Les Spindle – Edge on the Net Having a dual passion for baseball and Broadway isn’t necessarily a prerequisite to enjoying the golden-age musical classic, “Damn Yankees,” but it certainly helps. This 1955 stage hit reteamed most of the illustrious creators of an earlier Broadway smash “The Pajama Game.” Read more… Now running through October 25.
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net In “Appropriate,” the initial conventionality in introducing the characters and basic storyline elicits raucous and sardonic laughs, as the depth of resentments among the siblings and their family members gradually come to light. Yet, there’s far more than garden-variety family baggage afoot here, Read more… Pauline Adamek – ArtsBeatLA … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net Prolific Chicago-based playwright, Phillip Dawkins, is back. When his riveting ensemble drama “The Homosexuals” was presented at L.A.’ s Celebration Theater in 2013, it certainly whetted one’s appetite to view more of his work. In a staging by L.A.’s Coeurage Theatre Company, Dawkins’ zany seriocomic reverie, “Failure: A Love … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer-winning 1943 musical “Oklahoma!” sparkles anew in Cabrillo Music Theatre’s exuberantly entertaining revisit to the Broadway classic. Read more… Margaret Gray – LA Times The first collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, “Oklahoma!,” which debuted in 1943, is often credited with reinventing musical theater — … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Arts In LA Todd Almond’s libretto for the musical Girlfriend is as honest as a John Hughes gay musical would have been—if John Hughes had written a gay musical. Using Matthew Sweet’s 1990s Alternative Rock album of the same name as it’s framework, this story captures the anticipation and titillation that sets … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net As if on cue, following the recent landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Marriage Equality, and Wayne Moore’s exuberant musical spoof “Adam & Eve and Steve: The Musical”floats into the L.A. theater arena at precisely the right moment. Parlaying the age-old Biblical story of Adam and Eve into a … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times Here’s a deal, L.A. theaters: We’ll happily watch all the liquored-up-dysfunctional-family-reunion dramas you care to stage, as long as you cast Anne Gee Byrd as the mother. Read more… Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Like his other plays, Samuel D. Hunter’s A Permanent Image is set in the arid cultural wasteland of northern Idaho. Read … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking 1970 musical, “Company,” about romance and loneliness in the big city, remains a quintessential snapshot of the era in which it bowed, as viewed through the eyes of a commitment-phobic young bachelor. Read more… Jonas Schwartz – Arts In LA Launching a version of Company, Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking 1970s … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net This fall, a string of new musicals that spoof horror films was kicked off with “Scary Musical, The Musical” and “Scream!” Those productions are now joined by ”Serial Killer Barbie,”featuring a book and lyrics by Colette Freedman, with music and additional lyrics by Nickella Moschetti. Despite its amusing title, … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net A new theater group, the Fringe Theatre Company in North Hollywood, offers the premiere of an ensemble play set in contemporary L.A. Writer-director Joanne Mosconi’s “You Love That I’m Not Your Wife” is a multi-character battle-of-the-sexes comedy in which various couples and potential couples face myriad challenges in … Read more