CRIMES OF THE HEART

posted on May 1st, 2010 at 5:41 PM by Steven Stanley


It’s probably a toss-up as to which group of Southern women are the more famous, the gals who get their hair done at Truvy’s in Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias or the Magrath sisters of Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Crimes Of The Heart. In either case, those with a fondness for Henley’s quirky Mississippi siblings will be happy to know that they are alive and well and performing nightly at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre.
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posted in Comedy, Ventura County, WOW!

HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES

posted on April 30th, 2010 at 9:32 PM by Steven Stanley


In the musical theater classic Gypsy, strippers Mazeppa, Electra, and Tessie Tura sing, “You gotta have a gimmick if you wanna get ahead.” No playwright would seem to have taken this advice more seriously than prolific British comedy scribe Alan Ayckbourn, whose hit plays almost always have a gimmick.
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posted in Comedy, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

TROG AND CLAY: AN IMAGINED HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC CHAIR

posted on April 29th, 2010 at 2:14 PM by Steven Stanley


Michael Vukadinovich’s Trog And Clay: An Imagined History Of The Electric Chair may well be one of the funniest plays ever written about actual events, the ingenious playwright having turned the rivalry between electricity pioneers Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse (which led to the first ever execution by electrocution in the U.S.) into a hilarious fact-based absurdist historical farce.
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posted in Comedy, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

FULLY COMMITTED

posted on April 28th, 2010 at 9:30 PM by Steven Stanley


If you haven’t heard that one before, Sam Peliczowski probably has.  Sam is, you see, a struggling New York-based actor with the worst restaurant job in the Big Apple. Stuck deep down in a tiny basement cell, Sam is the reservations clerk for one of the city’s most shi-shi établissements.  No chance for Sam to be seen by directors, producers, casting people.  No chance for him to meet women (or men, if he happens to swing that way). No chance to get even the measliest of tips.
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posted in Comedy, Long Beach/San Pedro, Solo Performance, WOW!

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT

posted on April 27th, 2010 at 9:26 PM by Steven Stanley


It’s taken me twenty-eight years to see my first production of 1982’s Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (and even longer if you count the show’s pre-Broadway incarnations), and now, having finally experienced the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical on the great big stage of the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, it’s rainbow clear to me why the Joseph has become an international phenomenon.  The show is one hundred minutes of pure, unadulterated, Technicolor music and fun.
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posted in Musical, South Bay, WOW!

NINE

posted on April 25th, 2010 at 9:22 PM by Steven Stanley


When Rob Marshall’s movie adaptation of Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston’s Nine came out last year, many reviewers and moviegoers shook their heads. Could this film (rated a mere 6.2 by imdb.com users and a dismal 49/100 by major media reviewers*) actually have been nominated for twelve Tonys and won five (including Best Musical and Best Score) when it debuted as a Broadway musical in 1982? What did the original show have that Marshall’s movie lacked?
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posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

WELCOME HOME JENNY SUTTER

posted on April 25th, 2010 at 9:18 PM by Steven Stanley


Jenny Sutter is the newest kind of wounded war vet—a female United States Marine who, just like her male counterparts did four decades ago upon returning home from an unpopular war in Southeast Asia, has no idea how she can possibly fit back into a “normal” life after the hell she experienced in Iraq.
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posted in Drama, Orange County, WOW!

STARMITES

posted on April 24th, 2010 at 9:15 PM by Steven Stanley


Here’s a trivia question for all you musical theater buffs out there. Name a Broadway musical (within the last quarter century) nominated for six Tony awards including Best Musical—that absolutely no one has heard of.
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posted in Musical, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

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