Over in Santa Ana, Theatre Out is putting on a show that focuses on what is probably the most horrifying date in living America’s collective memory –September 11th.  Written by Brian Sloan and directed by David C. Carnevale, WTC View ventures into the United States’ mental and emotional response to the pain of that day.  The reflective nature found here is both sorrowful and deeply cerebral. Continue Reading
Written by Patrick ChavisÂ
(Warning – this show is not for children and includes dark material).
Aptly titled Torch Song Trilogy, this stripped-down rendition of the Tony Award-winning show is a slow-burning epic about a drag queen. Directed by Tito Ortiz, the story is genuinely touching, and it’s a shame it isn’t performed more often. If or when you miss this show, you will miss a truly great production in Orange County Theatre history.  Continue Reading
Full disclosure: I love Rent. I’ve seen this updated modern version of La Bohéme about seven friends (or eight depending on how you feel about Benny) who struggle with AIDS, poverty, and love in NYC’s Alphabet City more times than I can remember. I’ve listened to the original cast recording countless times, and I’m still very angry about the movie version’s needless adaptational changes.
After watching this show so many times, I now have particular versions of how characters should sound or how certain numbers should be performed stuck in my head. It took a little while to get acclimated to Theatre Out’s version of it. Yet soon, I found myself liking this cast’s delivery on certain lines and their various reactions to the craziness happening onstage.
Flynn Hayward, Joey Nestra photo courtesy of Stephen Rack
The song “Over The Moon” couldn’t get any hammier. Erin Ortegon (Maureen) proved me wrong. Ortegon’s performance was glorious in a wonderful way. I have to say, though not all the musical numbers were great, the choreography did salvage some of them. My favorites were the songs featuring the entire cast singing: “Will I,” “La Vie Boheme,” and “Finale.” Continue Reading
April 22 – May 17th
Tune in every Friday to http://www.kuci.org/ or if you’re in the areas of Santa Ana, Irvine or Tustin turn your radio receiver to 88.9FM @ 4pm – 5pm for the AMB Theatre show in partnership with the Orange Curtain Review.
Written by Alina Mae WilsonÂ
People love re-imagining fairy tales. The popularity of well-known stories such as Into the Woods, Wicked, and every single re-created plot point on ABC’s Once Upon a Time proves audiences everywhere are still willing to sit through the same basic storylines -so long as the tale is presented in a different, somewhat more “clever” way. In Theater Out’s production of Wolves, we get our “redone fairy tale” fix from one man’s delusional worldview, which resembles a horror film version of Little Red Riding Hood. Wolves is brief, amusing, and thoroughly, thoroughly weird. Continue Reading
