THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

posted on March 4th, 2009 at 1:12 AM by Steven Stanley


I’ve been known to say that I’m not the world’s biggest Shakespeare fan. In last December’s review of Love’s Labor’s Lost, I confessed that “I often get lost in his convoluted plots, whole chunks of dialog whizzing past me or over my head without really sinking in.”  Well, just as I thoroughly enjoyed Love’s Labor’s Lost last December, I’m happy to report that I absolutely loved The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble and Circus Theatrical’s new production of The Taming Of The Shrew.  It only took the first lines of dialog for me to have that “Eureka!” moment of thinking, “Wow, I’m actually understanding everything they’re saying, and it’s funny to boot!”  Precisely what audiences in Shakespeare’s time must have been thinking when Shakespeare’s verse was not that far removed from actual contemporary speech.
(read more)

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

TENNESSEE IN THE SUMMER

posted on March 3rd, 2009 at 1:27 AM by Steven Stanley


Tennessee Williams was a complicated man, to say the least.  Not the nicest person to be around. Putting it mildly, he was a screwed-up mess, or at least that’s how he comes across in Joe Besecker’s Tennessee In The Summer.  Still, there are far less interesting people to spend an hour and a half with than the multi-award-winning playwright, especially as brought to vivid and complex life by Dan Alemshah in the ”member-initiated production” currently playing Tuesdays through Thursdays at West Coast Ensemble under Justin French’s assured direction. 
(read more)

posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL

posted on March 1st, 2009 at 1:28 AM by Steven Stanley


Long before Bruce Wayne concocted a secret identity for himself in order to fight evil and wrongdoers as Batman, an 18th Century English baronet named Sir Percy Blakeney disguised himself as The Scarlet Pimpernel. His goal—to rescue French aristocrats from the blade of the dreaded guillotine.
(read more)

posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, WOW!

DOUBLE INDEMNITY

posted on February 28th, 2009 at 11:28 AM by Steven Stanley


Adapting Double Indemnity for a 99-seat theater could easily prove disastrous. Make the wrong directorial, acting, or design choices and the enterprise could easily turn into an unintentional sequel to Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, Steve Martin’s brilliant parody of film noir.
(read more)

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

MAKIN’ HAY

posted on February 27th, 2009 at 11:36 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
There’s no 99-seat theater company with a better track record for musicals than Actor’s Co-op.  Past productions of She Loves Me, Damn Yankees, Into The Woods, The Most Happy Fella, and last season’s brilliant 1776 are textbook examples of how to shrink a big stage, big cast Broadway show down to intimate theater dimensions without losing any of the original’s magic and allure.  This season, the Co-op has taken on the challenge of presenting a world premiere musical.
(read more)

posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Recommended

THE THREEPENNY OPERA

posted on February 26th, 2009 at 11:42 AM by Steven Stanley


Fans of The Threepenny Opera will be hard-pressed to find a better production of the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht classic than International City Theatre’s current revival. Directed with consummate vision and artistry by Jules Aaron, beautifully choreographed by Broadway’s Kay Cole, performed by a sensational cast accompanied by a masterful quintet of musicians, and designed by a SoCal “dream team,” this Threepenny Opera may well be ICT’s all-around best musical production in years.
(read more)

posted in Musical, WOW!

FINIAN’S RAINBOW

posted on February 23rd, 2009 at 11:45 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Brigadoon and Finian’s Rainbow both opened on Broadway in 1947.  Both had successful runs, Brigadoon playing 581 performances, Finian’s Rainbow beating it with 725.  Both were jam packed with hit songs.  From Brigadoon, you’ve probably heard the title song, Almost Like Being In Love, Come To Me, Bend to Me, and The Heather on the Hill. Finian’s Rainbow hits include How Are Things in Glocca Morra?, Look to the Rainbow, Old Devil Moon, and If This Isn’t Love.  Both shows featured Irish lead characters, and each became a major movie musical, Brigadoon starring Gene Kelly and Finian’s Rainbow starring Fred Astaire.  Broadway musicals don’t have better credits than these.

(read more)

posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, Recommended

OUR LEADING LADY

posted on February 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 AM by Steven Stanley


Comedienne extraordinaire Carol Burnett once said, “Comedy is tragedy plus time,” an adage which playwright Charles Busch proves spot-on in his hilarious backstage farce Our Leading Lady, now playing at The Neighborhood Playhouse in Palos Verdes Estates. The tragedy is the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln at Washington D.C.’s Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865, only days after Lee surrendered at Appomattox. In imagining the backstage shenanigans taking place in the hours leading up to that fateful performance of Our American Cousin, starring real-life actress-manager Laura Keene, Busch has written an outrageously funny play which finds comedy out of national tragedy—and serves as an affectionate love letter to the theater as well.
(read more)

posted in Comedy, South Bay, WOW!

Next PagePrevious Page