Stay With Me!

Looking for Love in the Theatre? Stay With Me Is It!


by Jesse Schmitt


With a never ending writer’s strike and many actors and writers high off the cabana juice, there are some who have had enough! Many of the finest writers and actors have given up fully on the screen and returned to the stage. This is a bold move and one which is highly encouraged by this scribe (more/better shows for me to review) One of these shows which is an outgrowth of the writer’s strike will be beginning February 1, and plans to run until February 17 (but hey, who knows?!) It’s by David H. Rodriguez and is called “Stay With Me.”

Touted as a new piece about true love and pulling in to the Stella Adler Theatre (Studio C at 6773 Hollywood Blvd., 2nd Floor) in Hollywood, “Stay With Me” may just be the satisfaction for your craving. Brought to your stage by award winning talent, inspired by perennial favorites Woody Allen and Neil Simon, this is a sweet and careful exploration of true love.

Set in Chicago, a successful young man, played by Rodriguez, finally meets the woman of his dreams, played by Maria Musebrink. What follows is a sweet and careful love story that deals with the reality of modern relationships, including doubt, trust, sorrow, and loss, without losing the feelings of hope, happiness, and the sense of being complete that we all search for.

STAY WITH ME mixes old-fashioned love with the fast-paced, Starbucks-drinking-Society of today's world. According to Rodriguez, true love is dead!! "We live in a world where people don't believe in love at first sight anymore," says the playwright, "I'm hoping this story will awaken that teenage dream we all had."

In keeping with the spirit of true love there will be a special Valentine’s Day performance on February 14, at 8PM. Other shows will run Friday through Sundays with all shows also at 8PM. Tickets are $10 but there’s a break for students, seniors, and I’ll bet if you ask really nicely and you plan to propose to your sweetheart AT the show in front of the audience you could work something out with the producers of the show. I’m not guaranteeing anything; I’m just saying.

So if you are a romantic like me and you still believe in the healing, hopeful, amazing, wonderful power of love, you should run out to get tickets for the David Rodriguez (coinciding with) Valentine’s Day spectacular “Stay With Me.”