RESPECT: THE GIRL EM-POWERED MUSICAL

posted on July 24th, 2008 at 9:03 PM by Steven Stanley


Time was when a woman was nothing without a man, and if she ever made the mistake of throwing the bum out, it was only a matter of time until she took all the blame and begged him to return.  Need proof? Just sing a few bars of “Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home?” and you’ll see how true this was back at the turn of the last century:
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posted in Musical Revue, North Hollywood, WOW!

YANK!

posted on July 20th, 2008 at 8:59 PM by Steven Stanley


San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre (“The Nation’s 3rd Oldest LGBT Theatre”) has scored a major (and I mean MAJOR) coup in obtaining the rights to present the West Coast Premiere of Yank!, a major hit (and audience award winner) at 2005’s New York Musical Theatre Festival.  In fact, Diversionary is only the second theater company in the U.S. to stage Yank! since the Festival, and a WOW! of a production it is, thanks a terrific cast, staging by the original New York director Igor Goldin, and the hands-on presence of book and lyrics writer David Zellnik and composer Joseph Zellnik.
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posted in Musical, San Diego County, WOW!

THE NEXT BIG THING

posted on July 19th, 2008 at 8:55 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED 
Anyone craving an evening of 80s nostalgia will find much to enjoy in The Next Big Thing, a new musical just opened at the art/Works Theatre. Like Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Can’t Buy Me Love, The Next Big Thing features a cast of energetic, attractive teens (or more precisely 20somethings passing as teens) with dreams to fulfill, and adults who occasionally get in their way.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Recommended

FACING EAST

posted on July 13th, 2008 at 5:06 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Who is to blame when a gay man kills himself?  Is it the “sin of homosexuality” that is at fault, or is it the judgment of those around him who chose to shun and shame, rather than to embrace? Sadly, even in the year 2008, there are far too many who believe the former. Religious faith, instead of being based on love and acceptance, is too often used to judge and condemn, something which author/playwright Carol Lynn Pearson knows all too well.

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posted in Drama, Recommended, San Gabriel Valley

THE WIZARD OF OZ

posted on July 12th, 2008 at 5:02 PM by Steven Stanley


“We’re off to see the wizard!”

Children of all ages (and that means parents and grandparents too) will be following the yellow brick road from now until July 27 as Musical Theatre West concludes its 55th season with its very first staging of the L. Frank Baum/MGM classic.
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posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, WOW!

PARADE

posted on July 11th, 2008 at 4:55 PM by Steven Stanley


The lynching of Jewish Northerner Leo Frank, falsely convicted of murdering 13-year-old Georgia factory worker Mary Phagan, remains today, nearly a century later, one of the most serious miscarriages of justice (and instances of anti-Semitism) in United States history. Powerful stuff for a Broadway musical, and one that would seem, at least on paper, more than a bit of a downer. Parade (with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and book by Alfred Uhry) was a hard sell on Broadway. If Fosse was the “feel-good” musical of 1999, then a show with such grim subject matter as Parade was pretty much its antithesis, and closed after 85 performances.
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posted in Musical, South Bay, WOW!

METAMORPHOSES

posted on July 10th, 2008 at 4:51 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Athena Theatre has undertaken its biggest challenge yet in staging an Equity waiver production of Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Recommended

LOOPED

posted on July 8th, 2008 at 4:46 PM by Steven Stanley


Tallulah.

For anyone over a certain age, there was, is, will always be only one Tallulah.
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posted in Comedy, Pasadena, WOW!

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