WEHO

posted on September 19th, 2008 at 5:30 PM by Steven Stanley


Classic nighttime soaps, Dynasty and Melrose Place to name just two, get a hilarious gay spoofing in the Celebration Theater’s latest late night hit, WeHo, named after “the most dramatic city never to hit prime time. Some call it West Hollywood. We call it WeHo!”
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

SPEECH & DEBATE

posted on September 18th, 2008 at 5:46 PM by Steven Stanley


A Salem, Oregon high school teacher cruises school restrooms and gay.com to pick up 18-year-old students for sex.  Salem’s conservative mayor is rumored to up to similar shenanigans, all the while promoting an anti-gay agenda. Sounds like the basis for a stark, current-as-today’s-headlines drama, right?
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

BE LIKE WATER

posted on September 17th, 2008 at 5:53 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

It’s not easy being 14, especially when you’re different from the other kids.  That’s what Chinese-Japanese-American Tracy (Saya Tomioka) has discovered in her Uptown Chicago neighborhood in the year 1978.  Unlike her popular classmate Tina (Ariel Rivera), an Asian teen Farrah Fawcett clone, Tracy would rather watch Bruce Lee movies than go to Nisei dances. Unlike her unfortunately named classmate Bruce Lee (Shawn Huang), Tracy would rather practice kung fu moves than dance the latest disco steps to “Disco Inferno” or “He’s The Greatest Dancer.”
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Not Recommended

SOUVENIR

posted on September 16th, 2008 at 5:57 PM by Steven Stanley


Several decades before Mrs. Elva Miller (known affectionately as “Mrs. Miller”) blithely and cluelessly massacred such 1960s hits as “Downtown” and “A Lover’s Concerto” in her vibrato-heavy, wobbly, off-key mezzo, there was an even more celebrated “pure coloratura” who achieved now legendary fame in the operatic concert world by performing arias in a voice that makes Mrs. Miller’s seem nearly magnificent by comparison.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Comedy, WOW!

SEESAW

posted on September 15th, 2008 at 6:00 PM by Steven Stanley


What would L.A. musical theater lovers do without MTG? Who else but the musical theater magicians who make up Musical Theatre Guild would give Angelinos the chance to see a production of a rarely produced Broadway semi-hit like 1973’s Seesaw? Who else could do it with a mere 25 hours of rehearsal?  And who else could achieve such overall excellence in a “concert staged reading” that it could easily hold its own against many a “fully staged production” on local stages?
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, WOW!

AN ITALIAN STRAW HAT

posted on September 14th, 2008 at 6:05 PM by Steven Stanley


When most people hear the word “vaudeville,” those who’ve heard of it probably think of a staged variety show with singers, comics, dance acts, magicians, and trained monkeys … or something of the like. At least that’s how I would have defined vaudeville before seeing An Italian Straw Hat: A Vaudeville, at South Coast Rep.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

THE FRIENDLY HOUR

posted on September 12th, 2008 at 6:16 PM by Steven Stanley


Playwright Tom Jacobson finds greatness in the “small” lives of a group of South Dakota housewives in his newest play, The Friendly Hour, being given a splendid World Premiere Production at the always splendid The Road Theater.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

NO EXIT

posted on September 12th, 2008 at 6:10 PM by Steven Stanley


What a difference a director makes.

When I saw a production of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit last April, I just didn’t get it. The bizarre costuming and makeup (the lead actor wore green glitter in his gelled jet black hair, dark glittery lipstick, heavy eye shadow, and rouge, and was attired in a waistcoat, dark green silk vest, tight black leggings and 8” platform boots) and robotic movements affected by the actors took me out of the story and not into the world they were striving to create.
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posted in Drama, San Diego County, WOW!

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