Michael Quintos - Page 12

Now on stage in an exquisite new regional production at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa through February 21, 2016, John Logan's riveting Tony Award-winning two-character play RED imagines a specific time period in the life of world-renowned abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko (played with superb gusto by Mark Harelik) and his struggles to remain an appreciated, serious artiste at the dawn of pop art, Andy Warhol, and the rise of pretty (and well-funded) 'over mantle' modern art. With the help of a new young assistant (the impressive Paul David Story), Rothko forges ahead with a high-paying commission to produce a series of murals for the Four Seasons Restaurant, which causes much inner turmoil for the artist.

Filled with eye-popping visuals, optical trickery, risky stunts, hilarious audience participation, and lots of hammy showmanship (complete with Solid Gold-style background dancers-slash-magicians' assistants), THE ILLUSIONISTS - LIVE FROM BROADWAY is a supremely entertaining if occasionally cheesy stage show that's like several caffeinated Vegas magic shows on steroids all mashed together. The first stop of this new leg of the post-Broadway national tour is Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, where it will attempt to wow local audiences for a strictly one-week engagement until February 7.

It's no surprise that a palpable, uproarious reception greeted the opening night performance of EMPIRE - THE MUSICAL, a brand new stage show featuring book, music, and lyrics by Caroline Sherman and Robert Hull---currently having its 'out-of-town' premiere at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through February 14, 2016. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge (RAGTIME), this ambitious new original musical---advertised with declared aspirations for an eventual engagement on Broadway---fashions an early 20th Century era, multi-character narrative about the construction of one of the world's most iconic skyscrapers: the Empire State Building in New York City. The good news? It's exceedingly entertaining. The not-so-good news? It's a show with lots of potential but needs a lot more tinkering and refining.

Much like the opening night performance I experienced at the show's debut at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood last month, I was once again blown away by Menzel's incredible musical gifts with the show's opener at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa (which plays through January 24). Even better: she is still surrounded by the same equally astonishing support cast, particularly her original Broadway co-stars LaChanze, Anthony Rapp, and James Snyder. So how was the experience this time? While my initial reaction to the show itself hovered somewhere in the middle, I have to admit that I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed the show the second time around. Dare I say, I even think I *loved* it more.

While certainly far from a perfect show (both in staging and execution), the bus-and-truck version of BULLETS OVER BROADWAY - THE MUSICAL---the quirky and highly-amusing stage musical adaptation of the 1994 big screen comedy penned by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath---is nonetheless a supremely fun and engaging stage iteration had me in stitches for much of its two hilarious acts, which have been enhanced by lots of silly, old-fashioned antics and an array of surprisingly top-notch musical/acting performances from a solid, mostly young cast. I can honestly say that this production---now finishing up its Los Angeles premiere performances at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood through January 24---is quite possibly the most enjoyable non-equity first national tour I've watched in a long, long time---a wonderful surprise considering such enterprises have a long, contentious history of enticing lots of industry controversy and skepticism even before the curtain goes up.

As expected, Tony Award winner and Broadway superstar Idina Menzel drew thunderous applause a mere second into the the start of IF/THEN's opening night performance at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre last Wednesday night. It's no stretch then to say that her mere existence in this very same role she herself originated in the original Broadway production seems, above everything else, to be the immediate draw to the recently launched national tour now on stage at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood for a four week engagement through January 3, 2016. The bonus? She is joined onstage by her original co-stars LaChanze, Anthony Rapp, and James Snyder!

Need a pick-me-up from a bad day? Aching to smile heartily through a pleasantly peppy stage musical? Then you need not look further than the rousing, just-launched new touring production of the Tony Award-winning hit 42ND STREET, now currently entertaining audiences at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through November 22. Earnestly cheerful and unabashedly optimistic, this feel-good, all-singing, all-dancing 1980 stage adaptation of Busby Berkeley's classic 1933 movie musical is back on the road in a brand new, non-Equity national tour directed by co-writer Mark Bramble, who earned a Tony nomination for directing the Tony-winning 2001 Broadway revival. Aside from its Broadway-caliber creative aspects, this new tour succeeds tremendously thanks to its young, energetic, and incredibly likable ensemble cast that brings vim and vigor to the aging Great-Great-Grand-Daddy of all backstage musicals.

It was 25 years ago when South Coast Repertory first staged the World Premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley's dark comedy ABUNDANCE. Fast forward to 2015, and Orange County's Tony Award-winning regional theater saw it fitting to once again revisit the property in a brand new production now viewed through 21st Century eyes, that has been beautifully directed by SCR Founding Artistic Director Martin Benson. The play continues performances in Costa Mesa through November 15.

Fourth time's the charm for Musical Theatre West as the award-winning regional theater company opens its 63rd season with the 1956 Lerner and Loewe Broadway classic MY FAIR LADY. Retaining the effervescent wit and jubilant spirit of the original, MTW's irresistibly beguiling, top-notch local revival---now on stage at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach, CA through November 8---is a thoroughly enjoyable production from start to finish. Filled with wit, charm, memorable tunes, and timeless, often uplifting humor, MY FAIR LADY is basically the comfort food of classic musicals... and MTW wisely sticks with this winning formula. After all... why mess with a near-perfect classic?

18 years and billions of box office receipts later, Disney's Tony Award-winning global hit THE LION KING is still going strong both on Broadway and on various touring and sit-down productions across the world. The show's North American tour is currently finishing up its four-week return engagement at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through November 1. The question raised is this: is THE LION KING, Director Julie Taymor's creative stage adaptation of the hit animated classic still worth seeing these days? Absolutely. Here's ten reasons why...

Appropriately enough, the supposedly haunted Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton is currently playing host to the happy spooks of 3-D Theatricals' regional production of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, which continues performances at this historic theater through October 25 before migrating south to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center for shows October 31 - November 8. Filled with gleeful, cheese-tastic one-liners and catchy, cleverly written tunes from Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party, Big Fish), this seemingly underrated stage musical gem is a lively, highly-amusing little comedy that celebrates individual uniqueness while poking lots of giddy fun at fragile family dynamics, pointing out that even the most creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky beings among us face the same kinds of OMG-drama that so-called 'normals' do. As an added bonus, 3DT's production features a stellar cast led by TV's Bronson Pinchot as Gomez and Broadway vet Rachel York as Morticia.

Full of the Obie-winning playwright's amusingly observant and stirringly poignant portraits of ordinary people in extraordinary flux, Samuel D. Hunter's 2010 play A BRIGHT NEW BOISE is now being staged in a terrific production currently in performance at Orange County's Ovation-winning Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills through October 25.

So does FIRST DATE---the relatively new musical comedy now playing its Southern California regional premiere at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through October 11---merit an outing? Sure! If you're looking for a cute, charming little musical that's giddy and entertaining and features a pop-tastic score performed by a superb ensemble, then the answer is yes... you'll definitely want to swipe right on this match up.

To put it succinctly, be ready to laugh your ass off. A brilliant, witty melange of slapstick, sight gags, silly absurdity, hyperbolic acting, and even bits of good ol' reliable audience participation, ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS, Richard Bean's exceedingly hilarious comedy of errors, misdirections, and misunderstandings is now receiving a superb West Coast premiere production at Orange County's Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory theater through October 11.

To kick off Segerstrom Center for the Arts' brand new 2015-2016 Spotlight Series, the O.C. theatrical institution will welcome cast members of the Tony Award-winning New York company of the hysterical FORBIDDEN BROADWAY for the show's latest touring incarnation entitled Alive and Kicking! for a limited four-performance engagement at the Center's Samueli Theater from October 1-4. One of the show's longtime stalwarts is Trisha Rapier, a 12-year veteran of the show who also happens to hail from Orange County! She agreed to answer a few questions from BWW So. Cal. contributing editor Michael L. Quintos before her O.C. homecoming.

Definitely one of this current millennium's funniest stage shows, the world-famous Hollywood Bowl certainly chose wisely in its decision to stage the hit musical comedy Monty Python's SPAMALOT as this year's all-star annual summer stage musical spectacular, which was welcomed with plenty of sustained, hearty laughter and a well-deserved standing ovation during its opening night performance on Friday evening, July 31st. The nearly 18,000-seat venue's truncated, yet still enormously entertaining re-staging of the 2005 Tony Award winner for Best Musical continues with two additional weekend performances, August 1-2.

Bravo to Chance Theater for taking on this mainstream hit and making it actually feel like a fresh, awesome little indie. Now playing through August 9, the latest offering from Orange County's bold, award-winning regional theater company is their own 'intimate' theater re-staging of HAIRSPRAY, the 2002 hit Tony Award-winning musical comedy. The results? Quite simply a more compact production that is an absolutely undeniable, all-around rousing winner. Under the direction of Kari Hayter, the celebratory production's immersive, semi-theater-in-the-round minimalist approach actually thrusts the show's outstanding music and comedy out front, wonderfully blanketing the audience in the show's pro-integration, pro-acceptance storyline about a rotund young lady with big hair and big dreams who sets off to change the world.

OC's award-winning regional theater company 3-D Theatricals' latest effort is a remarkably admirable, visually-stunning iteration of Disney's TARZAN® THE MUSICAL that defiantly dazzles and entertains despite the inherent, unavoidable shortcomings of its licensed source material (a problematic book and mostly forgettable score). Thanks to the incredible combined efforts of the show's creative team of brilliant theatrical artisans, its richly striking orchestra, and its top-notch, super-talented ensemble cast (led by Devin Archer and Daebreon Poiema), this ultimately winning local production has certainly earned all its well-deserved cheers. Under the showmanship-style guidance of director Rufus Bonds Jr., 3DT's vividly colorful TARZAN manages to rise (at times literally) high above the original show's weak plotting, Hwang's sometimes stale dialogue, and Collins' run-of-the-mill lyrics... and triumphantly emerge as a wonder-filled, visually-stunning treat for all ages.

As the cliche goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That is perhaps partly the philosophy behind the rather faithful stage adaptation of the gloriously wonderful movie musical SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, now once again charmingly replicated in a smile-inducing local production at Musical Theatre West that continues through July 26 at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach. An almost scene-by-scene, note-for-note recreation of the superb cinematic masterpiece, the musical theater iteration of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN smartly and painstakingly reenacts every key moment and memorable musical happenstance from the 1952 movie that many have since heralded as one of the best movie musicals of all time. With MTW's latest revival specifically, director/choreographer Jon Engstrom has helmed a joyful production worth experiencing, whether it's your first or hundredth time. And, yes, it rains on stage... and it's a sight to behold!

For nearly three vigorous hours, MOTOWN - THE MUSICAL provides one helluva show. More like a CONCERT rather than your typical book musical, this dazzling, high-octane extravaganza of music and dance is a visual and aural feast that gamely crams in more than 60 hits from the groundbreaking record company's discography. The story---penned by Motown founder Berry Gordy himself---may be its lone weak spot, but there's no denying how fun it is to see and hear this impressive cast of quintuple-threats recreate these greatest hits live on stage. The rousingly entertaining, exuberantly-performed stage spectacular continues at Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts through June 28.