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!

THE YOUNG MAN FROM ATLANTA

posted on April 1st, 2011 at 11:08 AM by Steven Stanley


The love that dare not speak its name remains conspicuously unspoken in Horton Foote’s 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning The Young Man From Atlanta, at long last getting its splendid Los Angeles Premiere, directed by August Viverito for the multi-award winning The Production Company.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

posted on March 29th, 2011 at 5:26 PM by Steven Stanley


Any director tackling Shakespeare is likely to want to put his or her personal stamp on the tragedy or comedy in question, be it the gazillionth Hamlet or the ump-ump-umpteenth Taming Of The Shrew. Stephanie A. Coltrin is no exception, and under her imaginative direction, Hermosa Beach Playhouse’s Taming Of The Shrew becomes a broadly-played comedic delight.
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posted in Comedy, South Bay, WOW!

STANDING ON CEREMONY: THE GAY MARRIAGE PLAYS

posted on March 28th, 2011 at 4:50 PM by Steven Stanley


A rotating cast of Hollywood celebrities. Eight or nine short plays by some of the country’s finest playwrights. Tons of laughs and more than a few tears. And all this to promote the cause of marriage equality. What progressive theatergoer could pass up a chance like this?
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

RAFTA, RAFTA…

posted on March 27th, 2011 at 4:33 PM by Steven Stanley


Playwright Ayub Khan-Din takes an insightful comedic look at two British South Asian families in his delightful, cross-cultural comedy Rafta, Rafta… The 2008 Olivier Award winner for Best New Comedy, Rafta, Rafta… now gets its West Coast Premiere in a vibrant, colorful production at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre.
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posted in Comedy, San Diego County, WOW!

GROUNDSWELL

posted on March 27th, 2011 at 3:43 PM by Steven Stanley


The legacy of Apartheid lives on even today, two decades after the end of its ugly segregationist laws, in Groundswell, Ian Bruce’s ninety-minute psychological thriller now getting an absolutely swell Southern California production at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre.
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posted in Drama, San Diego County, WOW!

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