THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG

posted on October 9th, 2010 at 10:02 AM by Steven Stanley


Two years after Neil Simon’s semi-autobiographical Chapter Two chronicled the widowed playwright’s second-chanceat-happiness marriage to Marsha Mason, his They’re Playing Our Song brought to the Broadway stage a fictionalized version of another real-life romance, that of songwriting partners Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, this time told as a musical comedy featuring a dozen original songs by the selfsame team.
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posted in Musical, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

THE BUTCHER OF BARABOO

posted on October 8th, 2010 at 10:00 AM by Steven Stanley


The Coen Brothers meet Beth Henley in Marisa Wegrzyn’s The Butcher Of Baraboo, a quirky bit of Fargo crossed with Crimes Of The Heart, now getting its Los Angeles premiere at North Hollywood’s The Road Theater Company.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

KURT VONNEGUT’S SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE

posted on October 7th, 2010 at 1:32 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
“You’ll either love it, or push it back in the science-fiction corner,” opined the New York Times in its 1969 review of Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war sci-fi novel Slaughterhouse Five. The same can probably be said about its theatrical adaptation by Eric Simonson, now getting its first West Coast production fourteen years after its World Premiere at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Theatergoers unfamiliar with Vonnegut’s dense, epic tale, or those whose tastes run towards realistic, linear storytelling rather than the avant-garde or experimental may choose to pass on Action Theatre’s intimate staging, despite its generally fine acting and imaginative direction by Tiger Reel. On the other hand, Vonnegut fans will want to check out how adapter Simonson manages to compact Slaughterhouse Five down to an intermission-free ninety minutes of live theater.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Recommended

PETER PAN

posted on October 6th, 2010 at 1:23 PM by Steven Stanley


No matter how many Peter Pans you’ve seen, you’ve never seen a Peter Pan nearly as thrilling as threesixty’s Peter Pan. Its producers tout the production’s “500 tons of tent and equipment, 100 cast and crew, and 400 square miles of computer generated imagery on a screen the size of 3 IMAX theaters.” Previous reviewers have called it “spectacular,” “thrilling,” “breathtaking,” “joyous,” “mesmerizing,” and “magical.” It’s all of this, and laugh-out-loud funny to boot.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, National Tour, Orange County, WOW!

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST’S WIFE

posted on October 5th, 2010 at 9:53 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Things haven’t been going all that well recently for New York matron Marjorie Taub. The death of her beloved therapist has left her with a feeling she describes as “Perdu. Utter damnation. The loss of my soul.” Though the Disney Store has fortunately decided not to press charges for the six porcelain figures she just happened to drop following her shrink’s memorial service, Marjorie can’t seem to get off the living room sofa and attend her usual mix of lectures, gallery exhibits, and opera symposiums. “I’m a fraud,” she moans to her allergist husband Ira. “A cultural poseur. To quote Kaafka, ‘I am a cage in search of a bird’”
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posted in Comedy, Downey/La Mirada, Recommended

THE ELEPHANT MAN

posted on October 4th, 2010 at 6:39 PM by Steven Stanley


When most people hear the title The Elephant Man, they likely recall David Lynch’s 1980 film, which received 8 Academy Award nominations, including one for John Hurt’s unforgettable leading performance. 
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

IN THE NEXT ROOM (or the vibrator play)

posted on October 3rd, 2010 at 12:50 PM by Steven Stanley


It’s the late 1800s and Sabrina Daldry is exhibiting symptoms that concern her considerably older husband. Light has been bothering Sabrina lately, and she cries at the drop of her heavily veiled hat. A consultation with a certain Dr. Givings reveals the cause of her ailments: hysteria. (A contemporary doctor would probably diagnose her condition as depression resulting from sexual frustration.) Fortunately, Dr. Givings has just the treatment to cure Sabrina of her ills, a device made possible by the recent arrival of electric current into New York’s wealthier homes. A two or three-minute application of this vibrating apparatus to Sabrina’s private parts, plus a bit of digital stimulation administered by the doctor’s faithful nurse Annie, provides an almost instantaneous improvement in Sabrina’s mental state (along with a number of moans and gasps of pleasure), and she eagerly agrees to return for daily treatments.
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posted in Comedy, Orange County, WOW!

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF HEDDA GABLER

posted on October 2nd, 2010 at 10:13 AM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

A crackerjack theatrical design can make the difference between a very good production and a great one, and can sometimes even make a so-so script seem better than it actually is. I loved Jeff Whitty’s surrealistic comedy The Further Adventures Of Hedda Gabler when I caught its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in January of 2006. Having now seen it for the second time at Santa Monica’s Morgan-Wixson Theatre, I begin to wonder how much of my enjoyment of Hedda’s adventures in the afterlife came as a result of SCR’s superb set, lighting, and sound design. Take these away from the play, and what ends up on stage is something considerably less successful, despite a committed director and cast.
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posted in Comedy, Not Recommended, West Side/Beverly HIlls

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