Posts Tagged ‘Orange County Theater Review’
IN THE HEIGHTS
Saturday, July 12th, 2014
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’s In The Heights now arrives in Anaheim Heights (sorry, make that Anaheim Hills) in as fine an intimate staging as any you could hope to see of the Tony-winning Best Musical of 2008, Chance Theater mainstays Oanh Nguyen and Kelly Todd directing and choreographing with their accustomed brilliance, aided and abetted by a sensational young cast.
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THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
Sunday, June 29th, 2014
The Drowsy Chaperone, Broadway’s Valentine to Musical Theater, has been given an intimate Orange County staging at Santa Ana’s Theatre Out, one that makes it abundantly clear why the 2006 multiple-Tony winner is one of this past decade’s best—and most original—new musicals.
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JERSEY BOYS
Thursday, June 26th, 2014
Jersey Boys, the 13th longest running show in Broadway history no less, is now making its triumphant return to Southern California with a three-week stop at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts after a seven-year absence, and that, musical theater (and Four Seasons) lovers, is cause for celebration.
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NICKEL MINES
Wednesday, June 4th, 2014
On October 2, 2006, a 32-year-old husband and father entered an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, took hostage ten girls ages 6 to 13 , shot five of them to death, critically injured the remaining five, then took his own life. Hardly the stuff of your average, everyday musical, and in fact Andrew Palermo’s Nickel Mines (co-written with Shannon Stoeke and Dan Dyer) proves neither average nor everyday but something quite extraordinary indeed, tragedy turned into art, and the power of grace as it may never have been shown before.
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TARTUFFE
Wednesday, May 21st, 2014
You may have seen Molière’s Tartuffe before (what theater lover hasn’t?), but you’ve never seen a Tartuffe quite like the stunningly conceived, directed, designed, and performed production now dazzling audiences at South Coast Repertory—or at least those willing to see the Molière classic through a strikingly different lens.
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SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS
Thursday, May 8th, 2014
What becomes a legend most?
When the legend in question is Oscar-nominated film icon Leslie (An American In Paris, Lili, Gigi, The L-Shaped Room, etc., etc., etc.) Caron, what becomes the legend most is a triumphant return to the stage in Richard Alfieri’s Six Dance Lessons In Six Weeks. Add to the equation six-time Ovation Award winner David Engel as Miss Caron’s onstage partner and what you have at the Laguna Playhouse is a production Broadway can only wish were on the Great White Way.
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INTO THE WOODS
Monday, May 5th, 2014
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Tony-winning Into The Woods receives its first major L.A.-area production in nearly a decade as 3-D Theatricals presents a beautifully acted, assuredly directed, and gorgeously designed revival of the contemporary classic, though all concerned must surely be wishing they’d had the benefit of a couple more previews before Saturday’s technical-glitch-marred Opening Night.
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PASSION PLAY
Sunday, May 4th, 2014
Chance Theater challenges adventurous theatergoers and rewards them in equal measure with director Trevor Biship’s powerfully staged vision of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, three acts, two intermissions and all. Bows may not get taken till nearly three-and-a-half hours after curtain, but if you’re anything like this reviewer, you’ll find yourself enthralled from fanciful start to emotional finish.
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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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