The Hunchback of Notre Dame :: LA Drama Critics Circle

BANDSTAND at Broadway In Thousand Oaks

December 3, 2019Jonas Schwartz – Broadway World The musical Bandstand, which is now part of the American Theater Guild tour across the country, thrives when Andy Blankenbuehler’s Tony-winning choreography is front and center. Restaged for this production by Marc Heitzman, who was Dance Captain in the Broadway production, the dances display vitality that makes audiences want to
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DEFENDERS at the Broadwater Black Box

November 22, 2019Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw On May 10, 1940, Iceland was invaded by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines because the British government feared the possible Nazi takeover of the country. A little over a year later, defense of the country was transferred to the United States. Against this backdrop, Cailin Maureen Harrison tells
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ELIJAH at The Victory Theatre Center

November 22, 2019Terry Morgan - Stage Raw Placing a disparate group of characters in a location they can’t leave and forcing them to deal with each other has been a tried and true source of dramatic conflict since Sartre’s No Exit. The claustrophobia and stress of interacting with new people ratchets up the tension swiftly. So it
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KEY LARGO at Geffen Playhouse

November 18, 2019Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Key Largo was first a 1939 Broadway play, then a 1948 film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and finally, it is now at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in a new world premiere adaptation. Adapted by Andy Garcia and Jeffrey Hatcher, this play shifts some of the
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THE GREAT LEAP at the Pasadena Playhouse

November 14, 2019Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen Sometimes the most compelling drama in sports does not happen on the court or field, but behind the scenes. In The Great Leap, a play by Lauren Yee that opened in its Los Angeles premiere this weekend at the Pasadena Playhouse, in association with the East West Players,
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THE THANKSGIVING PLAY at Geffen Playhouse

November 12, 2019Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen The version of Thanksgiving most of us were taught in school is certainly problematic. From outdated, disrespectful views of Native Americans and erasure of their role to the generous portrayals of the first white settlers on this continent, the narrative around the whole holiday is due for reexamination.
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THE BEST MAN at the Lounge theatre

November 8, 2019Rob Stevens – Haines His Way When Gore Vidal’s play The Best Man premiered in March, 1960, it seemed to presage the upcoming Democratic Presidential Convention. The two main characters–Governor William Russell, an intellectual, was modeled on persistent Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson while the brash, young contender Senator Joe Cantwell was an amalgam of
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Archive for The Hunchback of Notre Dame

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME at Whittier Community Theatre at The Center Theater

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Saturday, September 15th, 2018

Frances Baum Nicholson –The Stage Struck Review

It is quite remarkable how many times the Victor Hugo novel, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” has been dramatized, in film, on television, and on the stage.
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Now running through September 22

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Categories : Reviews

Tags : Frances Baum Nicholson, Stage Struck Review, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Whittier Community Theatre at The Center Theater

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME at the La Jolla Playhouse

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Friday, November 14th, 2014

Photo by Kevin Berne

Jonas Schwartz - TheaterMania

When Disney Theatricals launched an epic musical version of the 1996 animated film in Berlin in 1999, The Hunchback of Notre Dame was the first Disney production to open outside the United States. With additional songs by the original writers Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz and a book and direction by the acclaimed James Lapine, the show broke box-office records and ran for three years. Now the producers have mounted the first U.S. production at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse but with a new book by Peter Parnell and direction by Scott Schwartz. Read more…