THE ALTRUIST

posted on January 19th, 2026 at 11:19 AM by Steven Stanley

A promising if rather grim dark comedy premise yields less than satisfying results in Bill Fitzhugh’s “New Play with Music” The Altruist, a World Premiere production at North Hollywood’s the Group Rep.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Theater Review, World Premiere

THE CLUB OF BROKEN FASTS

posted on January 11th, 2026 at 1:09 PM by Steven Stanley


John Hughes meets William Shakespeare in Phil S. Gould’s Hollywood Fringe Festival hit The Club Of Broken Fasts, now completing its all-too-short three-performance-only reprise at the Long Beach Playhouse.
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posted in Comedy, Long Beach/San Pedro, Theater Review, WOW!

THE NOTEBOOK THE MUSICAL

posted on January 9th, 2026 at 12:39 PM by Steven Stanley


Exquisitely staged and performed, the best-selling novel-turned-movie blockbuster-turned Broadway crowd-pleaser The Notebook The Musical, now visiting the Pantages, is the most unabashedly romantic musical since The Bridges Of Madison County, not coincidentally another Nicholas Sparks novel-turned-Hollywood blockbuster, and I loved every gloriously sung and heartstrings-tugging moment of it.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, National Tour, Theater Review, WOW!

A VERY DIE HARD CHRISTMAS

posted on December 22nd, 2025 at 6:37 PM by Steven Stanley

The tenth incarnation of Theatre Unleashed’s A Very Die Hard Christmas, Josh Carson’s deliciously clever spoof of the Bruce Willis megasmash as seen through a Saturday Night Live lens (with puppets and songs thrown in for hilarious measure), may lack the production design pluses of its earlier North Hollywood incarnations, but the laughs keep coming fast and furious at Hollywood’s Hobgoblin Playhouse as part of this year’s Frosty Fest.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical Spoof, Theater Review

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

posted on December 21st, 2025 at 12:13 PM by Steven Stanley


A production design that just keeps getting more gorgeous, staging that gets more and more inventive year after year, new songs and harmonies to make it seem almost a musical, and cast additions that only add to the magic… For these reasons and more, there’s no A Christmas Carol in town that comes close to matching A Noise Within’s one-of-a-kind take on the Charles Dickens classic.
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posted in Pasadena, Play With Songs, Returning Production, Theater Review, WOW!

HEISENBERG

posted on December 20th, 2025 at 10:55 AM by Steven Stanley


Heisenberg, Simon Stephens’s odd-couple romcom with philosophical underpinnings, now makes for a fascinating and ultimately quite moving ninety minutes of intimate theater in Los Feliz under Cameron Watson’s inspired direction.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, Two-Hander, WOW!

FROST MY LIFE

posted on December 17th, 2025 at 1:03 PM by Steven Stanley


With a whopping 40 new Hallmark Christmas Movies debuting this holiday season (not to mention 5 more premiering on Netflix), the time could hardly be riper for Wisteria Theater Company’s off-the wall-wacky, R-rated musical parody Frost My Life.
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posted in Musical Spoof, North Hollywood, Not Recommended, Theater Review, WOW!

A SLEIGHFUL OF SONGS

posted on December 15th, 2025 at 9:13 AM by Steven Stanley


Over a half dozen Theatre West member and a bevy of special invited guests joined vocal talents for four performances only of A Sleighful Of Songs, and at the risk of repeating myself, like So Many Stars two Decembers ago, this was the most glorious seventy-five minutes of songs, songs, and more songs I’ve seen and heard all year.
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posted in Cabaret/Concert/Variety, Los Angeles, Theater Review, WOW!

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