JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS

posted on April 10th, 2011 at 10:03 AM by Steven Stanley


When the musical revue Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris began its over four-year-long run off-Broadway in January of 1968, Jacques Brel was indeed still alive, and at the age of thirty-eight, one assumes still well and most likely still living in Paris.  Sadly, a little over ten years later, Brel was dead at forty-nine, a life ended much too soon.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical Revue, WOW!

FOOTLOOSE: THE MUSICAL

posted on April 10th, 2011 at 12:00 AM by Steven Stanley


If you’ve ever seen Kevin Bacon in Footloose, you’ve heard of Bomont, the Midwest town where high-schooler Ren McCormack discovered to his dismay that it was illegal to dance. The 1984 film introduced a heap of 80s hits, including the title song, “Let’s Hear It For the Boy,” “Almost Paradise,” “Holding Out For A Hero,” “I’m Free,” “Somebody’s Eyes,” and “The Girl Gets Around.” Fourteen years later Footloose made it to Broadway as a full-fledged musical, with most of the movie hits integrated into its story line and a bunch of new Tom Snow creations added. The resulting production ran for over 700 performances, and has since become a favorite high school and college musical.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

THE PRODUCERS

posted on April 8th, 2011 at 10:43 AM by Steven Stanley


Mel Brooks’ The Producers has arrived at Cabrillo Music Theatre with Michael Kostroff, Larry Raben, David Engel, and Sarah Cornell recreating the roles which won them raves two years ago at Musical Theatre West, and despite some flimsy-looking bus-and-truck sets this time around, the quartet’s sensational performances and those of an all-around terrific supporting cast make for a highly entertaining laugh-and-songfest.
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posted in Musical, Ventura County, WOW!

THE ESCORT

posted on April 7th, 2011 at 11:56 PM by Steven Stanley


The title character of Jane Anderson’s The Escort isn’t a policeman assigned to guard a VIP or an older bachelor providing a spare arm to a wealthy widow at a society function, and she’s not that Ford compact car that ceased production back in 2002. (That would just be silly.) The title character of Jane Anderson’s The Escort (getting its World Premiere at the Geffen Playhouse) is a young woman of the sort who used to be called a hooker, a lady of the evening, a whore, or just plain prostitute. That being said, the escort Anderson introduces us to in the person of actress Maggie Siff is so all-American adorable that any of those crude monikers would seem as out of place as a, well, as a whore in church on Sunday.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

JAMAICA, FAREWELL

posted on April 6th, 2011 at 10:14 AM by Steven Stanley


Check the local theater listings and it seems at times that every performer has an autobiographical solo show up his or her sleeve. Few solo shows, however, ever achieve the success of Debra Ehrhardt’s Jamaica, Farewell, with Rita Wilson (aka Mrs. Tom Hanks) as its above-the-title producer and Joel Zwick, the director of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and every single Hershey Felder one-man-show, at its helm.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Solo Performance, WOW!

SUMMER OF LOVE

posted on April 3rd, 2011 at 10:57 AM by Steven Stanley


I’ve no idea what the weather was like in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district the summer of 1967, but America’s political climate was hot indeed. The total number of U.S. troops in Vietnam had reached 475,000 with the number and size of anti-war demonstrations increasing in equal proportion on our home turf. Cleveland and Newark saw race rioting and looting in the streets and 7000 National Guard were brought in to restore law and order to a riot-ravaged Detroit. As for the San Francisco district known as The Haight, its streets and parks were full of “tribes” of pro-peace “flower children,” whose use of recreational drugs gave Haight-Ashbury the affectionately stoned nickname of “Hashbury.”
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, WOW!

BIG RIVER

posted on April 2nd, 2011 at 11:07 PM by Steven Stanley


Glendale Centre Theatre’s in-the-round stage provides the perfect setting for the 1985 Tony-winning Best Musical Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, placing the audience smack dab in the middle of the Mississippi with Huck and Tom’s self-propelled raft just yards away from even the farthest onlooker.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, WOW!

THE ALL NIGHT STRUT!

posted on April 2nd, 2011 at 11:04 PM by Steven Stanley


The fabulous sounds of 1940s swing, bebop, and jive are alive and well and living in Burbank as The Colony Theatre presents the musical revue The All Night Strut!, an entertaining follow-up to last year’s Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris and one that proves the axiom that when you’re on a revue roll, “Why mess with a good thing?”
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical Revue, WOW!

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