THE MALCONTENT

posted on May 6th, 2011 at 10:36 AM by Steven Stanley


An overthrown national leader sneaks back into to his country in disguise, hoping to engineer a return to power. To do so, he must match wits with the new leader’s ruthless, ambitious young protégé, who is having a secret affair with the new leader’s beautiful young wife, who is in turn being pursued by a second handsome, unprincipled schemer. And that’s just the start of two and a half hours of lust, intrigue, betrayal, passion and politics in John Marston’s The Malcontent.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

DRIVE

posted on May 4th, 2011 at 1:10 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Drive, Laura Black’s World Premiere comedy-drama running Wednesdays at Open Fist Theatre, starts out as its title suggests with a road trip, its lead character Peggy (Jane Hajduk) traveling up the I-5 with a pair of longtime lesbian friends. Only her frequent asides to the audience cue us in to the fact that things may not be as clear-cut as they might seem on the surface.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Recommended

THE COLUMBINE PROJECT

posted on May 1st, 2011 at 11:44 PM by Steven Stanley


Few L.A. theater projects have had quite the success (or the journey) of The Columbine Project, Paul Storiale’s meticulously researched docudrama about the Columbine High School massacre of 1999. World premiering in April of 2009 at the 48-seat Avery Schreiber Theatre in North Hollywood, The Columbine Project was extended twice before transferring to off-Broadway with unprecedented swiftness (and with the entire L.A. cast intact). Its July through October New York run at the Actors Temple Theatre was praised by the prestigious New Yorker magazine as a production which “fills the tiny, funky theatre with talent and gravity.” In December of the same year, the original North Hollywood production was awarded five ADA (Artistic Director Achievement) Awards including a Best Director award for its creator/writer/director Paul Storiale.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

DEE HOTY

posted on May 1st, 2011 at 10:10 PM by Steven Stanley

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posted in Interview, National Tour

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND

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

NOT RECOMMENDED

Theatre @ Boston Court’s Southern California Premiere of Fin Kennedy’s How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found has so much going for it, I wish I could say I enjoyed it more. Performances are superb, beginning with a tour de force star turn by Brad Culver. Direction by Nancy Keystone is imaginative and even inspired at times. Design elements, particularly John Zalewski’s striking sound design, are way up at the level of excellence theatergoers have come to expect @ Boston Court. The play was the first ever to win the prestigious John Whiting Award before being staged. British critics were ecstatic at the play’s World Premiere and I expect the Boston Court production will garner equal praise. And yet I failed to be engaged by its story or characters and in the end (and this is something I rarely say), I would have been happier accepting a different press invitation this past Sunday afternoon.
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posted in Drama, Not Recommended, Pasadena

I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER

posted on April 29th, 2011 at 12:06 AM by Steven Stanley


As long as there are parents and children and their accompanying relationship ups-and-downs, Robert Anderson’s I Never Sang For My Father will remain every bit as relevant to our times as the latest World Premiere drama. For proof positive, do not fail to catch The New American Theatre’s superb revival at the McCadden Place Theatre.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

HOUSE OF THE RISING SON

posted on April 28th, 2011 at 12:03 AM by Steven Stanley


“There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I’m one”

The New Orleans mansion Trent Varro shares with his father Garrett and grandfather Bowen may indeed prove the ruin of Felix Martin, or so it would seem when the young Angelino catches sight of the shocking tableau which ends Act One of Tom Jacobson’s World Premiere drama House Of The Rising Son. (No, the last word isn’t misspelled.)
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE

posted on April 27th, 2011 at 10:38 AM by Steven Stanley


Neil Simon revealed a considerably darker side than was his wont in his 1973 hit The Prisoner Of Second Avenue, which Jason Alexander now stars in at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre in a production that rivals the best of Broadway revivals.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

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