THE DEVIL WITH BOOBS

posted on April 17th, 2009 at 5:41 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Open Fist Theatre Company’s West Coast Premiere of Dario Fo’s The Devil With Boobs is the kind of show that most people will either love or hate. I ended up pretty much in the middle. While I absolutely loved the performances, and found the show gorgeous to look at, I must confess to not having “gotten” Fo’s mishmash of styles, his nonstop use of vulgarity, and what seems often to be the antithesis of sophistication.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Recommended

SAVAGE IN LIMBO

posted on April 16th, 2009 at 5:44 PM by Steven Stanley


No one writes about New Yorkers, particularly those who reside in the Bronx, quite like John Patrick Shanley … and nowhere is this more true than in his “Concert Play” Savage In Limbo.  Fortunately for Shanley fans, the actors who make up the 68 Cent Crew have just the right look, attitude, and voice to bring the Oscar-Pulitzer-Tony-winning playwright’s quirky, entirely original characters to life. It’s hard to imagine an L.A. troupe more suited to stage Shanley’s 1986 tale of a quintet of 32-year-old bar denizens in search of love.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood

MAURITIUS

posted on April 14th, 2009 at 6:00 PM by Steven Stanley


A play about stamps. How boring, you might imagine. 

Wrong! 
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posted in Drama, Pasadena, WOW!

LITTLE WOMEN

posted on April 12th, 2009 at 9:46 PM by Steven Stanley


There’s scarcely a girl or woman alive who hasn’t at one time read Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Add to that the millions who’ve seen at least one of its filmings, whether 1933’s with Katharine Hepburn as Jo, or 1949’s with June Allyson, or 1994’s with Winona Ryder, and you have a built-in audience for Little Women The Musical.  L.A.’s Lyric Theatre scales down the Broadway production to 99-seat theater dimensions (a full orchestra becomes a single piano here), the more intimate setting providing a particularly appropriate fit for Alcott’s family tale.  A quartet of talented recent musical theater grads bring the four March sisters to vibrant life, surrounded by an all-around excellent supporting cast to make for an evening of theater sure to enchant not only Little Women’s legion of fans but just about any musical theater aficionado.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, WOW!

OUR MOTHER’S BRIEF AFFAIR

posted on April 12th, 2009 at 6:05 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Seth and Abby are adult twins whose mother has kept a secret from them most of their lives. When the two siblings were in their early teens, Anna had a brief affair.  It’s only now, with the twins entering their forties, that the truth has come out.  Or is it the truth? Anna is an Alzheimer’s patient, and the tale she tells may be actual memory, or imagination, or a combination of both.
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posted in Drama, Orange County, Recommended

GOTHMAS

posted on April 11th, 2009 at 6:08 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

When a show’s pre-performance announcements include the warning “Rated R for adult situations and fucking,” you know you’re in for something different. That something is Gothmas, billed as a “dark, holiday, horror, bisexual, romantic, funny, feel-weird rock musical for the whole family (no children).”  The show is indeed dark, and features holidays from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to Valentine’s Day—and horror (one character is axed to bits). A few characters are gay and one is bi.  It’s sometimes quite funny (in a weird sort of way), and the songs have a grunge rock sound to them. It’s certainly not for children nor is it likely for the average L.A. theater audience, but those who’ve made The Rocky Horror Show a cult hit may eat it up.
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, Not Recommended

BRIGADOON

posted on April 11th, 2009 at 3:22 PM by Steven Stanley


Anyone wondering where to see great musical theater without having to pay a fortune would do well to check out the USC Theater Department’s upcoming schedule.  If the just closed production of Lerner and Lowe’s Brigadoon is any example, USC’s theater kids are some of the best musical theater performers around, and working under famed professionals like director John Rubinstein and choreographer Troy Magino, they are doing sensational work indeed.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, WOW!

STICK FLY

posted on April 10th, 2009 at 6:12 PM by Steven Stanley


The wealthy LeVay family are having a weekend get-together at their Martha’s Vineyard home away from (Manhattan) home. Housekeeper’s daughter Cheryl is removing slipcovers just in time for younger son Kent to arrive with fiancée Taylor, who is awestruck at the home’s opulence. “I was going to marry you for love,” Taylor tells her handsome beau with a smile, “but now I’m going to marry you for money.” Next to arrive is older son Flip, a successful plastic surgeon, soon to be joined by Kimber, his latest girlfriend.  Last to show up is patriarch Dr. Joseph LeVay, who greets Taylor with old world manners—a slight bow and a kiss on the hand. Absent from the weekend gathering are Mrs. LeVay and Cheryl’s mother, for reasons that will eventually become clear. Over the next day or two, family secrets will be revealed and no one will prove to be quite the person he or she has seemed on first impression.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

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