Michael Quintos - Page 13

The charming new regional production of the Disney/Cameron Mackintosh musical spectacular MARY POPPINS---currently playing at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts through June 21---has found a lovely, practically perfect Poppins in Hart of Dixie's Brandi Burkhardt, who confidently channels the nanny we all love with her lovely singing voice and a pitch-perfect demeanor that's at times bold, at times cheeky, and altogether beguiling. As for the show itself, it's quite a delightful crowd-pleaser, filled with colorful first-rate visuals, spectacular dancing, festive songs, and an infectiously enthusiastic cast that tries its best to win over its audience. And, boy, they definitely do!

Let's first get this very necessary accolade out of the way: South Coast Repertory's brand new production of Rick Elice's PETER AND THE STARCATCHER is, hands down, one of the most enjoyable, most thrilling, and most engagingly imaginative plays I have seen all season---a fitting capper to the Tony Award-winning Orange County theater's 51st year. This delightfully revised production---which continues performances in Costa Mesa through June 7---re-calibrates the play's hyperactive mixture of mirth and mayhem by further emphasizing its seemingly 'bare-bones' storytelling devices, resulting in one entertaining night of theater that both kids and adults will find endearingly beguiling. Motivated by imagination, I seriously cannot recall the last time I laughed this boisterously and had this much unabashed joy from sitting through a play in quite some time.

A safe, inoffensive, cutesy crowd-pleaser for the young and the young-at-heart, the brand new non-Equity touring revival of the Broadway classic ANNIE is eager to please and pretty much does so. The show is, by all accounts, a cute if standard-issue charmer, filled with hummable ear-worm music (via lyricist/book writer Martin Charnin and composer Charles Strouse) and enjoyably hyperbolic characters that audiences will delight in either cheering or jeering. Sure, ANNIE may not be the best or most groundbreaking musical ever created, but it certainly has its heartwarming place in the genre. The tour continues at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through May 24.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa will be hosting Platinum Award-winning singer-songwriter and Tony Award®-nominated actress Ann Hampton Callaway for a series of cabaret concerts celebrating the music of living legend---and her personal musical heroine---Barbra Streisand. The intimate show will take place May 7-9, 2015 at the Center's Samueli Theater.

Summer is just around the corner which means Segerstrom Center for the Arts' FREE MOVIE MONDAYS will soon return for its ninth year. The five films in this year's line-up include: Little Shop of Horrors, Pitch Perfect, The Sandlot, My Best Friend's Wedding, and ET: The Extra Terrestrial.

South Coast Repertory's latest offering, MR. WOLF---now on stage in Costa Mesa through May 3---is a high-quality presentation of an intriguingly audacious if not quite fully-gestated new world premiere play from Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph, the playwright behind the celebrated BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO. In Mr. Joseph's enticing new drama, the play employs a ripped-from-the-headlines plot that feels more like a stand-alone episode of any given TV procedural drama, which, unfortunately, by their very nature leaves very little room for real character development, yet provides enough juicy (and at times soapy) melodrama to pique an interested audience.

Surprise! This brand new, non-equity national tour of GUYS AND DOLLS---currently onstage at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts for a limited week-long run through April 19---is a winning, nicely-nicely done charmer. Of course, it helps a lot that this traveling production comes equipped with Broadway-caliber sets and costumes and, most satisfying of all, a really talented, engaging ensemble cast.

So. Cal audiences should check out Musical Theatre West's rather admirable regional production of LES MISERABLES, which continues its limited run at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach through April 26, 2015. This highly-commendable, local production features a superb-sounding 30-person cast, an impressive arsenal of lighting, set, and costume designs, and strikingly lush musical accompaniment from a 16-piece live orchestra. Despite some choppy-ness in its narrative flow, the ear candy produced by this exceptional collective had me floating in euphoria.

Filled with relatable humor, wit, and plenty of fiercely sarcastic dialogue and gasp-lite melodrama, OF GOOD STOCK explores the layered, often contentious relationship between a trio of sisters who have decided to gather together at their family's gorgeous ocean-side summer home for a little weekend reunion, with their respective beaus in tow. Written by playwright Melissa Ross, this world premiere production is currently on stage at Costa Mesa's Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory through April 26, under the direction of Gaye Taylor Upchurch.

Ladies and gentlemen... meet Mike McLean, a Southern California native currently making his national tour debut as Benny Southstreet in the classic stage musical GUYS AND DOLLS, now performing at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through April 19. Right before the tour swings its way to Orange County, we thought we'd play 20 (silly) questions with him...

In playwright Kimber Lee's hushed yet absorbing sushi-making drama TOKYO FISH STORY---now having its World Premiere production at Costa Mesa's Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory through March 29---centuries of painstaking tradition are... well, rapidly showing its age against the progress of modern times. Can both harmoniously co-exist? Directed with poetic beauty by Bart DeLorenzo, the play is a subtle yet engagingly universal drama that is also a 90-minute love letter to the intricate art of making sushi.

Any opportunity to catch two-time Grammy-nominated international jazz superstar and frequent favorite BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award-winner Jane Monheit bring her talents to a local venue outside of New York (and even nearby Los Angeles) is its own cause for celebration. That was certainly evidenced by the rapturous reception she received during her triumphant return to Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Monheit closed out the Center's 2014-2015 Jazz series with Hello Bluebird, her jazz-centric tribute to the legendary Judy Garland. As expected, the 85-minute concert was nothing less than stunning. Let me repeat... stunning.

On the trailblazing March 2nd episode of ABC Family's hit critically-acclaimed drama series THE FOSTERS, viewers witnessed a pair of 13-year-old best friends explore one of the most time-honored, sometimes awkward rituals of typical adolescence: declaring their attraction for one another with a kiss. The only big difference this time around? The two pals at the center of this blooming romance are both male: Jude (stirringly portrayed by Hayden Byerly) and Connor (played by Gavin Macintosh). Prior to the airing of the history-making episode, BroadwayWorld contributing editor Michael L. Quintos posed a few questions to the young actor about his role, his life on set, and the significance of his character's existence in today's modern television landscape.

For John Lloyd Young's special Valentine's weekend cabaret concert titled 'My Turn'---which continues at the Samueli Theater on the campus of Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts through February 14---the Tony Award-winning star of JERSEY BOYS presented an hour-long set of love songs, both joyful and heart-tugging. With the confidence and panache of a seasoned old-school song interpreter and showman, Young oh-so-passionately crooned and belted his way through an enjoyable songbook of personally curated classic standards that reverberated with the highs and lows of love.

A charming, fun-filled musical comedy performed with cheery, infectious gusto, 3-D Theatricals' top-notch regional production of SEUSSICAL - THE MUSICAL is a laugh-out-loud, smile-a-minute spectacular for all ages! Featuring Cathy Rigby reprising her Broadway/National Tour role as The Cat In The Hat, the show is one of this season's most gloriously delightful, thoroughly entertaining surprises! The musical continues at the Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton through February 22 then transfers to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center for a limited run February 28 - March 8.

Of the multitude of recent film-to-stage adaptations that have risen from the video dust bin to breathe new life in a different guise, the stage version of DIRTY DANCING---whose first national tour is now gyrating inside Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center for the Arts through February 15---is by far one of the oddest, most peculiar ones of the bunch. Though it's not difficult to believe that this ad-hoc concoction has actually been a hit both in Australia and in the UK (they have the original 1987 film's nostalgia-hungry fans to thank for that, no doubt), it's a bit alarming to think that such an awkward head-scratcher has continued life in its current, somewhat off-putting format: as a show paved with good intentions---but executed poorly. Cool projections, though!

The second you take your seat to experience Kneehigh's dazzlingly unorthodox adaptation of the classic doomed romance TRISTAN AND YSEULT at South Coast Repertory, you know for sure you're in for---well, as the folks in Monty Python would say---something completely different. From the get-go, there's an enticing fascination that swirls wildly around this quirky, expressively theatrical Brit import, which is the latest U.S.-touring production from Kneehigh, the much-lauded Cornwall, England-based stage troupe. Their play continues through February 22 at the Tony Award-winning Costa Mesa theater.

There is a very good possibility that many of you have seen or heard of the terrific musical collective known as Postmodern Jukebox across one or more of your preferred social media platforms. This group of clever and talented viral-video/YouTube sensations is the brainchild of arranger/pianist/musical genius Scott Bradlee, whose primary objective has been to repurpose contemporary radio hits and infuse them with the vintage sounds that are more likely to be found in your grandfather's old vinyl record collection. The results? Refreshingly educational, absolutely irresistible, and, most important of all, genuinely entertaining.

In South Coast Repertory's excellent new production of Matthew Lopez's captivating play THE WHIPPING MAN---now playing at the Tony Award-winning Costa Mesa theater through January 25---an internal, theological tug-of-war is brewing just as the Civil War has come to an end. The absorbing, character-driven drama presents the uneasy return of an injured war veteran back to his family's home where two of his father's slaves---now free men under the law---have remained. The homecoming coincides with the Jewish holiday of Passover, which all three celebrate inside the war-torn ruins of this once grand Southern mansion.

When it comes to film-to-stage adaptations, the sassy, Tony Award-winning Best Musical KINKY BOOTS---whose touring company is now on stage at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through January 11---is that rare phenomenon we all wish would happen more often: a stage show that actually improves upon its cinematic source material. On stage, the sparkly stage version certainly amps up the hilarity, high-jinks, and heart, thanks to Harvey Fierstein's even cheekier book that complements Cyndi Lauper's Tony-winning, pop-tastic music and lyrics. Along with the added bonus of Jerry Mitchell's fiery choreography balanced within his even-paced direction, the stage adaptation very much deserves every accolade it has received and continues to enjoy. KINKY BOOTS is, no question, one feel-good, winner of a show.