I’M JUST WILD ABOUT HARRY

posted on June 10th, 2011 at 6:42 AM by Steven Stanley


Take an 1892 British farce that broke records with its 1466-performance London run. Add to it nearly two-dozen song hits from the 1900s, ‘10s, and early ‘20s. Cast it with a terrific bunch of actors who can also sing and dance. Add to the mix a director, musical director, choreographer, and trio of designers, each of whom is blessed with ingenuity and flair. Do all of the above and the result is I’m Just Wild About Harry, Gary Lamb and William A. Reilly’s delightful jukebox musical now playing at the duo’s Crown City Theatre Co.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, WOW!

SUPERIOR DONUTS

posted on June 9th, 2011 at 11:05 AM by Steven Stanley


It’s taken a few years for Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts to make it from Chicago to Broadway to Westwood—even San Diego beat the Geffen Playhouse to the punch—but for those in search of two-and-a-half hours of laughter with more than a bit of depth, the latest from Pulitzer-&-Tony-winning Letts proves well worth the wait.
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posted in Comedy, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES

posted on June 7th, 2011 at 11:09 AM by Steven Stanley


Since The Marvelous Wonderettes’ made its first full-length big-stage Southern California appearance at the Laguna Playhouse in 2008, there’s scarcely a mid or large-sized Southland theater that hasn’t jumped at the chance to present this off-Broadway megahit to its local audience of theatergoers, and with reason. Roger Bean’s wonderfully marvelous look back at the pop music of the 1950s and ‘60s as sung by a quartet of high school girls at their 1958 prom and their 1968 class reunion is the very definition of a crowd-pleaser. Following runs at Musical Theatre West, the Norris Theatre, and Cabrillo Music Theatre, the Wonderettes have now arrived in La Mirada, once again directed by their writer-creator, and if last night’s audience reaction was any indication, McCoy Rigby Entertainment has a smash hit on its hands. Performing with a live band, these Marvelous Wonderettes are sure to captivate audiences from teens to grandfolks, and everyone in between.
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posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, WOW!

WORKING

posted on June 5th, 2011 at 11:16 AM by Steven Stanley


What A Chorus Line is to Broadway dancers, Working is to the American work force, a musical salute to the cleaning women, iron workers, masons, mill workers, supermarket checkers, teachers, waitresses and countless others who have built America and kept it strong.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical Revue, WOW!

LOCKED AND LOADED

posted on June 5th, 2011 at 10:54 AM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

Despite the many positive reviews it has garnered during its extended run at the Santa Monica Playhouse, I did not enjoy Locked And Loaded, Todd Sussman’s existentialist dramedy. I found myself turned off from the get-go by its terminally ill, suicide-bound sexagenarian heroes, two men I wouldn’t enjoy spending time with in real life, let alone as characters in a play. Things perked up a bit, or at least at first, when a pair of hookers appeared magically at their doorstep, one of them sporting an irresistible Spanish accent. Unfortunately, her foulmouthed chick-with-a-dick companion proved entirely resistible, and though I kept hoping to be won over, I found myself less and less involved in the onstage action as the play went on to bizarre extremes, its characters engaging in a mock trial à la Sartre (not one of my favorite writers).
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posted in Comedy, Not Recommended, West Side/Beverly HIlls

YEAR ZERO

posted on June 4th, 2011 at 11:19 AM by Steven Stanley


In fact, our very first glimpse of Vuthy in Michael Golamco’s Year Zero is of a shaggy-haired, hugely bespectacled teenager rapping about his life to said skull. “Everywhere I look, all I see is ghosts,” he syncopates to the prerecorded beats of a cassette tape. “All around me up in here, all I see is ghosts.”
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Drama, WOW!

FUNNY GIRL

posted on June 3rd, 2011 at 12:48 AM by Steven Stanley


If the best reason to see Broadway’s Funny Girl in 1964 could be summed up in a name (Barbra Streisand, for those living under a rock), then the same can be said for its current revival at Downey Civic Light Opera. That name is Karen Volpe, the triple threat who first caught this reviewer’s attention as Ado Annie in DCLO’s Oklahoma! a few years back and now dazzles in the proverbial role of a lifetime.
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posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, WOW!

LUV

posted on June 2nd, 2011 at 10:57 AM by Steven Stanley


This out-and-out hilarious blend of the absurd, the romantic, and the slapstick opens with a chance late night meeting between old school chums Harry Berlin (Michael Goldstrom) and Milt Manville (Rob Roy Cesar), reunited on a big city bridge for the first time in fifteen years. An overjoyed Milt can’t wait to update Harry on his life, which includes a wife, a home in the suburbs, a twenty-two carat gold watch, a designer suit, silk underwear, the works. As for his college friend’s sorry state of affairs, the crummily dressed Harry gives him the bad news. “It couldn’t be worse. I’m at the end of the line. Everything’s falling apart.” The worst of the worst had to be when a fox terrier peed all over the poor schlump’s gabardine pants, then turned right around and walked off. That’s why tonight, Harry confesses, “I was going to end it all, make one last stupid gesture of disgust and … that would be it.”
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posted in Comedy, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

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