GOOD NEWS

posted on September 11th, 2011 at 9:27 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
For the past ninety years, Whittier Community Theatre has been offering amateur thespians the opportunity to trod the boards while still maintaining their day jobs—to the delight of these eager and often very talented performers and of the audiences who get to see friends and family showing off their triple threats.
(read more)

posted in Musical, Recommended, San Gabriel Valley

WHAT’S WRONG WITH ANGRY?

posted on September 10th, 2011 at 3:14 PM by Steven Stanley


Celebration Theatre opens its 29th season, and its first with John Michael Beck as its Artistic Director, with an all-around sensational revival of Patrick Wilde’s What’s Wrong With Angry?, brilliantly directed by Michael Matthews, impeccably performed by a cast of ten, and stunningly designed by some of L.A.’s finest creative talents. Need I say more?
(read more)

posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

THE WAR CYCLE: GOSPEL ACCORDING TO FIRST SQUAD

posted on September 9th, 2011 at 3:45 PM by Steven Stanley


Let’s say you want to tell a gripping, “ripped from today’s headlines” war story—and you’re operating on a tight budget. You can spend $11,000,000 as Kathryn Bigelow did for The Hurt Locker (and that’s cheap for a Hollywood flick).  Or how about this for a suggestion?  For maybe one-tenth of one percent of that budget, you can produce The War Cycle: Gospel According to First Squad, currently generating equivalent sparks at The Powerhouse Theatre. Talk about a no-brainer!
(read more)

posted in Drama, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

WEST SIDE STORY

posted on September 8th, 2011 at 12:29 PM by Steven Stanley


As any Broadway buff will tell you, there’s Broadway pre-West Side Story, and everything else since then.
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posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, WOW!

KOWALSKI

posted on September 5th, 2011 at 7:27 PM by Steven Stanley


The year was 1947 and Tennessee Williams, still basking in the success of his New York Drama Critics Circle Award-winning The Glass Menagerie, was hoping to avoid a sophomore jinx with his upcoming A Streetcar Named Desire. Elia Kazan was set to direct, and Jessica Tandy to star as Blanche DuBois, but as yet no one had been cast in the pivotal role of Stanley Kowalski. Producer Irene Selznick was batting for John Garfield, but Williams had his doubts that the film star was right for the part. Then, according to Wikipedia, a virtually unknown actor named Marlon Brando “was given car fare to Tennessee Williams’ home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he not only gave a sensational reading, but did some house repairs as well.” Oh, and he got the part.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, San Fernando Valley, WOW!

THE ALTRUISTS

posted on September 3rd, 2011 at 3:31 PM by Steven Stanley


Nicky Silver skewers liberal do-gooders in his outrageously funny The Altruists, a hilarious confection that kept this liberal do-gooder wannabe in stitches throughout its ninety nonstop minutes of absurdist fun at West L.A.’s Pico Playhouse.
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posted in Comedy, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

BOOMERMANIA

posted on September 3rd, 2011 at 7:11 AM by Steven Stanley

Now in its seventh smash North Hollywood month, Boomermania has recently moved to the larger, more stageview-friendly NoHo Arts Center, a 99-seater whose state-of-the-art lighting and sound system make the 1950s-‘80s musical comedy review look and sound better than ever. 

(read more)

posted in Musical, North Hollywood, WOW!

RENT

posted on September 2nd, 2011 at 7:14 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
After more than a dozen years’ wait for the rights to produce Jonathan Larson’s Rent, it’s no wonder that droves of regional, university, and community theaters have been jumping at the chance to stage the smash Broadway musical. Rent’s grungy look back at the young denizens of an AIDS-riddled late-‘80s New York City doesn’t require fancy sets or costumes and its edgy themes and youthful cast of characters give it undeniable appeal to up-and-coming performers, making it seem, at least on the surface, not all that tough a show to put on.
(read more)

posted in Musical, Orange County, Recommended

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