, chums Janet Braid and Alma Broughton, and  middle-aged couple Mr. and Mrs. Grainger. Conversation revolves around the usual topics—news of the Grangers’ soldier son, “still there, on the Isle Of Wright;” the “dreadfully negative” nine o’clock BBC Nightly News broadcast; George’s defense of Lyia’s vocal talents against Chorley’s nasty digs, etc.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

ALL MY SONS

posted on October 23rd, 2011 at 11:06 PM by Steven Stanley


It’s been nearly sixty-five years since Broadway audiences first thrilled to Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, decades during which countless actors have put their stamp on the now iconic roles of factory owner Joe Keller, Joe’s son Chris, Chris’s fiancée Ann Deever, and Ann’s brother George. It’s a sure bet, however, that few if any of them have ever looked like Alex Morris, A.K. Murtadha, Linda Park, and James Hiroyuki Liao—and for obvious reasons. The Kellers and Deevers are Caucasian. Morris, Murtadha, Park, and Liao are not.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

posted on October 22nd, 2011 at 12:18 PM by Steven Stanley


To hear Hollywood tell it, the only thing post-retirement folks are good for is a laugh, often at their own expense. As for romance or (God forbid) sex, forget it. For these and many other reasons, Kathleen Clark’s romantic comedy Southern Comforts, now playing at Burbank’s Falcon Theatre, comes as a welcome treat.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy-Drama, WOW!

MONKEY ADORED

posted on October 17th, 2011 at 9:20 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
In his 2009 post-apocalyptic nightmare fairy tale Treefall, playwright Henry Murray, director John Perrin Flynn, a superb quartet of actors, and an extraordinary design team joined forces at Rogue Machine for one of the year’s most moving, thought-provoking, absorbing pieces of theater.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, Recommended

THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM

posted on October 16th, 2011 at 9:26 PM by Steven Stanley


When was the last time you saw a production of the Tony Award-winning, Drama Desk Award-nominated Broadway musical The Robber Bridegroom?

Ask most any Los Angeles theatergoer for their answer and the one you’ll probably get is “Never.” Despite a hilarious book and oh-so clever lyrics by Alfred (Driving Miss Daisy) Uhry and a showful of catchy bluegrass melodies by Robert Waldman, about the only professional L.A. production in the past decade would appear to have been Musical Theatre Guild’s one-night-only concert staged reading in 2001—all the more reason to celebrate its current revival at International City Theatre in Long Beach, though hardly the only one.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, WOW!

THE WIZARD OF OZ

posted on October 15th, 2011 at 1:58 PM by Steven Stanley


Children of all ages (and that means parents and grandparents too) can now join Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, and Toto in following the yellow brick road to the Land Of Oz as 3-D Theatricals concludes its second season with the L. Frank Baum/MGM classic The Wizard Of Oz.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

DUSK RINGS A BELL

posted on October 14th, 2011 at 6:50 PM by Steven Stanley


Playwright Stephen Belber starts off his latest with a classic romantic setup—then throws the audience an unexpectedly serious curve—in Dusk Rings A Bell, his not quite perfect but nonetheless highly affecting two-hander, now playing at Hollywood’s Blank Theatre in an exquisitely acted and directed West Coast Premiere.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

SHIRLEY VALENTINE

posted on October 12th, 2011 at 8:36 PM by Steven Stanley


Chick flick fans of a certain age may recall British actress Pauline Collins’ Oscar-nominated performance as Shirley Valentine in the 1989 movie of the same name.  If you’re like me, you sat entranced watching 40something Liverpool housewife Shirley leave the drudgery of her day-to-day existence for a life-altering holiday in Greece, her traveling companion not her inattentive, unappreciative lug of a husband but contest-winning best friend Jane—who promptly abandons Shirley upon arrival. Befriended by an English couple whose xenophobia proves too much to take, Shirley takes off into the night and into arms of a handsome Greek named Costas.
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posted in Comedy, Orange County, WOW!

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