143 stories by "Cary Ginell"
If you’re a fan of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, you no doubt are aware of the screening at the Sphere in Las Vegas in which the film has been turned into a 360-degree multi-sensory spec…
In a world that is consumed with political correctness and accusations of “wokeness,” Avenue Q, which made its debut at the Conejo Players Theatre June 5, is a musical that shattered Bro…
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” pop culture’s musical seminary about the Biblical tale of Joseph and his brothers, has always been a popular show for community theater,…
In recent years, musicals based on hit motion pictures retrofitted with scores have become increasingly popular, as Broadway producers struggle to get audiences interested in live theatre. M…
Every actor who has ever strode upon a stage has had nightmares of on-stage mishaps: forgotten lines, props that don’t operate properly or are not there at all, and other horror stories. Y…
Musical Theatre Guild, the Los Angeles-based company that produces staged readings of long-forgotten, rarely seen musicals, has done it again with a stellar and highly entertaining productio…
It’s been a while since we checked in with Andrew Metzger, one of our favorite performers, so we were delighted to hear that Andrew was coming to the Hillcrest Center for the Arts to appea…
On Tuesday, December 4, 1956, a chance meeting in a recording studio in Memphis resulted in a landmark event in rock ’n’ roll history. The incident was instigated by Sun Records owner/pr…
5-Star Theatricals’ production of Hairspray, which opened October 10 at the Scherr Forum Theatre in Thousand Oaks, is the bubbly, effervescent morality tale about civil rights in Baltimore…
In 2013, we saw a performance of West Side Story at Calabasas High School and took note of the young actor Landen Starkman, who was playing the part of A-Rab. Three months later, we saw hi…
As the earliest Broadway musical ever to feature children playing major roles, Oliver! usually bristles with youthful excitement. But despite being marketed as a family-oriented musical, Oli…
The Distinguished Speaker Series kicked off its 28th season with a rare appearance by actress, producer, author, and children's health advocate Goldie Hawn. Over the years we have seen an ex…
Staged readings are an emotional time for a writer of a play or musical. It marks the first time a creation moves from the two dimensions of the written word to the three dimensions of a liv…
In Douglas Carter Beane's 2013 revamping of Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic musical version of the "Cinderella" fairy tale, apparently, the magical transformation of a ragamuffin house ser…
An unprovoked assault on a Black motorist. An unwanted infant buried alive in a garden. Vengeful vigilantes burning down firehouses. A vapid starlet seeks tabloid publicity through the sensa…
The classic 1964 musical Fiddler On the Roof arrives in Thousand Oaks on Thursday, March 9 and prior to opening we had a chat with Mary Beth Webber, who plays the part of Yente in the show. …
On Sunday, March 5, the Conejo Players Theatre will be presenting a staged reading of The Nameless Star, a 1942 play written by Romanian playwright Mihail Sebastian about a chance encounter …
The title of Lucas Hnath's 2013 play is unwieldy. In fact, if it weren't in italics, we weren't sure whether it was a play title or a press release description. A Public Reading of an Unprod…
Long before Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys put the pop into pop musicals, a tuneful score by songsmiths Burt Bacharach and Hal David was inserted into a stage adaptation of Billy Wilder and I.A.…
Halloween is once again upon us and with that, you can expect another visit from the creepy, kooky, and ooky Addams clan, in the 2010 Broadway musical The Addams Family. 5-Star Theatricals u…
When we first saw Jonalyn Saxer, it was 2010. Jonalyn was an eighteen-year-old senior, playing Maria von Trapp in Oak Park High School's performance of The Sound of Music. In my review in th…
Summer is here and what better way to spend the week of the Fourth with a production of The Music Man, Meredith Willson's tribute to small-town America in the early twentieth century. An out…
If you were a five-year-old girl going to see her first musical, Agoura High School's recent semester-ending production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella would be the one to see. With …
America was a different place in 1949 when Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific made its debut. World War II was still fresh in the minds of audiences but Oscar Hammerstein II, who wrote …
American Theatre Guild's current national tour of South Pacific brings Rodgers and Hammerstein's most successful musical to Thousand Oaks, a show whose score boasts more hits than any other …
