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!

DOUBTING THOMASON

posted on July 16th, 2011 at 6:47 AM by Steven Stanley


Los Angeles theater buffs may recall one of the biggest Ovation Award upsets ever, when the under-the-radar West Coast Premiere of Tracy Letts’ Killer Joe went on to win four crystal statuettes, including Best Production, Best Ensemble, and Best Direction. Far fewer will be aware that, at about the very same time as that production was set to open, another group of L.A. actors were rehearsing the very same play, only to discover a week before their own opening that someone else (the future Ovation winners) had the rights to Killer Joe—and they didn’t.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

MARY POPPINS

posted on July 15th, 2011 at 6:50 AM by Steven Stanley


Mary Poppins has soared into Costa Mesa (by umbrella of course), the arrival of the London/Broadway hit the best possible news for Los Angeles and Orange County children of all ages, from today’s kindergartners to the 50&60something Boomers who first fell in love with the 1964 Walt Disney film on which it is based. Heck, you can make that children in their nineties, Mary Poppins having first debuted way back in the 1930s as a series of novels by P.L. Travers.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

THE WEDDING SINGER

posted on July 14th, 2011 at 7:21 AM by Steven Stanley


The Wedding Singer may well be the most underrated Broadway musical of the last five years, and anyone wishing proof of the above has only to check out its regional professional premiere at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West. An adroitly concocted blend of music, comedy, and 1980s nostalgia, The Wedding Singer is also one of the most unabashedly romantic musicals ever, and an utter delight from start to finish.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, WOW!

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