ANIMAL FARM
posted on September 5th, 2022 at 11:16 AM by Steven Stanley
A superlative cast, inspired direction, and designs that are the epitome of imaginative top the list of reasons not to miss Peter Hall’s musical adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm at A Noise Within.
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Tags: A Noise Within, Adrian Mitchell, George Orwell, Los Angeles Theater Review, Peter Hall, Richard Peaslee
posted in Pasadena, Play With Songs, Theater Review, WOW!
VALLEY SONG
posted on August 29th, 2022 at 11:09 AM by Steven Stanley
South African master playwright Athol Fugard tells a coming-of-age story as universal as it is specific to his homeland in Valley Songs, the poignant and powerful latest from Long Beach’s International City Theatre.
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Tags: Athol Fugard, International City Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review
posted in Long Beach/San Pedro, Theater Review, Two-Hander, WOW!
THE WEST SIDE WALTZ
posted on August 28th, 2022 at 10:07 AM by Steven Stanley
It’s a family affair at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum as the legendary Grandpa Walton’s eldest daughter Ellen Geer, her sister Melora Marshall, and Ellen’s daughter Willow Geer make theatrical magic in The West Side Waltz, Ernest Thompson’s captivating slice of 1980s New York life.
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Tags: Ernest Thompson, Los Angeles Theater Review, Theatricum Botanicum
posted in Revival Of A 20th-Century Play, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!
NORMAL NOISES
posted on August 27th, 2022 at 3:34 PM by Steven Stanley
If laughter is indeed the best medicine, then you’re bound to leave Normal Noises, Clara Rodriguez’s quirky sextet of “plays about real life, only more so” in the halest of health.
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Tags: Clara Rodriguez, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Group Rep
posted in North Hollywood, Short One-Act, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!
LAVENDER MEN
posted on August 23rd, 2022 at 12:24 PM by Steven Stanley
Queer playwright Roger Q. Mason explores the love that dared not speak its name between Abraham Lincoln and his “close friend” Elmer Ellsworth in Lavender Men, at once a gay American history fantasia, a very public therapy session for its self-described “black, fat, femme” author, and one of the most stunning productions in town.
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Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Playwrights' Arena, Roger Q. Mason, Skylight Theatre Company
posted in Comedy-Drama, Los Angeles, Theater Review, World Premiere, WOW!
TROUBLE THE WATER
posted on August 22nd, 2022 at 9:10 AM by Steven Stanley
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum pays tribute to a little-known figure in African-American history in Ellen Geer’s illuminating, emotion-packed biodrama Trouble The Water, freely adapted from Rebecca Dwight Bruff’s award-winning 2019 novel of the same name.
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Tags: Ellen Geer, Los Angeles Theater Review, Rebecca Dwight Bruff, Theatricum Botanicum
posted in Drama, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, World Premiere, WOW!
MUD
posted on August 22nd, 2022 at 9:00 AM by Steven StanleyLoft Ensemble imagines a dystopian future populated by ten nameless, genderless global calamity survivors in Mud, a World Premiere drama I found alternately pretentious and preachy
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Tags: Bree Pavey, Loft Ensemble, Los Angeles Theater Review
posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Theater Review, World Premiere
ROMEO & JULIET: CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENDING
posted on August 15th, 2022 at 9:49 AM by Steven Stanley
Should Romeo woo Juliet or should he court Rosaline? This is just the first of three major life decisions left up to an audience vote at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Ann and Shawn Fraistat’s Romeo & Juliet: Choose Your Own Ending, a hilariously clever new take on a centuries-old classic.
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Tags: Ann and Shawn Fraistat, Los Angeles Theater Review, Morgan-Wixson Theatre
posted in Spoof, Theater Review, West Side/Beverly HIlls, WOW!
Since 2007, Steven Stanley's StageSceneLA.com has spotlighted the best in Southern California theater via reviews, interviews, and its annual StageSceneLA Scenies.


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