LOOT

posted on September 25th, 2011 at 10:13 PM by Steven Stanley


No one wrote darker, more subversive comedies than Joe Orton—or funnier ones for that matter. Those requiring proof of the above need only head on over to San Pedro’s Little Fish Theatre to check out their terrific production of Orton’s darkly subversive farce.
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posted in Comedy, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

GUYS AND DOLLS

posted on September 24th, 2011 at 5:28 PM by Steven Stanley


Damon Runyon’s colorful New York denizens are lighting up the stage at Rolling Hills Estates’ Norris Theatre in their 2011-2012 season opener, a highly entertaining production of Frank Loesser’s Guys And Dolls.
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posted in Musical, South Bay, WOW!

GUIDED CONSIDERATION OF A LAMENTABLE DEED

posted on September 24th, 2011 at 11:51 AM by Steven Stanley


The play may well be the thing, but sometimes “the thing” adds up to considerably more than just the play. Such is the case with needtheater’s World Premiere production of Frank Basloe’s Guided Consideration Of A Lamentable Deed. Though Basloe’s dark comedy is intelligent, entertaining, and thought-provoking enough to stand on its own, when you add a pre-show “kegger” (more about that later), a one-of-a-kind venue, and live music after the show for those who wish to stick around, this brand new play by a relative unknown becomes a “thing” well worth taking a chance on.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

A WIDOW OF NO IMPORTANCE

posted on September 23rd, 2011 at 11:00 AM by Steven Stanley


East West Players open their 46th Anniversary Season with the World Premiere of Shane Sakhrani’s infectiously funny and utterly charming A Widow Of No Importance, a generation gap comedy set in Mumbai, India that theatergoers from any ethnic background are likely to embrace as warmly as its core South Asian audience.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

posted on September 21st, 2011 at 2:50 PM by Steven Stanley


Pride And Prejudice. Is there anyone who isn’t familiar with Jane Austen’s romantic classic in one form or another? True, not everyone has read the novel (and that includes this reviewer), but between the 1980 and ’95 TV adaptations, the 1940 and 2005 movie versions, and the innumerable romcoms (novels, plays, films, TV series, etc.) which have taken Austen’s tale as inspiration, there’s hardly one of us who won’t feel at least a spark of recognition while watching P&P’s latest adaptation at South Coast Repertory, all the way from Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy’s scrappy first meeting to the blissful happy ending we know awaits them.
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posted in Comedy, Orange County, WOW!

HIGH FIDELITY

posted on September 20th, 2011 at 1:22 PM by Steven Stanley

Musical Theatre Guild’s awesome one-night-only “concert staged reading” of the 2006 Broadway flop High Fidelity has confirmed what Hunger Artists’ West Coast Premiere first suggested in July. I am madly in love with HiFi, and if the cheers which greeted last night’s reading are any indication, I am not the only one who feels this way.

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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, WOW!

SHOOTING STAR

posted on September 18th, 2011 at 7:36 PM by Steven Stanley


There’s something about airport terminal waiting areas that makes them ripe with dramatic possibilities. A few years back, Departures provided the writer-actors at the NoHo Arts Center with over half a dozen waiting area vignettes, and earlier this year, Having It All’s female fivesome met cute and bonded while stranded waiting for postponed flights.  Now it’s former couple Reed and Elena who happen upon each other in a blizzard-bound Midwest airport twenty-five years post-love affair in Steven Dietz’s Shooting Star, getting its West Coast Premiere at Burbank’s Colony Theatre.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy-Drama, WOW!

THE LAST FIVE YEARS

posted on September 17th, 2011 at 2:30 PM by Steven Stanley


One of the most exciting things about live theater is being able to see favorite plays and musicals revived with new actors tackling iconic roles, new directors putting their stamp on familiar material, and new design teams giving old shows new looks.
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posted in Musical, San Gabriel Valley, WOW!

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