A MULHOLLAND CHRISTMAS CAROL

posted on November 21st, 2008 at 1:32 PM by Steven Stanley


Three minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam (located 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles) burst catastrophically, resulting in a flood which took over 600 lives. The dam had been the brainchild of William Mulholland (of Mulholland Drive fame), who masterminded the 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct to transport water south from the Owens Valley in Central California and helped to transform Los Angeles from a chaparral-covered desert to the city we know today.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, WOW!

INTO THE WOODS

posted on November 20th, 2008 at 1:36 PM by Steven Stanley


Since its Broadway premiere 21 years ago, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into The Woods has become one of the most performed musicals in the U.S.—in regional CLOs, on college and high school campuses, and in intimate theaters.  Its first act, which magically combines some of the best loved of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and its second, which explores with considerable depth what happens after “happily ever after,” make for a show which retains its freshness and originality two decades after it first captivated Broadway audiences.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, WOW!

PROBLEM CHILD

posted on November 16th, 2008 at 1:43 PM by Steven Stanley


The comedy is dark indeed in George F. Walker’s Problem Child, and thanks to Walker’s twisted take on life and a quartet of pitch-perfect performances, this Bella Productions/Actor’s Workout Studio production is black comedy at its blackest and funniest.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

SHANGHAI MOON

posted on November 15th, 2008 at 1:49 PM by Steven Stanley


Those who adhere to strict standards of political correctness should not, I repeat NOT see Shanghai Moon, Charles Busch’s spoof of the “Oriental” melodramas of Hollywood’s Golden Era.  All others will have a devilishly good time reliving the forbidden passions of such “classics” as Lady From Chungking, Daughter Of Shanghai, King Of Chinatown, Shanghai Express, and Daughter Of The Dragon, all of them starring the immortal Anna May Wong. After all, as the program cover states, “There is enchantment when East meets West under the Shanghai Moon.”
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy, WOW!

O JERUSALEM

posted on November 14th, 2008 at 1:54 PM by Steven Stanley


What if several months before the events of 9/11, an important U.S. government official had learned of a planned terrorist attack—by air, on an Eastern city, in September?  Could the attacks on the World Trade Center have been prevented had this official spoken to the right higher-ups?  This hypothetical (or is it?) situation is the basis of O Jerusalem, by A.R. Gurney, now getting a first-rate Los Angeles premiere by The Production Company.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

THE JOY LUCK CLUB

posted on November 12th, 2008 at 1:58 PM by Steven Stanley


Fans of Amy Tan’s novel The Joy Luck Club or Wayne Wang’s 1993 film version will find much to relish in East West Players’ production of its stage adaptation by Susan Kim.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

THE MOST HAPPY FELLA

posted on November 10th, 2008 at 2:04 PM by Steven Stanley


Musical Theatre Guild once again astounds with their “Concert Staged Reading” of Frank Loesser’s 1956 Broadway musical drama The Most Happy Fella, their most vocally challenging project since Elmer Rice-Kurt Weill-Langston Hughes’ Street Scene nearly two years ago.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, WOW!

CHARLES DICKENS’ OLIVER TWIST

posted on November 9th, 2008 at 2:10 PM by Steven Stanley


Say the words Oliver Twist and the first thing that pops into mind may be a song—“Food Glorious Food,” “Where Is Love,” “You’ve Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two,” “Who Will Buy”…  Lionel Bart’s songs are so inextricably linked to Charles Dickens’ original story that it’s hard to imagine an Oliver Twist without them, yet British writer-director Neil Bartlett has dared to do so in his 2004 adaptation (“in twenty-four scenes with several songs and tableaux”) entitled Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist, now getting a magical L.A. premiere at A Noise Within.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Drama, WOW!

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