Michael Stone Forrest

Rubicon Theatre of Ventura continues the company's commitment to the creation of new works with the organization's 46th mainstage world premiere - a developmental musical production based on Dark of the Moon, the 1945 Broadway play by Howard Richardson and William Berney.

La Mirada Theatre For The Performing Arts & Mccoy Rigby Entertainment present the fifth and final show of its season, Laurie Veldheer as "Belle" and Todd Adamson as "The Beast" starring in Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, book by Linda Woolverton, musical direction by Darryl Archibald, choreography by Robbie Roby and direction by Michael Heitzman.

In McCoy Rigby Entertainment's production of '1776,' director Glenn Casale utilizes a mixture of young and veteran performers. In the show, seasoned actors like James Barbour (Edward Rutledge) and Peter Van Norden (Benjamin Franklin) co-star with young newcomers like Jordan Schneider (Lyman Hall) and Nick McKenna (A Courier). We spoke with Schneider and Nick Santa Maria (John Hancock) in this enlightening interview about auditions, reacting, and listening as an actor.

LA MIRADA THEATRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS & McCOY RIGBY ENTERTAINMENT (celebrating its 25th Silver Anniversary at the theatre) present the award-winning and revolutionary 1776 THE MUSICAL, with musical direction by Jeff Rizzo and directed & staged by Glenn Casale. 1776 THE MUSICAL will preview on Friday, January 11, 2019 (with a press opening on Saturday, January 12 at 8pm) and runs through Sunday, February 3, 2019 at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd in La Mirada.

In the opening scene of the Rubicon Theatre Company's production of My Fair Lady, buskers in London's Covent Garden, where Cockney Eliza Doolittle works as a flower girl, are rewarded with tuppence given to them by members of the audience. It is this kind of intimacy, an initial breaking of the fourth wall, that helps make Rubicon's current production an enchanting, warm-hearted interpretation of one of Broadway's most beloved musicals.

The director and designers behind Rubicon Theatre Company's acclaimed environmental productions ofFiddler on the Roof and Man of La Mancha have reunited on the two-piano chamber version of the legendary Lerner and Loewe's classic My Fair Lady. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, the musical tells the story of Professor Henry Higgins, an arrogant and attractive phonetician who makes a wager that he can transform a 'deliciously low' Cockney flower-seller (Eliza Doolittle) into an elegant lady by teaching her to speak more beautifully. The magnificent score includes 'I Could Have Danced All Night,' 'On the Street Where You Live,' 'Wouldn't It Be Loverly,' and 'I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face.' For Rubicon's production, Director James O'Neil returns to the source material to explore the Shavian themes of class struggle, social reform and women's rights.

La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and McCoy Rigby Entertainment present the fifth and final production in its 2013-1014 season of shows with the Los Angeles regional theatre premiere of one of the most beloved musicals of all time, based on the novel by Victor Hugo, the Tony award-winning, LES MISERABLES, music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, book by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, with musical direction by John Glaudini, choreography by Dana Solimando and directed by Brian Kite.

Cue the traveling music and pack up the suitcases, Prince Pericles is going on an adventure. But as Shakespeare's protagonist will soon find out, this grand tour is not destined to be full of thrilling adventures. In the search for a bride he discovers unspeakable horror, flees for his life, and is subject to two disastrous storms at sea. Then, his wife dies in childbirth, he leaves his daughter to be raised by a woman who grows to hate her, and is told on his return that she too has died.

Sweden's great beauty Greta Gustafsson, later renamed Greta Garbo has been the subject of several plays, but, to my knowledge, When Garbo Talks is the first musical to recount her fascinating career. ICT's world premiere production in Long Beach is well directed, has an excellent cast, but at best comes off disconnected and unduly and unclearly satirical. If parody is the intent, it is far from apparent at the beginning.