ON GOLDEN POND

posted on July 30th, 2011 at 6:26 AM by Steven Stanley


Hal Linden and Christina Pickles as Norman and Ethel Thayer in On Golden Pond. What more needs to be said? With stars like these in a play as beloved as Ernest Thompson’s Drama Desk Award-winning Outstanding New Play of 1979, Burbank’s Colony Theatre could well have its biggest hit ever, and justifiably so. Linden and Pickles deliver award-caliber performances in a play that hasn’t lost an iota of its humor or charm, directed to pitch perfect perfection by Cameron Watson, and featuring a supporting cast every bit as wonderful as its two stars.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy-Drama, WOW!

WATSON

posted on July 29th, 2011 at 6:30 AM by Steven Stanley


You don’t have to be a Sherlock Holmes fan to deem Jaime Robledo’s Watson theatrical magic, as its return engagement at Sacred Fools Theater Company makes abundantly clear. No wonder Watson (aka The Last Great Tale Of The Legendary Sherlock Holmes) won a pair of coveted LA Weekly Awards—for Robledo’s direction and Henry Dittman’s bravura comedic work—in its initial run last fall. Robledo’s comedy thrills and astonishes again and again, making its midsummer encore the best possible news for Los Angeles theatergoers in the mood to be dazzled.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

OUT OF MY HEAD

posted on July 29th, 2011 at 6:28 AM by Steven Stanley


Five 20somethings work on resolving personal issues via “free group therapy” as Mechanicals Theatre Group presents Out Of My Head, Ryan Scott Oliver’s highly enjoyable “song-cycle about breakdowns and breakthroughs.”
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posted in Musical Revue, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

BLACKBIRD

posted on July 25th, 2011 at 6:37 AM by Steven Stanley


A 30ish woman confronts the 60ish man who had sex with her when she was only 12 in David Harrower’s harrowing Blackbird, now shocking, disturbing, and dare I say entertaining audiences in equal measure in its Los Angeles premiere by Rogue Machine Theatre.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

THE INSIDIOUS IMPACT OF ANTON

posted on July 24th, 2011 at 6:39 AM by Steven Stanley


You could hardly call Francesca “The Girl Who Has Everything,” but she for one is not complaining. She has a job and a small circle of sort-of friends, and while she doesn’t have a husband or a boyfriend, what she does have is a life which includes “people, cable, books on occasion, sex when required. And an apartment that always gets compliments.” And then she meets Anton.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS

posted on July 23rd, 2011 at 7:35 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
If America is the land of opportunity, nowhere is this more true than in the world of community theater. There’s probably nowhere else in the world where software developers, college math teachers, office workers, Air Force officers, and children’s book illustrators are offered so many opportunities to take to the stage and enjoy the delights of performing live theater—without having to quit their day jobs.
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posted in Musical, Recommended, South Bay

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

posted on July 22nd, 2011 at 6:40 AM by Steven Stanley


The hills of Thousand Oaks are alive with _____.

If anyone reading this is incapable of filling in the blank, this reviewer can only wonder where you’ve been during the half century since The Sound Of Music made its Broadway debut. Is there anyone in America who hasn’t seen either the 1964 movie adaptation—the third biggest moneymaker in film history when adjusted for inflation—or any one of a gazillion regional, community, or school productions of the Rodgers And Hammerstein classic?
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posted in Musical, Ventura County, WOW!

AFTER THE AUTUMN

posted on July 17th, 2011 at 6:45 AM by Steven Stanley


If horse-blinder Alan Strang was a tough nut for psychiatrist Martin Dysart to crack in Peter Shaffer’s Equus, then the nameless Army Captain in Matthew Kellen Burgos’ engrossing new dramatic one-act After The Autumn proves an even greater challenge to the doctor assigned to his case.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Drama, WOW!

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