The Remarkable Mister Holmes
Laguna Playhouse Thru March 30
Review by Stacy Holmes
An impressive season continues at Laguna Playhouse with a 2022 musical comedy that describes itself as My Fair Lady meets Funny Thing Happened at the Way to Forum. Dr. Watson has disappeared and someone claiming to be his sister Sheila Watson appears. A jewelry show and a worldwide religious convention are underway in the nearby Hotel Magnificent. Someone keeps murdering the religious leaders. A jewel collection has gone missing. Scotland Yard’s Detective Lestrade calls in Sherlock Holmes to find the murderer and end the chaos at the fancy hotel. Watson insists upon tagging along. Red herrings and real clues abound but the real villain is hiding in plain sight until the last moment. Full Review
Arts
Cirque du Soleil Echo
Review by Stacy Holmes
Cirque du Soleil’s production of Echo is playing at the Laguna Hills Mall through June. Echo is a recent production of the more than 56 Cirque du Soleil shows over the past 40 years. Guy Laiberte and Gilles Ste-Croix founded their dream in Montreal. Their early work, even with its unsteady financial support, caught the attention of the Canadian government that provided some grant funding that launched what has become world wide tours of multiple productions as well as long-running resident productions in Las Vegas and elsewhere. More
August Wilson’s Fences
Laguna Playhouse
Review by Stacy Holmes
Fences draws from Wilson’s own boyhood experiences growing up in Pittsburgh in a Black neighborhood. A couple work tirelessly at exhausting jobs to support their meager home and lifestyle while raising two sons. Differences between father and each son as well as tensions in their marriage carry the story through years of the children’s coming of age and finding lives of their own.
Laguna Playhouse boldly undertakes to stage Wilson’s best known play. With luminaries like James Earl Jones, Mary Alice, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis starring in two Broadway productions and a movie version, the standards could not be higher. No worries. Corey Jones and Tamarra Graham perform one of American theater’s most powerful scripts brilliantly. All of the ensemble players hear the playwright’s story and bring it to life. Delighted audiences stand in appreciation of Laguna Playhouse’s powerful production. Full Review
Upcoming Community Theater Shows
Alchemy Theatre Treasure Island Mar 7 -23 Comedy of Errors Jul 11-27 alchemytheatre.com
Cabrillo Playhouse Midsummer Night’s Dream Feb 28 - Mar 23 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do Apr 18 - May 11 www.cabrilloplayhouse.org
Camino Real Playhouse Closed During Move to New Location. 31896 Plaza Drive Suite C, SJC www.caminorealplayhouse.org
Costa Mesa Playhouse Sweat May 16 - Jun 8. www.costamesaplayhouse.org
Chance Theater The Chinese Lady (Regional Premiere) May 16 - Jun 8 chanctheater.com
Laguna Playhouse Fences Apr 30 - May 18 lagunaplayhouse.com
Newport Theater Arts Center Arts New Season Reveal May 3 Our Town May 9 - Jun 1 www.ntacthickets.com
No Square Theater You Are Enough Apr 25 Dracula A Comedy of Terrors May 2-18 www.nosquare.org
South Coast Repertory You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World Apr 5 - May 3 Pacific Playwrights Festival May 2 - 4. scr.org
The Larking House Sentences Summer 2025 www.thelarkinghouse.com
The Wayward Artist The Mother F*cker with the Hat April 12 - 21 Putnam County Spelling Bee Jul 12 - 28 www.thewaywardartist.org
Westminster Community Playhouse Sound of Music May 16 - Jun 8 www.wcpstage.com
Whittier Playhouse Harvey May 30 - June 14. www.whittiercommunitytheatre.org
Z Playhouse Heathers The Musical April 11 - 27
2 Pianos 4 Hands at Laguna Playhouse
A review by Stacy Holmes
2 Pianos 4 Hands launched the Laguna Playhouse 2003-2004 season with the return of a unique show following the lives of two boys who aspire to become famous classical piano performers. We see two grand pianos on stage. Ted (Jefferson McDonald) and Richard (Matthew McGloin) appear in concert tails in the opening scene. It seems the piano benches are paired with the wrong pianos. The audience enjoys a laugh or two as the performers fuss over trivial matters. They finally launch into J.S. Bach’s Concerto in D minor and the show is on.
Twenty short scenes follow where one actor portrays his main piano student character and the other does a vignette of a pushy parent, eccentric piano teacher, jazz studio owner or critic. We see the boys grow up. They have to settle for something less than world wide fame as concert soloists. Their story perhaps resonates with passions members of the audience may have pursued. The ultimate dream may not come true, but the pursuit of that dream can be a wonderful life itself. And the unexpected alternative life turns out just fine.
2 Pianos 4 Hands was written and first performed by Canadians Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt in 1996. It is loosely autobiographical. Both Dykstra and Greenblatt have acted in many regional theater comedies and dramas besides carrying on regional and touring performances of 2 Pianos 4 Hands. They have now retired. Jefferson McDonald and Matthew McGloin have taken over with their own extensive acting experiences in regional theaters. Their multi-character portrayals are out done only by their wizardry on the two pianos.
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
at Newport Theater Arts Center
Review by Stacy Holmes
Our Town was first performed at McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey, on January 22, 1938. It next opened at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, on January 25, 1938. The New York City debut of Our Town was on February 4, 1938, Wilder received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Edward Albee once called Our Town “the Greatest American play ever written”. Our Town has been produced countless times at professional, academic and community theaters ever since.
Director Ben Green makes a spectacular debut as a director at Newport Theater Arts foregoing the temptation to make Our Town a period piece or an affectionate memory of a quaint little village. Jonathon Lamer’s Stage Manager is less didactic than customary interpretations of the play’s central role. He is more like the friendly face a chance visitor might be fortunate enough to encounter after arriving in a new place. He shares glimpses of life in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire that let the audience follow everyday characters over 15 years. We get to see ordinary lives in ways that reveal universal truths and how we might better use the precious time in our own lives.
Previous Arts Posts
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Rumors at Newport Theater Arts Center Review
Separated MSNBC Film Review
Greetings! at Newport Theater Arts Center Review
View from the Bridge at Laguna Playhouse Review
Little Shop of Horrors at South Coast Repertory Review
Curtains at Newport Theater Arts Center Review
Don’t Dress for Dinner at Laguna Playhouse Review
Danial Radcliffe after Harry Potter Review
Peter Pan at Segerstrom Review
Camelot at Laguna Playhouse Review
Cirque du Soleil Kooza Review
Gifted Hands / Ben Carson Story Review
On Golden Pond Newport Theate Review
Funny Girl at Segerstrom Review
Holmes & Watson Laguna Playhouse. Review
Blithe Spirit Newport Theater 2023 Review
Laguna Playhouse 2024-5 Season
Newport Theater Arts 2024-5 Season
Barclay UC Irvine 2024-5 Season