VICTOR/VICTORIA

posted on November 5th, 2011 at 1:49 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

A show-stopping performance by Kristin Towers-Rowles, StageSceneLA’s Scenie-winning Breakthrough Musical Theater Performer Of The Year, is the best reason to see Malibu Stage Company’s small-stage production of the rarely staged Victor/Victoria.
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posted in Musical, Not Recommended, West Side/Beverly HIlls

THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

posted on November 4th, 2011 at 1:08 PM by Steven Stanley


The lives of ordinary people make for extraordinary theater in Horton Foote’s 1953 drama The Trip To Bountiful, revived to perfection at South Coast Repertory under the delicately shaded direction of Martin Benson.
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posted in Drama, Orange County, WOW!

BHUTAN

posted on November 2nd, 2011 at 11:20 PM by Steven Stanley


Something went dreadfully wrong in the life of New Hampshire high school senior Warren Conroy a year ago, or so we surmise from our first glimpse of him, behind bars, in Daisy Foote’s riveting family drama Bhutan, now getting a superb West Coast Premiere at Rogue Machine Theatre under the inspired direction of Elina de Santos.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

HERMETICALLY SEALED

posted on November 1st, 2011 at 5:37 PM by Steven Stanley


Hermitically Sealed is both the title of Kathryn Graf’s compelling new family drama and an apt description of the way 40something caterer Tessie May has chosen to live the life she shares with her teenage male offspring—like an egg, “safe and sound in its own little world.”
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

MOSES SUPPOSES

posted on October 31st, 2011 at 4:18 PM by Steven Stanley


1970 Oscar nominee Karen Black and David Proval of TV’s The Sopranos play longtime marrieds in Moses Supposes, Ellen Malaver’s entertaining family comedy—no, make that entertaining dysfunctional family comedy, now playing at the Zephyr Theatre.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

HAIRSPRAY

posted on October 30th, 2011 at 11:48 PM by Steven Stanley


It’s taken nearly ten years for the Broadway smash musical Hairspray to get its first L.A.-area CLO production, but it’s been well worth the wait, as Musical Theatre West’s sensational Opening Night performance at the Carpenter Center made abundantly clear.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, WOW!

HOUSE OF GOLD

posted on October 29th, 2011 at 3:55 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
The personal tragedy of the still unsolved 1996 murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey has, in the years since her death, been eclipsed by the ensuing media side show, one that continues to this day.  Playwright Gregory Moss satirizes our endless fascination with JonBenét in his black comedy House Of Gold, now getting its West Coast Premiere by Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles in a production worth a look-see despite considerable shortcomings, thanks to imaginative direction by Gates McFadden, a brilliant performance by award-winning theatre vet Jacqueline Wright as JonBenét, and a sensational production design.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, Recommended

NINE CIRCLES

posted on October 29th, 2011 at 1:10 PM by Steven Stanley


If protests against the war in Iraq have never come close to reaching the size or intensity of those of the Vietnam War era, one need merely compare the military demographics of troops serving in the Iraqi desert with those of soldiers sent to fight in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Whereas the pre-1973 military draft affected all but the wealthiest of Americans more or less equally, these days we have an all-volunteer Army, few of whose members have likely chosen a soldier’s life over a university degree or a white collar job. In fact, as Bill Cain’s Nine Circles makes abundantly clear, with soldiers like Pvt. Daniel Reeves in uniform, our military may well be scraping the very bottom of the barrel in recruiting new grunts. If not for Cain’s searing, probing, heart-rending look at Pvt. Reeves wounded soul, few among us would give much of a damn whether he lived his soldier’s life or got sent home in a body bag.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

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