EVITA

posted on August 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
In transforming Evita from a Broadway scale musical to an intimate theater “chamber” piece, The Chance Theater has undertaken its biggest challenge yet. Unlike The Last Five Years and Closer Than Ever, which were chamber musicals to begin with, or Into The Woods and Assassins, which have become intimate theater staples, Evita started off huge and usually remains a big cast/big orchestra item at regional CLOs.
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posted in Musical, Orange County, Recommended

BODY POLITIC

posted on August 1st, 2008 at 11:55 PM by Steven Stanley


Every so often I see a play that hasn’t been on my “must see” list, a play that I just happen to pick because it fits into my schedule, a play that sounds like it might be interesting but then again maybe not … and then it turns out to be something extraordinary, and I think to myself, I almost missed that!
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

posted on July 31st, 2008 at 9:14 PM by Steven Stanley


Great Expectations (The Musical) began its Los Angeles journey back in April with a successful run at the Hudson Backstage Theatre. It has reopened at West L.A.’s The Odyssey Theatre, and what a difference a few months and a change of venue have made.  A show that was more promising than great has blossomed.
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posted in Musical, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

PLASTIC CRYSTAL

posted on July 30th, 2008 at 9:11 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Michael Miller has lived with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder since the age of seven.  He always arranges his shoes “just so” before going to bed, moving them from this position to that one and back again, and then to another, until he is satisfied.  He locks his apartment from the outside even when his girlfriend is still inside, even when she has just told him not to. Even worse are his obsessions, most particularly his obsession with blood.  Michael once found a small stain on a shirt and soon became convinced that it was AIDS infected blood.  The discovery of a band-aid inside a load of laundry washed at a public laundromat sends him into a frenzy, disinfecting everything the clothes may have touched.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Recommended

DARRIN REVITZ

posted on July 30th, 2008 at 12:30 PM by Steven Stanley

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posted in Interview

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN

posted on July 27th, 2008 at 11:10 PM by Steven Stanley


The customary path for a musical to follow is the one from stage to screen, the most recent example being Mamma Mia, in movie theaters (and live on Broadway) even as I write this. Far less usual is seeing an original movie musical adapted for the stage, yet just as MTW’s The Wizard Of Oz closes, Singin’ In The Rain opens at Cabrillo Music Theatre, a veritable bonanza for lovers of MGM musicals of Hollywood’s golden age.
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posted in Musical, Ventura County, WOW!

MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION

posted on July 26th, 2008 at 9:08 PM by Steven Stanley


With eight fully staged productions in a scant ten months, The Production Company (aka TheProdCo) has quickly established itself as Los Angeles’ most prolific new theater company.  It is also one of the most consistently reliable, opening one excellent production only days after the preceding has closed, with yet another in rehearsal. Amazing!
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

AMERICAN DEAD

posted on July 25th, 2008 at 9:05 PM by Steven Stanley


Five years ago, Grace Tisdale, a young Midwestern deputy sheriff and Mark Shawver, a teenage bagger, were gunned down in a grocery store robbery, precisely the kind of crime big city dwellers read about on a daily basis. To the residents of this small American town, however, it was not merely the deputy and the teenager who were victimized.  Grace Tisdale left behind a husband and a brother, both of whose lives were forever changed.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

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