IN HEAT

posted on June 22nd, 2008 at 12:44 PM by Steven Stanley


“How can you mend a broken heart?” asked the BeeGees a few decades back. If you are actor Malcome Danare, you write a play. The result of Danare’s 2006 heartbreak is In Heat, a “comedy in four one-acts,” currently playing at The Lost Studio, and a very funny and original comedy it is.
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, WOW!

IT’S ONLY LIFE

posted on June 21st, 2008 at 12:41 PM by Steven Stanley


In 2005 I paid my first visit to Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre, to see its justly lauded production of Jason Robert Brown’s musical revue Songs For A New World. Now, a bit more than three years later, the Rubicon has become one of my favorite Southland theaters and (despite outlandish gasoline prices) still worth the drive north, especially when the production being presented is as sensational as 2008’s musical revue, John Bucchino’s It’s Only Life. In fact, it’s only distance and gas prices that prevent me from seeing It’s Only Life a second, or even third time.
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posted in Musical Revue, Ventura County, WOW!

THE WHO’S TOMMY

posted on June 20th, 2008 at 12:36 PM by Steven Stanley


The much awaited revival of The Who’s Tommy has finally arrived in a spectacular production featuring a sensational cast and the best sound ever in L.A. theater.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, WOW!

THE SWEEPERS

posted on June 19th, 2008 at 12:33 PM by Steven Stanley


ICT has yet another winner in the West Coast premiere of The Sweepers, the first of John C. Picardi’s proposed 10-play cycle focusing on the Italian American experience.  Set in the summer of 1945, The Sweepers begins as a Neil Simonesque comedy about squabbling female neighbors in Boston’s Italian neighborhood, then in its final quarter veers into Arthur Miller territory. That this startling transition from comedy to drama happens organically, and not as if from another play entirely, is thanks to the very real characters Picardi has created, and the superb performances of the cast ICT has assembled.
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posted in Drama, Long Beach/San Pedro, WOW!

ASSASSINS

posted on June 18th, 2008 at 12:45 AM by Steven Stanley


West Coast Ensemble continues its tradition of presenting some of Los Angeles’ finest intimate theater musicals (Floyd Collins, Zanna Don’t, Sunday In The Park With George) with an absolutely first-rate new staging of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins. Of the three Assassins productions I’ve seen over the past 15 months, this one features the strongest cast—an utterly sensational one at that—and benefits enormously from the imaginative direction of Richard Israel, fresh from his unanimously praised 1776.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, WOW!

ORANGE FLOWER WATER

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 12:30 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
A bit of advice for the SoCal theatergoer. Whenever you see the words, “written by Craig Wright,” don’t hesitate.  Just go.  The TV scribe most famous for Dirty Sexy Money and Six Feet Under is also an accomplished playwright, capable of writing comedy in the face of tragedy (Recent Tragic Events), testosterone-filled drama (Lady), and suspenseful tragedy (Grace). In Orange Flower Water, Wright takes a plot as old as humankind itself (adultery) and adds his unique voice to its repercussions on the cheaters and the cheated upon.
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posted in Drama, Orange County, Recommended

ANY NUMBER CAN DIE

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 12:27 PM by Steven Stanley


As much as I have enjoyed attending (and appearing in) Whittier Community Theatre productions, I must confess that I wasn’t expecting all that much from a little known murder mystery spoof entitled Any Number Can Die, written by a certain Fred Carmichael, author of over 40 plays even the most avid theatergoer has probably never heard of. Ever seen All The Better To Kill You With? Don’t Mention My Name? Exit The Body? Hey, Naked Lady? Meet My Husbands?  A Pack Of Rascals? Ten Nights In A Bar Room?  
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posted in Comedy, San Gabriel Valley, WOW!

RETURN

posted on June 13th, 2008 at 12:23 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Sonia Levitan’s award-winning young adult novel The Return has been turned into a musical, entitled simply Return, with often powerful results.  
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posted in Musical, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!

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