AMADEUS

posted on June 18th, 2010 at 8:39 PM by Steven Stanley


For the past several years, August Viverito and T L Kolman have been stripping down big stage, big budget Broadway productions to their brilliant essentials on the matchbox stage of the Chandler Studio Theatre in North Hollywood. Now, to the ranks of their superb downscalings of M Butterfly, Equus, and Sweeney Todd can be added The Production Company’s equally outstanding re-envisioning of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

AIN’T WE GOT FUN

posted on June 18th, 2010 at 7:40 PM by Steven Stanley


Ain’t We Got Fun, Ben Hensley and Michael Montiel’s nostalgic look back at early 20th Century vaudeville, makes for forty-five of the brightest minutes you’re likely to enjoy this year. 
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical Revue, WOW!

A SHAYNA MAIDEL

posted on June 17th, 2010 at 7:33 PM by Steven Stanley


On the surface, Rose White would appear to be the quintessential All American New Yorker circa 1946. She has her own West Side apartment, a good job, a fashionable wardrobe, and an independent lifestyle. Scratch a little deeper, however, and you’ll discover that Rose White is European-born Rayzel Weiss, the daughter of Polish Jews born just a decade before Hitler’s rise to power. Papa Mordechai and four-year-old Rose emigrated to America in the mid-1920s, but older sister Lusia came down with scarlet fever shortly before the family’s planned departure, so Mama and Lusia stayed behind. Then came the Nazis, and mother and daughter were shipped off to Auschwitz along with everyone else in their extended family. Only Lusia survived. Now, a year after the declaration of peace in Europe, older sister has come to America at last.
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posted in Drama, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

PATRICK STAFFORD

posted on June 15th, 2010 at 11:53 PM by Steven Stanley

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posted in Interview

DAS BARBECÜ

posted on June 14th, 2010 at 7:25 PM by Steven Stanley


Musical Theatre Guild concluded its 2009-10 season with a one-night-only concert staged reading of Das Barbecü, a show you’ve probably never heard of before, but one that proved a delightful discovery.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, WOW!

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS

posted on June 13th, 2010 at 10:51 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
The Relevant Stage, which bills itself as San Pedro’s Musical Theatre Company, has come a long way since Bat Boy, its freshman offering of a year and a half ago. Though its current production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels qualifies more as high-end community theater than as a fully professional staging of the Tony Award-winning hit, there are enough good to excellent performances (plus the show’s terrific songs and absolutely hilarious book) to make this an entertaining two and a half hours of wild and crazy fun.

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posted in Musical, Recommended, South Bay

GRACE AND GLORIE

posted on June 12th, 2010 at 10:45 AM by Steven Stanley


Take two very different individuals, put them in the same space over a period of days, weeks, or years, and watch how they change each other’s lives. This is a formula that has worked to perfection in the Colony Theatre’s critically acclaimed productions of Trying and Educating Rita. The same formula works its magic once again in Tom Ziegler’s Grace And Glorie, a gem of a “two hander” sure to be as much a critical and audience favorite as its predecessors, all three superbly helmed by director Cameron Watson.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy-Drama, WOW!

YELLOW

posted on June 11th, 2010 at 10:41 AM by Steven Stanley


It’s been four years since Del Shores’ Greatest Hits (Sordid Lives, Southern Baptist Sissies, and Trials And Tribulations Of A Trailer Trash Housewife) packed audiences into the Zephyr Theatre for eight memorable months, and over seven years since Shores’ last new play debuted. Since then, Shores and company have gone on to tour the country with the writer’s particular brand of Southern-fried charm and humor, and to produce Sordid Lives: The Series to considerable acclaim. Still, it’s been far too long since Angelinos have had the chance to experience the Shores magic live on stage.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

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