SOUTH PACIFIC

posted on May 25th, 2013 at 11:52 AM by Steven Stanley


Director-choreographer Valerie Rachelle makes a stellar Glendale Centre Theatre debut with as fine an in-the-round production of the legendary Rodgers & Hammerstein classic South Pacific as you will likely ever see, one that strips away the cobwebs to reveal just why the legendary team’s third Broadway smash remains one of the greatest musicals ever.
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posted in Burbank/Glendale, Musical, Now Playing, WOW!

THE FANTASTICKS

posted on May 24th, 2013 at 4:21 PM by Steven Stanley


Sometimes it takes magic to make magic, or at least such is the case with South Coast Repertory’s exhilarating, eye-popping new staging of The Fantasticks, a revival that even those who’d put the record-breaking off-Broadway smash on their list of least-favorite musicals can enjoy. (I know, as I am one of them.)
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posted in Musical, Now Playing, Orange County, WOW!

BE A GOOD LITTLE WIDOW

posted on May 22nd, 2013 at 12:03 PM by Steven Stanley


25-year-old Melody is still struggling with the demands of being a newlywed wife when she is faced with the even greater challenge of being a newlywed widow in Bekah Brunstetter’s singular new comedy Be A Good Little Widow, now getting a splendid West Coast Premiere at San Diego’s The Old Globe.
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posted in Comedy-Drama, Now Playing, San Diego County, WOW!

OTHER DESERT CITIES

posted on May 21st, 2013 at 9:27 PM by Steven Stanley


The continental divide that has polarized America into mud-slinging camps of liberals vs. conservatives over the past few decades takes on a personal, familial note in Jon Robin Baitz’s Other Desert Cities, one of the best written, most thought-provoking, and ultimately most moving plays of the last decade, now getting a superb San Diego premiere at The Old Globe.
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posted in Drama, Now Playing, San Diego County, WOW!

THE FULL MONTY

posted on May 20th, 2013 at 10:40 AM by Steven Stanley

Those out-of-work Buffalo factory workers have taken their Chippendales-style strip show to Candlelight Dinner Theater, and the result is the San Gabriel Valley musical theater event of the season.
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posted in Musical, Now Playing, San Gabriel Valley, WOW!

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!

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