33 stories by "Samantha Mehlinger"
There is something about the white-face makeup and red nose of a clown that never fails to elicit strong emotions with audiences. For the American public, the image stirs up all kinds of ass…
With countless radio stations dedicated to the music of the '50s, '60s and '70s, the recent release of the entire Beatles catalogue on iTunes, and even covers of oldies like “River D…
Tracy Lore got a late start in musicals, but she has barely stopped since then. She's playing Frau Blucher in "Young Frankenstein" for the second time -- this version is Musical Theatre West…
Playwright Carla Ching and director Bart DeLorenzo discuss "Fast Company," her new play about a family of grifters, o[pening at South Coast Repertory.
Orange County barged into the Ovation Award nominations this year, with 3-D's "Parade" and Chance's "Triassic Parq" receiving more nods than any other single productions.
John Logan's "Red," last seen in LA at the Taper with its original star Alfred Molina, is revived by International City Theatre with Tony Abatemarco as Mark Rothko and Patrick Stafford as hi…
Playing the only two characters in I Do! I Do! is a challenge, say Davis Gaines and Vicki Lewis, who are "do"-ing the revival at Laguna Playhouse.
Alina Phelan is thinking about the recent death of a friend as she portrays the woman who finds a Dead Man's Cell Phone, in Sarah Ruhl's play, at International City Theatre.
A Chorus Line at Musical Theatre West re-unites director/choreographer Roger Castellano and musical director David Lamoureux, who went through most of his career without much love for A Chor…
La Mirada Theatre is bringing the audience up on the stage for an intimate 199-seat production of the musical Spring Awakening. Brian Kite, the theater's producing artistic director and the …
Marshall Pailet was among three collaborators who imagined what the events depicted in Jurassic Park might be like from the dinosaurs' point of view. Now Pailet is directing the West Coast p…
Gigi Fusco Meese pauses briefly between her former job at Musical Theatre West and her new job as executive director of Anaheim Performing Arts Foundation to stage Intimately Wilde at her ev…
After six decades, Long Beach's Musical Theatre West is the most prominent musical theater company in Los Angeles County. Executive director and producer Paul Garman, who has been with t…
From an an organic farm in North Dakota sprouted Damon Kirsche, the debonair musical theater and big-band star. He's currently playing Julian Marsh in 42nd Street, which is launching Musical…
Brian Nelson's Overlooked examines an artist who hires a homeless man to serve as an installation. Better known as a screenwriter (Hard Candy), Nelson believes the story of Overlooked belong…
Don't put Michael Hollinger in a box. His Ghost-Writer, at International City Theatre, was inspired by a story about Henry James and his secretary. His Tooth and Claw, recently recorded for …
The 11 irreverent puppets of Avenue Q take over Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton this weekend, and Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center in early August, for 3-D Theatricals' version of the mu…
Davis Gaines played King Arthur in Camelot in Sacramento. Now he's tackling the irreverent Monty Python version of the same character, in Spamalot for Musical Theatre West in Long Beach -- w…
David Engel and John J. Joseph cross-dress for Ken Ludwig's farce, Leading Ladies, at International City Theatre -- even as their characters fall in love with women. It's a familiar plot twi…
Sal Mistretta won an award for his performance in the DC area's US premiere of the rock musical The Fix, about political shenanigans, in 1998. But the Monica Lewinsky scandal apparently …
Bets Malone is one of those rare actors who relies on the LA stage for most of her income. Since she was a kid in San Diego County, she has been employed in southern California musicals, wit…
Lesli Margherita, playing Aldonza in Musical Theatre West's Man of La Mancha, looks forward to changes in the musical arrangements that she hopes will make Aldonza sound a little more...whor…
Four veteran Wonderettes -- Julie Dixon Jackson, Misty Cotton, Bets Malone, and Lowe Taylor -- discuss their Winter Wonderettes gig at Long Beach's Musical Theatre West. This latest producti…
Ed Begley Jr. has revised his 2003 musical Cesar and Ruben for a student production at Santa Monica College. All of the songs are now in Spanish, but as before, the main subject is Cesar Cha…
After 15 years since the Long Beach Civic Light Opera (LBCLO) folded, the company's former artistic director Luke Yankee has come back to the Long Beach Performing Arts Center to direct No…
