Cori Cable Kidder. Photo by Gina Long.
Dana Martin – Stage Raw
Cori Cable Kidder is channeling the star power of country music icon Patsy Cline at the Sierra Madre Playhouse this holiday season. A Patsy Cline Holiday Concert promises the most wholesome two hours of country music crooning this side of anywhere. Read more…
Through December 23
Photo by Robert Velasco
Tracey Paleo – Gia On The Move
Sierra Madre Playhouse’s rendition of KING OF THE YEES directed by Tim Dang, so often plods along at such a ponderous pace, including occasionally awkward staging at the tip of the wings, that the sprightly comedy of this adventure is a bit dwindled. And that’s a shame. Because Lauren Yee’s play is not just a lighthearted journey of self-discovery through the back doors of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Her semi-autobiographical work is a far more spirited and vital commentary on Chinese culture in America and its evolution. Read more…
Now through June 12
Alexander Mashikian and Hamilton Davis Weaver
Rob Stevens – Haines His Way
For 50 years beginning in 1950, cartoonist Charles M. Schulz drew a daily comic strip entitled Peanuts which featured the mis-adventures of a young boy named Charlie Brown and his friends. Read more…
Now running through September 12
Gina Long
Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review
In Mitch Albom’s memoir “Tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson,” Albom details his mid-life reconnection with a favorite Brandeis sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz.
Now running through March 31
Gina Long
Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review
When a play being produced locally has a long history of excellence, that can be both a blessing and a curse for a theater company, especially a comparatively small one.
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
We don’t usually think of friendly card games as battles to the death, or near it, except perhaps in the Wild West. But as playwright D.L. Coburn suggests in his Pulitzer Prize play, when it comes to super competitive men like Weller Martin (Alan Blumenfeld), anything can happen.
Read more…
Now running through October 7
Gina Long
Ellen Dostal – Broadway World
One thing’s for sure – country musicals are an awful lot of fun. There aren’t very many of them and, if you can name one at all, it’s most likely THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS or THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM. But there is another rarely produced gem that is just as enjoyable – PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES……Read more…
Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review
Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the definition of what made something a Broadway-style musical was in flux.
Read more…
Now running through August 12
Photo by Gina Long, courtesy Sierra Madre Playhouse)
Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze
Imaginative direction, striking designs and two vivid performances bring the thrilling journey of Madeleine L’Engle’s science-fantasy novel “A Wrinkle in Time” to life onstage at Sierra Madre Playhouse. Read more…
Now running through April 22
Photo by Gina Long
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw
In 1985 police dropped a bomb on a predominantly black middle-class neighborhood in Philadelphia. They were targeting MOVE, a strange radical group known for staging vociferous profanity-laden demonstrations against the Establishment. Read more…
Now running through February 18
(Photo by John Dlugolecki)
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
This cheery, lightweight musical — conceived by Rebecca Feldman, with a book by Rachel Scheinkin, and music and lyrics by William Finn (Falsettos, Falsettoland) — has a proven track-record as a crowd pleaser. Read more…
Now running through August 21
Photo by Gina Long
Melinda Schupmann – Arts In LA
In the grand scheme of things, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is only as good as its cast, and Sierra Madre has that nailed with a terrific ensemble who enliven William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin’s amusing take on competition among the young. Read more…
Now running through August 21
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
Playwright Ira Levin’s Deathtrap became the longest-running thriller in Broadway history, playing for nearly four years — topped only by the London production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, which seems destined to run forever. And Levin’s other works are not to be sneezed at: they include such trifles as Rosemary’s Baby, A Kiss Before Dying, The Stepford Wives, and The Boys From Brazil. Read more…
Now running through February 20
Photo by Gina Long
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw
Truman Capote’s autobiographical novella, A Christmas Memory, deals with his loving friendship with his elderly eccentric cousin Sook, and takes place during a period in the writer’s childhood when, due to his mother’s marital vicissitudes, he was farmed out to various relatives in the South. Read more…
Now running through December 27.