BOYS’ LIFE

posted on August 5th, 2010 at 12:33 AM by Steven Stanley


Howard Korder writes insightfully—and hilariously—about the male psyche in his 1988 comedy Boys’ Life, smashingly revived (and smoothy updated to the 21st Century) by Crown City Theatre Company. Impeccably acted and directed, this is a production which ought to disprove once and for all any notion of Los Angeles not being the great theater town it is. 
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

IN THE HEIGHTS

posted on August 3rd, 2010 at 12:28 AM by Steven Stanley

When West Side Story premiered on Broadway in 1957, one might have assumed that sometime over the following half century, another hit Broadway musical would center on Latino life in New York City, or on Latino life anywhere for that matter. It would, after all, make sense for a musical as revolutionary as West Side Story to engender others that followed its ground-breaking example, right?
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posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, WOW!

DANNY BOLERO

posted on August 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 PM by Steven Stanley

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posted in Interview

THE GOOD BOOK OF PEDANTRY AND WONDER

posted on August 1st, 2010 at 12:21 AM by Steven Stanley


In 1879, British lexicographer James Murray was hired by Oxford University Press to edit a new dictionary of the English language, a task expected to take about ten years and result in a 7,000-page tome. Holed up in a corrugated-iron garden shed on the grounds of Mill Hill School, Murray began the monumental undertaking with the help of a small team of assistants. Neither the linguist nor the dons of Oxford could have imagined that it would take until 1928 for the dictionary to be completed (nearly a decade after Murray’s death) and that the final product would end up a twelve-volume tome instead of the initially planned four volumes.
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posted in Drama, Pasadena, WOW!

WEST SIDE STORY

posted on July 31st, 2010 at 12:24 PM by Steven Stanley


If ever a Broadway musical deserved to be called a classic, that musical is West Side Story.  What must Broadway audiences have felt as they first discovered it back in 1957?  This was, after all, a Broadway whose most recent Tony-winners were My Fair Lady, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game.  What must audiences who were accustomed to this sunny fare have thought about a show whose leading man and leading lady didn’t have the proverbial happy ending, and whose characters lived dismal lives in the worst parts of Manhattan and hated anyone whose differences threatened their go-nowhere existences? What must they have thought about Leonard Bernstein’s jazzy, operatic score, about Stephen Sondheim’s poetic lyrics, about Arthur Laurents’ Romeo and Juliet inspired book, and above all about Jerome Robbins’ truly revolutionary choreography? How must West Side Story have rocked the world of those Eisenhower-era 1950s New Yorkers and, even more so, of the out-of-towners who make up so much of a Broadway show’s audience?
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posted in Musical, Santa Barbara County, WOW!

THE EXISTENTS

posted on July 30th, 2010 at 12:19 PM by Steven Stanley


If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to witness the coming together—and ultimate breakup—of a superstar rock band like, say, Fleetwood Mac, you won’t want to miss The Existents, the new rock musical by Ty Taylor, Douglas Crawford, and Jason Wooten.  
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, WOW!

BEDROOM FARCE

posted on July 28th, 2010 at 12:12 PM by Steven Stanley


Alan Ayckbourn is back at the Odyssey Theatre, the British playwright’s West Los Angeles “home away from home,” with his 1975 smash Bedroom Farce, While not exactly a farce per se (there are no slamming doors or mistaken identities), Bedroom Farce nonetheless provides two hours of frothy fun, particularly in its wild-and-crazy second act.
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posted in Comedy, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

HAIRSPRAY

posted on July 25th, 2010 at 10:51 AM by Steven Stanley


Following over six years (and a grand total of 2642 performances) on Broadway and several Equity and non-Equity National Tours, the smash hit musical Hairspray has at last been made available to theaters across the country, and San Diego Repertory Theatre has scored big in getting the rights to its Southern California Regional Theater Premiere, making for a delightful, often outstanding production directed with assurance and flair by Sam Woodhouse and featuring actors who put their own stamp on John Waters’ memorable characters and Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s tuneful songs.
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posted in Musical, San Diego County, WOW!

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