Posts Tagged ‘Pasadena Playhouse’

STOP KISS

Don’t let the gay bashing that is the pivotal event of Diana Son’s Stop Kiss scare you away from its exciting Pasadena Playhouse debut. Under Seema Sueko’s nuanced direction and with a pair of star turns by Angela Lin and Sharon Leal, Son’s 1998 off-Broadway hit reveals itself at its heart to be the subtly shaded tale of two women who find themselves almost accidentally falling in love.
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KISS ME KATE

A stellar, (almost) all-African-American cast breathe new life into the 1948 William Shakespeare-meets-Cole Porter classic Kiss Me Kate, an innovative Pasadena Playhouse revival that works to perfection for all but about ten minutes of its thrillingly reinvigorated two acts.
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STONEFACE

The creator-star of the multiple-award-winning Louis And Keely Live At The Sahara, the writer-director of the smash Sacred Fools original Watson: The Last Great Tale of the Legendary Sherlock Holmes (and its sequel), and the star of  TV’s 3rd Rock From The Son join forces at the Pasadena Playhouse in Stoneface, a 99-seat hometown hit that’s been given a much-deserved L.A. regional theater transfer … and when was the last time you’ve seen that happen in our fair city?
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A SONG AT TWILIGHT

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

21st Century society may have progressed considerably since the mid-1960s when Noël Coward wrote and starred in A Song At Twilight, but a cursory glance at today’s Hollywood makes it clear that even a half-century-old play can express contemporary truths, particularly when revived as splendidly as is the case this month and next at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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ABOVE THE FOLD


Three white North Carolina college frat boys accused of gang-raping an African-American stripper provide the incendiary framework for Above The Fold, Bernard Weinraub’s bracingly acidic look at politics circa 2014, race relations in today’s South, and print journalism in an increasingly cyber age—the World Premiere latest from the Pasadena Playhouse.
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ALADDIN AND HIS WINTER WISH


The musical theater genre known as Panto may have been born in the United Kingdom, but with Lythgoe Family Productions now giving Los Angeles audiences their fourth annual December taste of it with this year’s Aladdin And His Winter Wish, this distinctively English form of musical entertainment has clearly found its home away from home in sunny Southern California, this year for the second time at the Pasadena Playhouse.
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12 ANGRY MEN


A black-and-white cast adds provocative new shadings to 12 Angry Men as the Pasadena Playhouse revives the 20th Century jury room drama for a 21st Century audience, and though director Sheldon Epps’ re-envisioning of Reginald Rose’s now iconic play proves problematic, there’s no denying the power of the dynamic dozen actors onstage at the Playhouse or of Rose’s ingeniously constructeds, beautifully written classic.
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SMOKEY JOE’S CAFÉ


“Kansas City,” “Yakety Yak,” “Love Potion No. 9,” and “On Broadway” are just four of the 1950s rock and pop hits now being performed to cheers and not one but two standing ovations as the Pasadena Playhouse revives the 1995 Broadway smash Smokey Joe’s Café, featuring forty of the greatest hits of rock-and-roll songwriting legends Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
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