Posts Tagged ‘Orange County Theater Review’
PIPPIN
Wednesday, November 12th, 2014
The spectacular and the personal mesh to perfection in the most extraordinary Pippin you will ever see, and if you don’t believe me, check out the 2013 Best Revival Tony winner during its two-week stop at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts.
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ZEALOT
Wednesday, October 29th, 2014
The phrase “ripped from today’s headlines” has rarely been more applicable than it is to Theresa Rebeck’s gripping, provocative new drama Zealot, a South Coast Repertory World Premiere sure to inspire post-performance discussion as highly-charged as the action unfolding at the temporary headquarters of the British Consul in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where Zealot is set.
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VENUS IN FUR
Wednesday, October 15th, 2014
Provocative, daring, audacious, intriguing, and sexy as all get-out, David Ives’ Venus In Fur has at long last made it to L.A.-adjacent Costa Mesa following dozens of regional productions, giving its arrival at South Coast Rep bona fide event status. That director Casey Stangl and stars Jaimi Paige and Graham Hamilton deliver the goods … and then some, makes a drive down to Orange County an absolute must for any theater lover worth his or her salt.
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RAGTIME
Tuesday, October 14th, 2014
Well-to-do early 20th-Century White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, their less fortunate African-American fellow New Yorkers, and a gaggle of fresh-off-the-boat Eastern European immigrants collide to life-altering (and occasionally life-shattering) effect in the 1998 Tony-winning musical Ragtime, now being revived by 3-D Theatricals in a production that would do any Broadway theater proud.
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MAPLE AND VINE
Saturday, September 27th, 2014
If you could leave your cell phone and sushi and Facebook and lattes and 21st-Century stress behind for a trip back in time to the halcyon Leave It To Beaver mid-1950s, would you? Could you?
This is the question faced by a publishing executive and her plastic surgeon husband in Jordan Harrison’s provocative if somewhat problematic Maple And Vine, now getting a first-rate Greater Los Angeles Premiere at Orange County’s Chance Theater.
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THE TEMPEST
Wednesday, September 10th, 2014
Illusions so mystifying that you’ll give up even trying to figure out “how they did that.” Original songs by a Rock-&-Roll Hall of Famer performed by a live R&B/Alternative Pop band. Direction that makes adjectives like “imaginative” or “ingenious” or “inspired” seem tame. Performances and production design to match. All of these combine to make Aaron Posner and Teller’s touring adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest a must-see even for those might never wish to sit through another The Tempest again.
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BEIRUT
Monday, September 8th, 2014NOT RECOMMENDED
If a two-character opposite-sex love story with no specific gay content seems a curious choice for an LGBT theater, then Theatre Out’s revival of Alan Bowne’s Beirut proves even more problematic for its dull, dated look at the AIDS crisis as seen through a heterosexual lens.
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GYPSY
Friday, September 5th, 2014RECOMMENDED
Principal performers doing pro-level work highlight One More Productions’ revival of the Broadway classic Gypsy, and despite instances of age-inappropriate casting that make it seem at times more High School Musical than Professional Production, the Arthur Laurents-Jule Styne-Stephen Sondheim classic ends up a crowd-pleaser.
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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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