Shari Barrett - Page 46

The setting is Paris in the 18th Century with THE GAMESTER performed in rhymed couplets. But don't let the timeframe, language or fabulous costumes fool you. This story of true love, schemes, casual lusts, machinations, treachery and too many casinos feels as modern as today. After all, haven't we created whole cities and casinos galore aimed to pull in gamblers night and day? And don't we have Gamblers Anonymous for those who simply cannot stay away?

When I heard The Aerospace Players were going to present A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, I almost decided not to see it as I have seen it twice before and never really understood why the show was just not as funny as it ought to be. Now I know why - those other shows did not have Darrell Clark playing Pseudolus and he made all the difference! Clark's abundant physicality added so much more to the crazy humor of the show that even the silliest jokes seemed new and fresh, generating lots of laughs and when appropriate, sufficient groans.

On Sunday, July 20, the Kentwood Players performance of SORDID LIVES had 4 very special guests in the audience: playwright Del Shores and original cast members Ann Walker, Newell Alexander and Rosemary Alexander. After enjoying the show, they visited with the Kentwood cast and posed for photos on the set.

Each year, Long Beach Playhouse closes its Mainstage Season with a musical. This year it's presenting the popular classic, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein. When it opened on Broadway 50 years ago in 1964, the musical was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won nine. In 1971, it was made into a movie, produced and directed by Norman Jewison, starring Chaim Topol who was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of Tevye the Milkman.

While there is speculation that Twelfth Night was written for the 12th night of Christmas by request of Queen Elizabeth, a holiday which celebrates revelry by turning the world upside down, with masks, music, dance, celebrating a moment where servants are masters, masters are servants, and not all seems as it should be. While there is no proof for this speculation, it was certainly the author's and this production's comic inspiration.

The world premiere of Peter Lefcourt's play THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT takes an in-depth and often comic look at two couples, a pair of ex-spouses and their new mates. When the four get together for the first time in years, it blows up in a delightful mess of romantic complications proving you should never underestimate the power of designer shoes on matters of the heart.

Kentwood Players will present 'Sordid Lives' by Del Shores from tonight, July 11 to August 16, 2014 for a six-week run on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm with Sunday matinees at 2pm at the Westchester Playhouse, located at 8301 Hindry Avenue, Westchester, CA 90045. The production is directed by Kirk Larson and produced by Lori Marple-Pereslete and Virginia Mekkelson by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

This black comedy about white trash centers on a colorful family from a small Texas town who must come to grips with the accidental death of the elderly family matriarch during her clandestine meeting in a seedy motel room with a much younger, married neighbor. The woman's family must deal with their own demons while preparing for what could be an embarrassing funeral. This play is filled with adult situations and language

Fans of sketch comedy TV shows such as The Red Skeleton Show, the Jackie Gleason Show and the Carol Burnett show will certainly recognize the many farcical vaudeville comedy bits in MAMA WON'T FLY, written by three of the most produced playwrights in America, Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, and directed by James Rice at Little Fish Theatre in San Pedro.

Back by popular demand after sold-out houses last summer, Chalk Repertory Theatre, the Los Angeles-based production company that is a leader "in the growing conversation about the shape of immersive theatre," will re-mount Oscar Wilde's LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN at UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in in the West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles this summer for 5 performances.

Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Chief Sitting Bull, and Frank Butler will appear in Haven Academy of the Arts production of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, a musical with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin and a book by Dorothy Fields and her brother Herbert Fields. The family-friendly musical presents a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley (1860-1926), a sharpshooter who starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and her romance with sharpshooter Frank Butler.

The MaD JaCKRaTS in 'Makin' a Movie' Improvisation is the first in an ongoing monthly series on the third Sunday of each month. From show to show, you will meet some outrageous characters, both new and recurring. You get to throw them into any situation with your suggestions. It's guaranteed to be a unique and entertaining experience each time!!!

Bialystock and Bloom! Those names should strike terror and hysteria in anyone familiar with Mel Brooks' classic cult comedy film. Now as a big Broadway musical, THE PRODUCERS once again sets the standard for modern, outrageous, in-your-face humor. The 2001 Tony Award Winning Best Musical based on Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, has been wowing audiences around the world, and now at the Morgan Wixson Theater in Santa Monica through August 2, 2014.

Kentwood Players, the community theater group based at the Westchester Playhouse, was founded in December 1949 by Jan and Arky Marcom. At the end of each season, all Kentwood Players members in good standing who have seen all six shows vote by secret ballot and then the group presents their annual Marcom Masque Awards to the winners in each category at an entertainment-filled awards ceremony, held June 28, 2014 for the 2013-2014 season..

Wilson Milam directs the West Coast premiere of DATES AND NUTS, a romantic comedy by Gary Lennon ("Orange is the New Black" and "Justified"), about Brooklyn animal rights activist Eve who has just been dumped by her fiance - for a man. Angry at the male species, she becomes increasingly frantic as she searches for love in the dating jungle of New York City. Will she ever find the man of her dreams? Can she learn to keep her mouth shut and not scare all of them away?

Highlighted with brilliant acting, writing and directing, the world premiere comedy MEET & GREET is bound to be one of the biggest hits at this year's Fringe. The premise is we are in a casting office in the San Fernando Valley, present day. Four actresses have been called in for one part during pilot season, and each one appears to be at the end of her acting rope and really needs the job.

Your GPS tells you how to get where you're going, but what if it could tell you more? Such is the inventive premise of THE NAVIGATOR, enjoying its West Coast premiere during Fringe. Written by Eddie Antar and directed by Leslie Kincaid Burby for Burning Clown Productions, this show was nominated for 2 Drama Desk Awards and 8 New York Innovative Theatre Awards, all well deserved.

As a huge fan of The Twilight Zone TV show, I enjoyed seeing the different mash-ups of episodes as well as being able to catch references to many other episodes (ie: Willoughby, Hitchhiker, To Serve Man Diner). It was also fun to see clips from many original episodes played on a large TV monitor on the set. Very clever editing on all of these.

AFTERLOVE: LOVE LIFE IN THE AFTERLIFE, written by and performed by Ron Hanks and Betsy Reisz is one of the most brilliant and inventive shows I have seen at this year's Hollywood Fringe Festival. In the dating pool of the afterlife, there are a LOT of choices, and this show presents 8 couples of public figures across time and space as they attempt to create new and continued love with each other in Heaven.

SORDID LIVES, a black comedy about white trash, centers on a colorful family from a small Texas town who must come to grips with the accidental death of the elderly family matriarch during her clandestine meeting in a seedy motel room with a much younger, married neighbor. The woman's family must deal with their own demons while preparing for what could be an embarrassing funeral. This play is filled with adult situations and language.