MY ANTONIA

posted on July 6th, 2008 at 4:41 PM by Steven Stanley


Willa Cather’s epic 1918 novel has been transformed into an absolutely exquisite memory play by writer/director Scott Schwartz. For those like myself who missed the production’s debut at the Ventura’s Rubicon this past May, Antonia is back, in the more intimate setting of Venice’s Pacific Resident Theatre, and certain to enchant audiences of all ages for weeks to come.
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posted in Drama, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

posted on July 5th, 2008 at 4:37 PM by Steven Stanley


Downsizing Broadway musicals to fit Equity waiver stages has become an L.A. theater tradition (and challenge) to companies with limited space and budgets. Though somewhat rough around the edges, the Knightsbridge Theatre’s production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s La Cage Aux Folles succeeds admirably and enthusiastically, re-imagining La Cage as a Studio City “tranny” bar yet losing none of the original’s laughter, musical dazzle, and tears.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, WOW!

SPRING’S AWAKENING

posted on July 1st, 2008 at 4:31 PM by Steven Stanley

NOT RECOMMENDED

German playwright Frank Wedekind’s 1891 play Spring’s Awakening was so shocking for its era that when it finally opened in New York 26 years later, it took a Supreme Court injunction to allow the show to go on … and then only for a single performance before closing.  With scenes of masturbation, violence, and sex between 14-year-old characters, it is no wonder that pre-Roaring 20s audiences were shocked to the point of outrage.
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posted in Drama, Not Recommended, West Side/Beverly HIlls

THE LAST SEDER

posted on June 29th, 2008 at 12:56 PM by Steven Stanley


Jennifer Maisel’s warm and winning family dramedy The Last Seder opens with Michelle (Elisa Donovan), the youngest of four adult sisters, inviting Josh (Douglas Dickerman), a total stranger, to her family home. Michelle’s Alzheimer’s afflicted father Marvin (Joseph Ruskin) is about to be moved for long-term care into the serenely named Serenity Willows and the family home is soon to be sold, thus this year’s Seder will be the family’s last together and Michelle does not want to arrive empty-handed, so to speak.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, WOW!

BETRAYAL

posted on June 28th, 2008 at 12:54 PM by Steven Stanley


In the year 1999, Jerry confesses to Emma, his best friend’s wife, that he has loved her since he was best man at her wedding to Robert, and they begin an affair which goes on for years. In 2008, two years after ending the affair, Jerry and Emma meet again. With her marriage breaking up, she needs someone to talk to. In the course of conversation, Emma reveals (to Jerry’s dismay) that Robert knew about (and didn’t particularly mind) their affair. Indeed, says Emma, he knew about it as far back as 2004.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, WOW!

AMERICAN TALES

posted on June 27th, 2008 at 12:51 PM by Steven Stanley


The Anateus Company opens its 2008 ClassicsFest series (of 8 works in progress and 6 “first looks”) with a world premiere fully staged production of a pair of absolutely charming one-act chamber musicals, billed together as American  Tales. 
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posted in Musical, North Hollywood, WOW!

SHIPWRECKED!

posted on June 23rd, 2008 at 12:48 PM by Steven Stanley


Whether you are eight years old or eighty, you will delight in the sheer magic of live theater at the Geffen Playhouse’s production of Donald Margulies magnificent adventure story, Shipwrecked! What would cost Hollywood a couple hundred million dollars to achieve, the geniuses behind this production and its three supremely gifted actors (doing the work of the proverbial “cast of thousands”) achieve at a fraction of the cost, with equal or greater entertainment value.
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posted in Comedy, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

THE FIX

posted on June 23rd, 2008 at 12:47 PM by Steven Stanley


If there are any L.A. musical theater lovers who are not yet Musical Theatre Guild subscribers, I have only five words for you, “What are you waiting for?”
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Concert Staged Reading, WOW!

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