Posts Tagged ‘Orange County Theater Review’
4000 MILES
Thursday, November 7th, 2013
When was the last time you saw a comedy in which an elderly female character wasn’t made the butt of the joke? When was the last time you saw an intergenerational relationship depicted in all its potential richness? When was the last time you saw a family drama that managed to grip you without resorting to soap opera melodramatics?
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PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013
The rainbow-colored bus known around the world as Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert has just pulled into the Costa Mesa station (make that Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For The Arts), and as anyone who’s seen Stephen Elliott’s 1994 cult hit movie of the same name can tell you, that’s just about the most fabulous news any OC resident or neighbor to the north could possibly ask for this week.
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XANADU
Monday, October 21st, 2013
Xanadu has arrived at Cal State Fullerton’s Little Theater, proving once again that for big-stage professional-caliber musical theater, just about the only thing separating CSUF productions from those at Musical Theatre West or 3-D Theatricals is the uniformly young age of their talented casts. Case in point: Douglas Carter Beane’s 2005 Broadway treat.
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FAST COMPANY
Thursday, October 17th, 2013
The Rag, the Spanish Prisoner, the Pig-in-a-Poke, the Badger Game, and the Glim Dropper are just five of the games that H, Blue, and Francis learned at their mother Mable’s knee—which will give you an idea of just what kind of family the three siblings grew up in in Carla Ching’s exhilarating World Premiere comedy Fast Company, the latest from South Coast Repertory.
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TIME STANDS STILL
Saturday, October 5th, 2013
A wounded photo-journalist’s return home from the war zone proves even more challenging than a life lived on the edge in Donald Margulies’ intelligent, perceptive, often funny, always compelling Time Stands Still, now getting a superb Orange County Premiere at Anaheim’s Chance Theater with crackerjack director Marya Mazor assuredly at the helm.
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DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Monday, September 9th, 2013
What better way for South Coast Repertory to open its 50th Anniversary season than with what many consider the finest play of the 20th Century, Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Death Of A Salesman, and to do so with a twist—by casting the Lomans as an African-American family.
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FUNNY GIRL
Sunday, September 8th, 2013
In the forty-nine years since Funny Girl debuted on Broadway, this musical biography of Fanny Brice has pretty much faded into obscurity despite its eight Tony nominations, and if regional revivals have been few and far between, blame that on a leading role that’s a bear to cast, a book that’s been aptly dubbed problematic, and absolutely no Funny Girl sets or costumes available for rent.
3-D Theatricals solves two of these three problems in its sensational from-the-ground-up revival, and though Isobel Lennart’s book remains more than a bit of a hodgepodge, Nicole Parker’s absolutely stellar lead performance, Michael Matthews’ inspired direction, and brand new Broadway-caliber sets and costumes by Stephen Gifford and Cheryl Sheldon make this revival another 3-D-T winner.
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BRITISHMANIA
Wednesday, August 14th, 2013RECOMMENDED
Though the production is bare-bones (and “John,” “Paul,” “George,” and “Ringo” probably look most Beatle-like when seen from the Laguna Playhouse back row), there’s no denying that the multitalented stars of BritishMania sound so much like The Beatles as they sing and play their way through two hours of ‘60s British pop that if you’re anything like this reviewer, this nostalgic trip back in time will end up worth a drive down to Laguna Beach.
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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