StageSceneLA

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

posted on September 18th, 2009 at 11:00 PM by Steven Stanley

In the days before Stephen Sondheim got serious with his 1970s hits Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, and Sweeney Todd, way back in the pre-Beatles early 60s, the soon-to-be multiple Tony Award-winner wrote A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Even now, forty-seven years later, this early Sondheim hit remains the perfect choice for those who complain that Sondheim is “too dark” or that his melodies are inaccessible. A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum is hilarious farcical fun, with no higher goal than to present “something for everyone, a comedy tonight.”
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posted in Musical, South Bay, WOW!

MATTHEW MODINE SAVES THE ALPACAS

posted on September 17th, 2009 at 3:42 PM by Steven Stanley

When a celebrity’s career has gone to pot, there’s nothing like a little humanitarian work to get him or her back on the A-List, or at least that’s what Matthew Modine has decided in Matthew Modine Saves The Alpacas, Blair Singer’s marvelously silly (and entertaining) mockumentary now diverting audiences at the Geffen.
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posted in Cabaret/Concert/Variety, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

ART

posted on September 16th, 2009 at 3:55 PM by Steven Stanley

“How do you like my new haircut?”
“Don’t you just love my new outfit?”
“What do you think about my new sunglasses?”

How many of us have not been asked one of these questions and been faced with the age-old dilemma—to tell the truth, i.e. the whole unpleasant truth, or to avoid trouble by telling a little white lie. “It looks marvelous on you! You’ve never looked better. I’m going right out to get some too!” How much easier it is to avoid hurting a friend’s feelings, and at the same time how frustrating and annoying, when what you really want is to tell your friend what an enormous mistake he or she has made.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF

posted on September 14th, 2009 at 3:59 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

Musical Theatre Guild takes rarely performed Broadway gems, casts them with L.A.’s finest musical theater triple-threats, rehearses them in a mere twenty-five hours, and performs them once or twice—almost fully staged though book-in-hand. The resulting “concert staged readings” have ended up being some of the most exciting shows I’ve reviewed over the past two years, most notably last year’s Kiss Of A Spider Woman and Violet, the latter of which featured Shannon Warne’s (one-night-only) Musical Theater Performance Of The Year. Even “problematic” shows like Seesaw have been worth a look-see, thanks to MTG’s superb casts, directors, choreographers, and musicians.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, Not Recommended

SECRETS OF A SOCCER MOM

posted on September 13th, 2009 at 4:04 PM by Steven Stanley

You don’t have to be the mother of a budding soccer star to enjoy Stillspeaking Theatre’s latest offering. Still, San Marino’s professional theater couldn’t have picked a better play for the community which surrounds it than Kathleen Clark’s Secrets Of A Soccer Mom. My guess is that the carpool set will love it. After all, even this single male reviewer with no particular interest in raising children, playing soccer, or watching children play soccer had a fine time getting to know its three title characters.
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posted in Comedy, San Gabriel Valley, WOW!

CITY OF ANGELS

posted on September 12th, 2009 at 4:15 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
For a theater company to have been in continuous operation for a record eighty-eight years, it must be doing something right. Whittier Community Theatre certainly is, and their latest production, City Of Angels, the Tony-winning Best Musical of 1989, is a perfect example of why WCT is the oldest non-profit amateur theater west of the Mississippi.
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posted in Musical, Recommended, San Gabriel Valley

F*CKING MEN

posted on September 11th, 2009 at 4:23 PM by Steven Stanley

With a title like F*cking Men and the promise of full frontal male nudity, the latest Celebration Theatre production will have no problem attracting audiences. Joe DiPietro’s modern gay twist on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1900 classic La Ronde has been filling seats in London for the past two years and counting. What WeHo theatergoers will be getting, however, is much more than merely a sexually explicit title and some briefly viewed private parts. DiPietro’s play, particularly as directed here by the justly admired Calvin Remsberg, is a witty, perceptive, absolutely engrossing look at gay relationships, both sexual and romantic. F*cking Men says much about the way gay men meet and mate, but audiences of either sex or any sexual orientation are likely to recognize themselves in at least one of DiPietro’s diverse cast of characters.
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