42nd STREET

posted on May 29th, 2009 at 12:04 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
It’s always a pleasure to see a Downey Civic Light Opera production. I don’t know of another L.A. area CLO with Downey’s hometown feel. Downey residents have come to know DCLO’s resident cast of musical theater stars including Bill Lewis, Charlotte Carpenter, Ed Krieger, Ann Peck McBride, and Glenn Edward, all of whom have done show after show under the direction of Marsha Moode, DCLO’s Executive Producer extraordinaire.  Downey CLO concludes its 2008-2009 season with the ever popular 42nd Street, which just happens to star all of the above regulars under Moode’s as always inventive direction.
(read more)

posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical, Recommended

BABYLON HEIGHTS

posted on May 28th, 2009 at 12:07 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

WARNING: Language in this play and in my review is rated NC-17.
(read more)

posted in Comedy, Long Beach/San Pedro, Not Recommended

OKLAHOMA!

posted on May 27th, 2009 at 12:17 PM by Steven Stanley


As the overture reaches its climax, lights come up on a middle-aged woman sitting alone on stage working a butter churn. Behind the woman is a farmhouse and fields of corn as high as an elephant’s eye, and her full-length country dress tells us we are in the early 1900s.  From offstage comes a male voice singing a cappella, “There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow…” The voice grows louder until the man enters, wearing a cowboy hat and chaps. “Oh what a beautiful morning… Oh what a beautiful day,” serenades the man to the farm woman, who continues her churning.
(read more)

posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, WOW!

THE GREEN ROOM

posted on May 26th, 2009 at 12:30 PM by Steven Stanley


There’s some exciting news for High School Musical fans who’ve moved on to higher education.  College Musical has arrived!  Well, in actual fact the show in question is entitled The Green Room, but in many ways it’s like a PG-13 post-graduation spin-off of the über popular Disney franchise. Like HSM, this enjoyable world premiere features young, ready-for-their-close-up triple-threats who spend more time singing, dancing, and pairing up than doing their assignments. Then again, who would pay to see a show about homework?
(read more)

posted in Musical, South Bay, WOW!

JUSTIN MICHAEL DUVAL

posted on May 25th, 2009 at 2:52 PM by Steven Stanley

(read more)

posted in Interview

COLLECTED STORIES

posted on May 24th, 2009 at 12:34 PM by Steven Stanley


The mentor-pupil relationship of an acclaimed author of short stories and her most promising student is charted over a period of six years in Donald Margulies’ compelling drama Collected Stories.  Now returning with its original star to South Coast Repertory (where it had its world premiere in 1996), this much awaited revival proves a sterling example of big-stage professional theater at its best. 
(read more)

posted in Drama, Orange County, WOW!

COME BACK LITTLE HORNY

posted on May 23rd, 2009 at 12:38 PM by Steven Stanley


Meet the Maloneys, your average upper-middle class Palo Alto family: 
(read more)

posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

THE MIRACLE WORKER

posted on May 22nd, 2009 at 12:41 PM by Steven Stanley


Helen Keller.  Annie Sullivan.

Few Americans can hear these names without recalling William Gibson’s Tony-winning The Miracle Worker. It’s been fifty years since the now classic biodrama debuted on Broadway, so long ago that to today’s theatergoers, it seems scarcely possible that there was a time before this extraordinary true story became part of our consciousness.  Few are those who have not seen either the Oscar-winning 1962 film or its two TV remakes (Patty Duke won the Oscar (and Tony) for playing Helen and the Emmy for playing Annie) or one of its countless school or community theater productions. Major professional revivals are less common, though, all the more reason to greet Joel Daavid’s powerful new production with excitement.
(read more)

posted in Drama, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

Next PagePrevious Page