MAYFLOWER

posted on April 14th, 2008 at 3:23 PM by Steven Stanley

The year is 1984 and the city of Baltimore is devastated.  Its hometown football team, the Colts, has snuck away in the middle of the night, their entire belongings loaded into a fleet of Mayflower Transit trucks bound for Indianapolis.  Reviled team owner Robert Isray’s name is less than mud in Baltimore on this snowy March morning, when its residents awaken to the news that the Baltimore Colts are no more.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood

WHAT THEY HAVE

posted on April 13th, 2008 at 3:19 PM by Steven Stanley


Thousands upon thousands of actors choose Los Angeles as their career base for the obvious reason; no other city offers them as many opportunities to do film and television work as L.A. does. Nevertheless, even many of the most successful choose to make regular stage appearances for the challenge and joy of performing before a live audience. The same holds true for movie and TV writers who, despite big and small screen success, continue to write for the theater, to the benefit of L.A. audiences.
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posted in Drama, Orange County, WOW!

THE CONCEPT OF REMAINDERS

posted on April 13th, 2008 at 3:07 PM by Steven Stanley


Richard Martin Hirsch proves himself not only prolific (4 plays produced locally in the last two years) but versatile par excellence with his latest (and best) work.  After The Quality Of Light (a May-September romance set in France), Atonement (an engrossing character study of a Jewish writer in crisis), and this winter’s The Monkey Jar (a “from today’s headlines” drama about a child accused of threatening his teacher with a handgun), Hirsch now turns his considerable talents to comedy with a sexy adult concoction entitled The Concept Of Remainders.
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, WOW!

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

posted on April 12th, 2008 at 3:02 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Transforming Charles Dickens’ 350-page/2 dozen-character novel Great Expectations into a musical is an ambitious task, but this is the challenge that book writers Brian VenDer Wilt and Steve Lozier, composer Richard Winzeler, and lyricist Steve Lane have dared to undertake.  Even more challenging is staging it in a 99-seat venue like the Hudson Backstage Theatre.
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posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, Recommended

CELL PHONE FUNERAL

posted on April 11th, 2008 at 2:56 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
WeHo gay boy Zackery has just accidentally run over a fellow WeHoian named Patrick—twice, and confesses to his best bar buddy Barry that he feels “kinda bad” about killing the stranger, who like Zackery was out cruising for sex. Meanwhile, 3000 miles away, Patrick’s alcoholic muumuu-wearing mother is given the bad news by her surviving son Marcus.  In a “Mom always liked you best” moment, Mother tells Marcus, “Don’t take this personally. I love you both equally, but he was my   favorite.” She decides to fly west to arrange his funeral.  “But you hate to fly,” protests Marcus. “I’ll fly,” insists Mom. “He’s my only son.”
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posted in Comedy, Los Angeles, Recommended

SNAKE IN THE GRASS

posted on April 10th, 2008 at 2:53 PM by Steven Stanley


Alan Ayckbourn’s Snake In The Grass is a real change of pace for the “British Neil Simon.”  Famed for his clever comedies (Absurd Person Singular, The Norman Conquests, Bedroom Farce), the prolific (at nearly 70 he still averages 2 to 3 plays a year) writer tries his hand at a dark comedy/thriller here and succeeds admirably at darkness, comedy, and thrills.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, WOW!

ONE NIGHT STANDS

posted on April 6th, 2008 at 2:48 PM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
One Night Stands, The Sex Comedies began as the second half of a program of one acts last June.  Nearly a year later it continues in expanded form as a sort of “late night” entry playing during “prime time” hours (sans the two musicals which completed the original program). 
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posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, Recommended

THE IMMIGRANT

posted on April 5th, 2008 at 2:45 PM by Steven Stanley


Black and white photos show immigrants arriving in the United States in the early 1900s as the sound of a howling wind blows across the southeast Texas plains.  While a newspaper headline announces “Victims Of Russian Massacres,” a sign welcomes travelers to Galveston, the “Treasure Island Of America.”  A foreign-accented male voice is heard singing a beautiful but mournful tune: “The stars can see what we cannot, the stars remember what we forgot.  See that shining spark. God is there in the dark…”
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, WOW!

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