TINTYPES

posted on March 1st, 2008 at 10:57 AM by Steven Stanley


On Broadway, Tintypes received three Tony nominations including Best Musical
of 1981, but it ran only 93 performances.  Had Marsha Moode directed it, it
might very well have run 993 performances and won all those Tonys. That’s
how sensational Moode’s Tintypes “revisal,” the current production of the
Downey Civic Light opera, is.  Moode, following numerous accomplishments as
DCLO’s director extraordinare, now has her biggest artistic success so far.  
(read more)

posted in Downey/La Mirada, Musical Revue, WOW!

RAVENSRIDGE

posted on February 29th, 2008 at 1:59 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Remember the days when Hollywood regularly turned out major films with
politically or socially relevant themes, movies like The China Syndrome? The
fact that T.S. Cook’s Ravensridge was (in the playwright’s own words)
“summarily rejected by networks and studios alike” is proof that those days are
no more, and is particularly ironic because Cook was one of the Oscar
nominated writers of that award-winning 1979 film.
(read more)

posted in Drama, Pasadena, Recommended

BUS STOP

posted on February 24th, 2008 at 1:51 AM by Steven Stanley


William Inge is perhaps best known for a pair of plays about life in the American 
Midwest in the 1950s.  Picnic tells of a frustrated small town girl who falls for a 
handsome drifter.  Its companion piece, Bus Stop, is about a naïve cowboy 
who loses his head over a “chanteuse” with a past. Both became popular 
films and gave blonde bombshells Kim Novak and Marilyn Monroe rare 
chances to prove that they were actresses and not just glamour girls.  Both 
Picnic and Bus Stop continue to be favorites of community and regional 
theaters, with the latter now getting a first-rate staging at the Rubicon in 
Ventura.
(read more)

posted in Drama, Ventura County, WOW!

ALL SHOOK UP

posted on February 23rd, 2008 at 1:48 AM by Steven Stanley


If there were more justice in the world of Broadway theater, All Shook Up 
would now be in its third year of playing there to standing ovations.  It has a 
clever and very funny book by Joe DiPietro. Ken Robertson and Sergio Trujillo 
came up with a bunch of sensational dances.  It featured a truly star-making 
performance by Cheyenne Jackson and an equally stellar supporting cast.  
Most notable of all, it was built around two dozen songs made famous by Elvis 
Presley, in other words, some of the most recognizable, hummable hits ever on 
a Broadway stage.
(read more)

posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Musical, WOW!

A GOOD SMOKE

posted on February 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 AM by Steven Stanley

RECOMMENDED
Don Cummings’ darkly funny A Good Smoke could just as easily be titled Life
With The Mother From Hell, but that might just be the teensiest bit off-putting. 
After all, how many of us would choose to spend an hour and a half with one
of the most unrelentingly angry women ever put on a stage? But rest assured,
on opening night the Chandler Theatre was filled with uproarious laughter,
and I was among those who laughed the loudest. Black as the comedy in as
A Good Smoke is, this is a very funny comedy indeed.
(read more)

posted in Comedy, North Hollywood, Recommended

WEST SIDE STORY

posted on February 21st, 2008 at 12:26 AM by Steven Stanley


As I sat watching West Side Story last night, amazingly my first time ever at a
professional stage production of this musical theater classic, I couldn’t help
thinking about what Broadway audiences must have felt as they first
discovered it back in 1957.  This was, after all, a Broadway whose most recent
Tony-winners were My Fair Lady, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game. 
What must audiences who were accustomed to this fun and sunny fare have
thought about a show where the leading man and leading lady didn’t have
the proverbial happy ending, and whose characters lived dismal lives in the
worst parts of Manhattan and hated anyone whose differences threatened
their go-nowhere existences?
(read more)

posted in Musical, Orange County, WOW!

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

posted on February 17th, 2008 at 12:18 AM by Steven Stanley


South Coast Rep’s revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest is 
a production full of color, imagination, and panache. (Note: For those in need 
of a summary of the oft performed comedy of manners, click here for a 
Wikipedia synopsis.) Director Warner Shook’s original vision for Earnest is evident 
from the moment the audience first sets sight on Michael Olich’s gorgeous non-
literal set design. The Segerstrom Stage is ablaze with rich blue-greens and 
reds, colorful Persian rugs, a handsomely brocaded divan and armchair, and a 
leopard rug center stage, head intact, and not a wall in sight.  Nephelie 
Andoyadis’s costumes are the epitome of elegance, and match the set’s color 
scheme, which by the way changes for each of the play’s three acts.  
(read more)

posted in Comedy, Orange County, WOW!

1776

posted on February 16th, 2008 at 12:14 AM by Steven Stanley


It’s always exciting for me to discover a new play or musical, and that’s exactly 
how I felt experiencing 1776 at Actors Co-op.  True, 1776 has been around for 
nearly 30 years, and I believe that I just might have seen the first national tour 
(though if so, obviously in my infancy). I think also that I may have rented the 
movie version at some time or other since the advent of the VCR. Still, 
whatever memories I have of any previous 1776s are vague to say the least. 
That’s why seeing 1776 at last, especially in such a polished and class-act 
production, filled me with a sense of discovery.
(read more)

posted in Hollywood/West Hollywood, Musical, WOW!

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