THE CRUCIBLE

posted on May 18th, 2013 at 2:52 PM by Steven Stanley


Arthur Miller’s dramatization of the Salem witch trials has rarely if ever seemed as timeless or proven as powerful as it does in The Antaeus Company’s stunning new revival of the 1953 classic The Crucible, brilliantly directed by Armin Shimerman and Geoffrey Wade.
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posted in Drama, North Hollywood, Now Playing, WOW!

CHESS

posted on May 16th, 2013 at 5:54 PM by Steven Stanley


Though Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ Chess may now and forever remain a musical that “needs work,” there are ample reasons to catch Tim Dang’s multiethnic revival of the West End hit at East West Players, not the least of which is the singular opportunity to see Chess Not In Concert—but rather as a fully-staged production, with performances, direction, choreography, costumes and lighting all combining to make for a thrilling evening of theater, despite its source material’s undeniable flaws.
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posted in Los Angeles, Musical, Now Playing, WOW!

THE MATCHMAKER

posted on May 14th, 2013 at 6:15 PM by Steven Stanley


Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi is once again “arranging things,” this time at Hollywood’s Actors Co-op, but don’t expect any singing waiters to be belting out a Jerry Herman show tune this time round. It’s the comedy that started Dolly on the path to Broadway legendhood, aka Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker, that the Co-op is reviving—and a tiptop revival it is.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Now Playing, WOW!

PARADE

posted on May 13th, 2013 at 4:12 PM by Steven Stanley


3-D Theatricals commemorates the one-hundredth anniversary of the death of thirteen-year-old Georgia factory worker Mary Phagan, along with the kangaroo court that subsequently found Jewish Northerner Leo Frank guilty of her murder and the lynch mob that ultimately robbed Frank of his own life, in its all-around phenomenal T.J. Dawson-directed revival of Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Parade.
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posted in Musical, Now Playing, Orange County, WOW!

THE WOMEN

posted on May 12th, 2013 at 12:12 PM by Steven Stanley

Godfather Vito Corleone’s advice to “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” could easily have been inspired by a night at the theater—had the play in question been Clare Boothe Luce’s comedy classic The Women, now getting a mostly top-notch revival at L.A.’s venerable Theatre West.
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posted in Comedy, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Now Playing, WOW!

COPS AND FRIENDS OF COPS

posted on May 10th, 2013 at 5:23 PM by Steven Stanley


A man walks into a bar and all hell breaks loose in Ron Klier’s edge-of-your-seat World Premiere suspense thriller Cops And Friends Of Cops, the latest offering from VS. Theatre Company and one that suits their spiffy new Mid-City space to a T.
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posted in Drama, Los Angeles, Now Playing, WOW!

FLASHDANCE THE MUSICAL

posted on May 8th, 2013 at 12:17 PM by Steven Stanley


The ‘80s come exhilaratingly back to life as Alex Owens once again pursues her dream of leaving behind her drab steel mill-worker-by-day, nightclub-dancer-by-night life and becoming a serious ballerina in Flashdance The Musical, now playing at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center For the Arts. And the verdict? Despite a book that still needs work, last night’s Opening Night standing ovation leaves no doubt that Flashdance is a bona fide crowd-pleaser.
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posted in Musical, Now Playing, Orange County, WOW!

PETER PAN: THE BOY WHO HATED MOTHERS

posted on May 6th, 2013 at 5:05 PM by Steven Stanley


He’s been the hero of a play, a novel based on that play, a prequel, a sequel, a silent film, several stage adaptations of the original play, an oft-revived and televised Broadway musical, a Disney animated feature (and its sequel), a live-action feature film, a Japanese anime, an animated TV series, a theme-park ride, and most recently a mammoth “360-degree” staging and a Broadway prequel, the winner of five 2012 Tony awards.

With all of the above behind him, you’d think that at the ripe old age of 109, Peter Pan, aka The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, would be ready to call it quits, but you’d be wrong, since just when most centenarians would be poised to take their final bows, along comes Michael Lluberes’ Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers, proving that a) there’s still life in the young/old boy and b) that you don’t need a gazillion dollars (or however much the budget of Peter Pan threesixty° was) to make theatrical magic.
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posted in Drama, Hollywood/West Hollywood, Now Playing, WOW!

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