StageSceneLA

MAMMA MIA!

posted on June 21st, 2011 at 11:01 AM by Steven Stanley

Is there any show in the world that can rival the success of Mamma Mia!? Since its 1999 World Premiere in London’s West End, there have been at least 30 “sit-down” productions across the globe. Sydney, Las Vegas, Madrid, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Paris, and Oslo are just a handful of the cities where Mamma Mia has “sat down” and stayed for months or even years. Then there are the tours, beginning with the First U.S. tour that played the Ahmanson back in 2002, stretching up to the musical’s four current tours—North American, European, Japanese, and Korean. As for Mamma Mia!’s Broadway run, just a couple weeks ago it hit 4000 performances and counting. All this is to say that a) you shouldn’t expect your local CLO to mount its own production in the foreseeable future and b) if you want to see Mamma Mia! live on stage, you’d better head on down to Costa Mesa where the North American tour is making an all-too-brief one-week stop.
(read more)

posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, WOW!

THE WILD PARTY

posted on June 19th, 2011 at 11:13 AM by Steven Stanley

Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party is a tough show to nail. In fact, one of the few times I’ve left a production at intermission was a well-intentioned but mostly disastrous attempt at meeting TWP’s many challenges. That’s why Theatre Out’s intimate staging down Santa Ana way comes as such a thrilling surprise, one which marks director-choreographer Frankie Marrone as One To Watch and spotlights a revelatory performance by a never better Andrea Dennison-Laufer.
(read more)

posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

BASH’d: A GAY RAP OPERA

posted on June 18th, 2011 at 7:13 AM by Steven Stanley

If the words Gay Rap Opera sound to you like a three-way oxymoron, then you haven’t heard Feminem and T-Bag rap to the sounds of DJ Jedi in BASH’d: A Gay Rap Opera, now playing at Hollywood’s Celebration Theatre. Take rhymes like “Get off my fuckin’ back okay, I like to suck dick / Now fuck me in the ass and I’ll write rhymes about it,” set them to a gangsta beat, find a pair of hip-hopping triple threats like Sean Bradford and Chris Ferro to bust those rhymes, give the whole shebang one of the most exciting stagings in town, and you’ve got another great big Celebration hit to shout out about.
(read more)

posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, WOW!

FOUR CLOWNS: ROMEO AND JULIET

posted on June 18th, 2011 at 12:41 AM by Steven Stanley

When you think of clowns, you probably don’t think of Romeo And Juliet, and when you think of Romeo And Juliet, you probably don’t imagine Juliet telling her beloved, “You are the sun in the sky. I can’t wait for you to be that guy … who fucks me tonight.”
(read more)

posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

THE LAST FIVE YEARS

posted on June 17th, 2011 at 7:37 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
His story starts with their first meeting and ends with a farewell note left behind with his wedding ring. Her story begins when she finds the ring and reads the note. Only at the halfway point do the two 20something characters’ onstage lives coincide; only then do they sing to each other, look each other in the eyes, touch.
(read more)

posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Recommended

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: THE SONGS OF DAME SHIRLEY BASSEY

posted on June 16th, 2011 at 12:31 AM by Steven Stanley

Jennifer Leigh Warren and Shirley Bassey are a match made in entertainment heaven, or so you will discover in Diamonds Are Forever: The Songs Of Dame Shirley Bassey, Warren’s one-woman tribute to Britain’s most successful female artist ever.
(read more)