THE TRAGEDY OF KING RICHARD III

posted on November 18th, 2009 at 1:41 PM by Steven Stanley


No L.A.-area theater company does Shakespeare better than Glendale’s A Noise Within.  Fans of the Bard need only check out their latest production, The Tragedy Of King Richard III, for proof positive that ANW is indeed “California’s Home For The Classics.”  From its stellar cast of classically trained pros to its masterful direction by Geoff Elliott to its absolutely stunning design, this is a Richard III that’s beautifully acted, brilliantly conceived, and as exciting as any classic Hollywood adventure epic.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Drama, WOW!

SPRING AWAKENING

posted on November 17th, 2009 at 1:47 PM by Steven Stanley


The arrival of Spring Awakening at the Orange County Performing Arts Center is welcome news indeed for anyone who missed the Tony-winning smash in its initial Los Angeles run a year ago.  It’s equally exciting news for Spring Awakening fans like myself who simply couldn’t get enough of the Steven Sater/Duncan Sheik musical adaptation of Frank Wedenkind’s groundbreaking 1891 drama the first time around.
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posted in Musical, National Tour, Orange County, WOW!

THE VALUE OF NAMES

posted on November 16th, 2009 at 2:43 PM by Steven Stanley


Academy Award buffs will recall a dramatic moment in the 1999 Oscar ceremony when 89-year-old Elia Kazan, two-time Best Director winner (for Gentleman’s Agreement and On The Waterfront), was awarded a special lifetime achievement Oscar.  Though Warren Beatty, Kathy Bates, Karl Malden, Meryl Streep and Helen Hunt were among those who gave Kazan a standing ovation, others like Nick Nolte and Ed Harris remained seated, not joining in the applause.  Nolte, Harris, and those who shared their disapproval of the Academy for honoring Kazan remained unforgiving of the octogenarian director for having named names at the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. Even forty-seven years later, Kazan’s decision to aid and abet the blacklisting of some two hundred artists for alleged Communist connections was one that could not be forgotten.
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posted in Drama, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

THE HOUSE OF BESARAB

posted on November 15th, 2009 at 1:51 PM by Steven Stanley


Fans of those 1960s Hammer Films horror classics like Dracula: Prince Of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave, and Taste The Blood Of Dracula, all starring Christopher Lee as the blood-sucking Count, will be in Hammer Horror Heaven at The House Of Besarab, now playing at the historic Hollywood American Legion Post 43. Though Terance Duddy and Theodore Ott’s adaptation of the classic Bram Stoker tale does not set out to be Shakespeare, then again, neither did those Hammer screenplays by Jimmy Sangster and John Elder. What lifted the Technicolor/Techniscope extravaganzas out of the ordinary were their stellar casts (Christopher Lee later became SirChristopher Lee, thank you very much) and their lush settings.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

GRACE KIM & THE SPIDERS FROM MARS

posted on November 14th, 2009 at 2:01 PM by Steven Stanley


Lodestone Theatre Ensemble, L.A.’s decade-old Asian-American 99-seat theater company, is ending its tenth (and sadly final) season with Philip W. Chung’s romantic comedy Grace Kim & The Spiders From Mars. With charismatic lead performances by Elizabeth Ho as its Korean-American title character and Hanson Tse as the man who might just be able to rescue Grace from ten years of sadness, this World Premiere production is likely to please romcom fans regardless of ethnicity or country of origin.  Though its more run-of-the-mill sitcom moments could benefit from a tweaking or two, as could a few over-the-top scenes, Chung’s play is filled with characters to care about, some inspired musical numbers, and a love story that grips from the moment Grace and Wayne first meet.  If only the man of Grace’s dreams weren’t her sister’s fiancé.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy, WOW!

LA RONDE DE LUNCH

posted on November 13th, 2009 at 2:14 PM by Steven Stanley


Peter Lefcourt skewers Hollywood deal-making—brilliantly—in La Ronde De Lunch, the funniest show you’re likely to see this fall and one of the most terrifically performed comedies of this or any season.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

TREE

posted on November 12th, 2009 at 2:22 PM by Steven Stanley


The last thing Louisianan Didi Marcantel expects to find soon after the death of her father is a bunch of letters written to him over forty-years ago … love letters addressed to a woman he knew while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. Even more surprising is the discovery that her Caucasian father’s one-time lover was African American—back in the days when Jim Crow laws made interracial relationships not only “improper” but illegal as well. Tripling the effect of this surprise is the news that the union between Ray Marcantel and his beloved Jessalyn produced a child, Didi’s now 46-year-old half-brother Leo Price, father of Didi’s 20ish half-niece JJ.  
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

PO BOY TANGO

posted on November 11th, 2009 at 2:28 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
East meets West in Kenneth Lin’s Po Boy Tango, a culture-clash dramedy now getting its West Coast premiere at Little Tokyo’s East West Players. 
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, Recommended

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