StageSceneLA

NEVER LAND

posted on October 8th, 2009 at 10:12 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

Take some of L.A.’s finest actors, including the extraordinary Shannon Holt, the ever reliable William Dennis Hunt, and Lisa Pelikan, so memorable as Amanda Wingfield in the Colony Theatre production of The Glass Menagerie a few years back. Surround them with a design team made up of some of our city’s most gifted artists, Jared A. Sayeg on lighting and Cricket S. Myers on sound, to name just two. Then, saddle them with one of the longest and most perplexing plays you’re likely to see this or any year and the result is Phyllis Nagy’s Never Land, a production that seemed to me as if it would Never End.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Not Recommended

STEEL MAGNOLIAS

posted on October 6th, 2009 at 10:20 PM by Steven Stanley

Steel Magnolias: (n) any of those Southern women whose delicate exterior hides a tough-as-nails core

Anyone who’s seen the star-studded 1989 movie adaptation of Robert Harling’s off-Broadway play doesn’t need to consult Websters to know what a Steel Magnolia is. We all remember Sally Field’s M’Lynn, whose petite stature belied her inner strength in the face of tragedy, or Shirley MacLaine’s Ouiser, the curmudgeon with a marshmallow heart hidden deep inside. On the other hand, no matter how many times you’ve seen the movie or watched it on DVD (and laughed and cried at all the most memorable moments), seeing the original Harling play live on stage is a treat, and when performed by a cast as all-around terrific as the one assembled at the La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts, the treat is a tasty one indeed.
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posted in Comedy, Downey/La Mirada, WOW!

THE HAPPY ONES

posted on October 4th, 2009 at 10:33 PM by Steven Stanley

It’s 1975 in sunny Garden Grove, California, and Walter Wells is one of The Happy Ones. With his own business, a home in the suburbs, and a wife and two young children, things couldn’t be better for Walter, a man living the quintessential American Dream. “Beautiful women. Beautiful children. Great neighbors. Fantastic jobs. Gorgeous weather.” Walter and his fellow Garden Grovians could hardly imagine a world any different from the one in which they live such perfect lives.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Orange County, WOW!

SAMMY

posted on October 4th, 2009 at 10:23 PM by Steven Stanley

Say the name Sammy to anyone over a certain age and the first (and perhaps the only) person to come to mind will be the one and only Sammy Davis Jr. It’s therefore entirely fitting that Davis’s musical biography, now playing to audience cheers at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre, should be titled Sammy. Just Sammy. Simply Sammy. A name that is synonymous with entertainment.
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posted in Musical, San Diego County, WOW!

SWEENEY TODD

posted on October 3rd, 2009 at 10:34 PM by Steven Stanley

Anyone in need of proof that theatrical miracles can indeed take place in our fair city need look no further than The Production Company’s miraculous new revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd—miraculous because who could possibly imagine Sondheim’s big-stage, big-cast musical scaled down to a stage area about one-tenth the size of the Ahmanson’s with a cast totaling only ten—and having it work to near perfection?
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, WOW!

MY FAIR LADY

posted on October 2nd, 2009 at 10:37 PM by Steven Stanley

When My Fair Lady opened on Broadway in 1956, Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times called it “one of the best musicals of the century,” quite a proclamation for a century that still had 44 years left to go. Still, looking back these 53 years later, it’s clear as crystal that even if My Fair Lady had opened in 1999, Atkinson’s rather bold statement would have been as spot-on as it was mid-century. In fact, as Downey Civic Light Opera 2009-2010 season-opening revival of the musical theater classic proves, there may indeed be no better 20th Century musical than My Fair Lady.
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posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, WOW!

THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP

posted on October 1st, 2009 at 10:44 PM by Steven Stanley

Begin as your inspiration with Alfred Hitchcock & Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca. (A young woman arrives at a grand and stately manor, the second wife of its handsome owner, only to be surrounded by memories of wife number one, particularly those brought up by the mansion’s housekeeper.) Add a smidgen of The Werewolf. (Among the household staff is a hunchback swineherd who turns half man/half wolf whenever there’s a full moon.) Spice with a dash of Dracula. (Another household worker is rumored to be one of those “beings who never die,” and we all know what that means.) Sprinkle in a tad of The Mummy. (Our widowed, remarried hero journeys to Cairo where his presence brings a long-dead Egyptian you-know-what back to life.) Mix all this together and the resulting soufflé is Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery Of Irma Vep, a hilarious homage to 1930s/40s Hollywood melodrama.
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