THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

posted on June 1st, 2011 at 3:31 PM by Steven Stanley


Of all the hit Broadway musicals of the past decade, there’s none more terrifically fit for school productions than The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. To begin with, it offers student actors a grand total of nine leading roles, each of which has at least one star-turn song and all of which provide ample opportunities for performers to strut their triple-threat talents. In addition, the show’s central conceit (that its elementary school-aged spellers are to be brought to life by actors in their twenties) means that not only its six pre-teen spellers but its three adult characters as well can be played by performers twenty-two and under. Merge this with a BFA program as esteemed as that of UC Irvine and the result is one of the very best Spelling Bees you’re likely to see anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

NO WORD IN GUYANESE FOR ME

posted on May 29th, 2011 at 10:40 AM by Steven Stanley


Anna Khaja returns to the stage in Wendy Graf’s powerful solo piece No Word In Guyanese For Me, the recent Ovation-award winner bringing to vivid life a young Guyanese who discovers after her family’s move to New York City that she is a lesbian—and that there is no word in her native language for the person she is.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Solo Performance, WOW!

FINDING THE BURNETT HEART

posted on May 29th, 2011 at 1:22 AM by Steven Stanley


You’d think by now there’d be no need for yet another teenage coming out story, nor would you be likely to expect a playwright to have anything new to offer on the subject.

You’d be wrong.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy-Drama, WOW!

iGHOST

posted on May 28th, 2011 at 10:13 AM by Steven Stanley


The halls of Canterville Chase are alive with the sounds of spirits in Doug Haverty and Adryan Russ’s tunefully entertaining new musical iGhost, now getting its World Premiere at the Lyric Theatre.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, WOW!

100 SAINTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

posted on May 27th, 2011 at 5:15 PM by Steven Stanley


Matters of love, sex, faith, and family are explored with utmost originality in Kate Fodor’s engrossing, deeply moving 100 Saints You Should Know, now getting an impeccable West Coast Premiere at the Elephant Theatre Company under the inspired direction of Lindsay Allbaugh.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

FERNANDO RICHARDSON’S TREACHEROUS BRAIN

posted on May 26th, 2011 at 1:14 AM by Steven Stanley


Fernando Richardson’s brain surgery is tomorrow, but the 40ish building contractor doesn’t seem all that worried. “Doctor was just here,” he tells his wife Kate and best friend Patrick. “Said I may not remember people for a few days. I may be really confused.” The Fernando who emerges from the operating room is more than merely confused however, or so his family and friends will soon discover in Fernando Richardson’s Treacherous Brain, now playing Thursdays at Open Fist Theatre.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood

THREE DAYS OF RAIN

posted on May 24th, 2011 at 11:01 AM by Steven Stanley


Tony-winning playwright Richard Greenberg might well have called his fourteenth play Sins Of The Fathers, so heavily do the sins (or at least the perceived sins) of Walker Janeway’s parents continue to weigh on the life of this angry young man in Three Days Of Rain, now getting a pitch-perfect revival at South Coast Repertory, the same theater that world premiered it in 1997.
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posted in Drama, Orange County, WOW!

STANDING ON CEREMONY: THE GAY MARRIAGE PLAYS

posted on May 23rd, 2011 at 10:53 AM by Steven Stanley


Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays is back—in a terrific new venue and featuring a hilarious newcomer to its roster of one acts. What hasn’t changed is the excitement of both its concept and its execution.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

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