Catholic School Girls
Boulevard Ensemble Studio Theater

Boulevard Theater's production of Catholic School Girls is a must-see for anyone who "survived" a Catholic education. And for the rest of us, this hilarious show is the perfect antidote for a dreary, endless winter. The show treads familiar territory, but playwright Casey Kurtti has a way of making familiar things seem fresh and vibrant.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ark Theater

We are met by an attendant garbed in white. He reminds us we must be quiet and that electronic devices are not allowed, and then he slams the barred gate behind us.
We enter the day room. Off to our right is a door to the dormitory, the locked nurse's station with the drugs and records, and the lavatory. In front of us is a small table and some folding chairs. We are locked into a mental hospital in Dale Wasserman's adaptation of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
Hedda Gabler
Patio Playhouse Community Theater

Is Hedda Gabler Ibsen's female Hamlet? An idealistic heroine fighting society? A victim of circumstances? A prototypical feminist? A manipulative villain? See her in action and decide for yourself. Director Richard Gant has given us a fine opportunity to draw our own conclusions.

Hedda Gabler was premiered in Germany to less than enthusiastic reviews. Twelve years later it became a Broadway sensation. It subsequently became a classic of nineteenth-century realism. It is short on action and long on dialogue.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Duchess of Malfi, The
FSU Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

Exposition comes fast and furious as this Duchess opens, so if ever a production needed to get it out clean and clear, this is the occasion. Instead, the director claims "to bring a fresh and very exciting eye to the play." Indeed, the contemporary of The Duchess of Malfi setting is so startling to look at, it distracts us from the dialogue revealing who's who and what's what. The whole gang of mainly jeans-clad actors fills a long, lemon-walled rectangle with its lime carpet, one rear and one side door.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
November
Ethel Barrymore Theater

That David Mamet wrote November is a surprise. That Nathan Lane is hilarious in it is not.

It's sitcom joke after joke after joke about a bad president ending his term, and it's great to have a master comedian with super timing in the role of the ridiculous ninny. Who would have thought Mamet could write like a team of network talk-show monologue creators? He does it very well.

Mixed in is a glimpse of some of the basic flaws of our country, a lot of it from the lesbian speechwriter (a marvelous Laurie Metcalf).

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
Becky Shaw
Actors Theater of Louisville

With Becky Shaw, playwright Gina Gionfriddo scathingly brings to life a most memorable character to add to the female monster gallery. Becky Shaw, the second of six full-length plays to open this year's 32nd annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, devastatingly depicts a cunning devious loser who wrecks her own life and the lives of others while quietly relishing her victimization.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Sunday in the Park with George
Studio 54

In Stephen Sondheim's dazzling Sunday in the Park with George (book by James Lapine), the combination of the extraordinarily brilliant design by David Farley (set and costumes), lighting by Ken Billington and projection design by Timothy Bird & Knifedge Creative Network, and the most unusual use of words and their rhythms since Gilbert and Sullivan (but faster and more profound) gives us a thrilling evening of theater.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
Take Me Along
Irish Repertory Theater

Take Me Along, music and lyrics by Bob Merrill, book by Joseph Stein and Robert Russell, based on Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O'Neil, now at The Irish Rep on West 22nd Street, is a cute, old-fashioned Americana musical. With the colossal naïvete in the romantic story, and a morality that can be looked at as an anthropological study, it is a pleasant visit to a time and values long past.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
Chinese Art of Placement, The
Woolly Mammoth Theater Company

Talk about a busman's holiday. When Woolly Mammoth Theater Company's founding artistic director Howard Shalwitz needs a break, he returns to his roots as an actor.  With the theater celebrating its twentieth season next year, he's dedicated two decades to providing cutting edge drama (including 20 world premieres), to the evolving Washington theater scene.  Although Shalwitz picks his roles carefully, he could not pass up a comic gem like Stanley Rutherford's one-man show, The Chinese Art of  Placement. 

Barbara Gross
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Margaret Cho
Warner Theater

Margaret Cho's hilarious one-woman show is a portrait of the artist as a young, self-described fag-hag. But then, who can fight nurture? As a child, the comedian lived in San Francisco, where her parents ran a bookstore. In charge of the gay porn section (although admittedly "not ready" for some of the illustrations), her mother tried to interest young Margaret. Apparently the infatuation, if not the orientation, took.

Barbara Gross
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Chorus Line, A
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

In a glass case in the lobby are Michael Bennett's first tap shoes, bronzed, with other memorabilia.  In the audience at Press Night were Helen Bennett, Michael's mother who lent the artifacts, as well as his brother.  She's a strong supporter of her "son's show" as well as the Golden Apple, where A Chorus Line holds an all-time performance longevity record. In 1985-86, the Apple had to extend its first production, wedge repeats in between other shows, and replace another planned for the next season.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2001
Bad Dates
Geva Theater - Mainstage

This slight play has enjoyed a number of successful performances across the country because it is good fun, and, despite the rather elaborate stagings that I know of (Playwrights Horizons 2003, San Jose Repertory 2004, and Geva's large, handsome production), economically employs only one actor. Theresa Rebeck's consistently engaging plot is both thin and conventional until she decides upon a concluding shaggy-dog-story twist that gives the actress room for a variety of showcasing moments and sends the audience out shaking their heads with disbelieving amusement.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Underneath the Lintel
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz Stage III

When a librarian in a Dutch town found a Baedecker travel guide returned 113 years late, he set out to find the culprit who kept it out and thus owes a fine. Now, after a long search that's taken him around the world, "The Librarian" is out of work but in on the borrower's identity and his mythical importance.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
break/s, the
Actors Theater of Louisville

African-American Marc Bamuthi Joseph, who wrote and performs the break/s, the fourth full-length play at this year's 32nd annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, sets out to tell us what hip-hop is. He does this through a dramatically delivered but disjointed account of his own life as he bounces around the wooden platform that is his stage, sensationally contorting his body and propelling himself hypnotically to the monotonous beat. The man is a mesmerizing dancer.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Rabbit Hole
PowPAC

Howie and Becca's home is lived in, comfortable, convenient -- and there is something terribly wrong. The humor is forced. It is as though they are wearing masks. They don't seem real because they are not. They are hiding a tremendous pain. The pain of losing a son, even before he would have entered kindergarten.

Rabbit Hole, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire's exploration of such a tragic loss, is currently at Poway's community theater, PowPAC, under the excellent direction of Sherrie Colbourn.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
This Beautiful City
Actors Theater of Louisville

Commissioned and developed by the group of New York theater artists called The Civilians, This Beautiful City, the third of six full-length plays to open at this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, is an unsettling, fiercely intelligent dissection of the American Evangelical movement.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Pillowman, The
Venice Little Theater - Stage II

Almost everything comes in twos. A drab cage of a police office bespeaks a totalitarian state, whereas flashbacks and colorful illustrations of stories take place behind a scrim or in a pleasantly furnished, rolled-out bedroom. Roughing up and blindfolding precede the interrogation of Katurian Katurian by Tupolski, self-styled "good cop," and eager-to-torture Ariel, "bad cop." Two children have been killed, another is missing in ways akin to murders in stories by Katurian.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Bleacher Bums
OnStage Playhouse

A Cubs fan is a strange beast. I have a Chicago-raised, Los Angeles-living friend who travels to Chi-town to see a game or two. This special breed of homo sapiens has cheered the team on to defeat year after year. One year after the first pitch of the first game, a fan waved a banner that read, "Wait 'til Next Year." Oh, they have won the World Series twice: 1907 and 1908. As the season opens, a true Cubs fan is always saying, "This will be the year."

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Crones of Cawdor, The
Theatrx

Through much toil and trouble, The Crones of Cawdor manages to muck up Macbeth and his lovely lady's afterlife. Only writer/director/producer Stephen Storc would think of turning a pot-stirring scene into musical comedy. The witches, I mean crones (Laura Makey, Charmaine Hook, and Candace Taylor McClung), under the guidance and direction of Hecate (Deborah Zimmer) seem to cause Macbeth (Robert Wolter) and Lady Macbeth (Karen Spafford) more trouble in death than this lovely couple caused others in life.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
All Hail Hurricane Gordo
Actors Theater of Louisville

Carly Mensch's featherweight All Hail Hurricane Gordo, the fifth of six full-length plays in this year's 32nd annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, nevertheless has serious things to say about family ties, abandonment, and responsibility. First, however, you must believe that a mother and father could drive away forever after leaving their two young sons in a parking lot and that the boys would then fend for themselves in the family home without any authorities intervening. All very hard to swallow.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Night is a Child, The
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

Milwaukee Rep's world premiere of Charles Randolph-Wright's The Night is a Child succeeds on many levels. Elements range from painfully realistic to almost mystical. It is the story of one family's tragic loss but also of a middle-aged woman discovering herself for the first time in her life. It is a story of journeys, both real and introspective.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Funny Girl
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

If a Girl Isn't Pretty," as the ladies of Henry Street sing, she'd better be talented. Luckily, Fanny Brice, as portrayed by Catherine Randazzo, is. She's not only that Funny Girl. She does a high-energy turn from rough-edged aspiring entertainer to an ending as star of an ill-fated love story. But after a while away from the boards, local favorite Randazzo (who's far from homely) seems to have gained as actress but lost as a singer. Too often her high notes get left flat.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Neighborhood 3
Actors Theater of Louisville

Jennifer Haley's ingenious horror story about those video games kids get addicted to playing stands high among entries in this year's 32nd annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville. The last of six full-length plays to be unveiled, the fast-moving, comedy-laced Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom takes its unwieldy title from a game in which the real suburb where the obsessive players and their remote parents live merges with a make-believe online world where they must kill or be killed by roaming zombies who look a lot like the neighbors.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Orange Flower Water
6th@Penn Theater

Marriages age, kids come, romance dwindles, the eyes wander; all of these are potential problems that affect over 50 percent of all marriages in the United States and are an active part of the daily political news. Craig Wright's Orange Flower Water details one possible outcome. Director Jerry Pilato directs the San Diego premiere of this highly controversial play at 6th@Penn.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Black Coffee
Coronado Playhouse

Agatha Christie's Black Coffee turns 78 this year. It was her first play, later turned into the novel, "Le Coffret de Jaque" (aka "Lackered Box" (English spelling for "Lacquered Box"). It introduced to the stage her most popular character, Hercule Poirot.

In Black Coffee, Poirot is charged with finding Britain's leading physicist, Sir Claud Amory's (Bud Emerson) valuable formula. Suspects abound, each highly motivated to perpetrate this heinous crime. They keep streaming in and out of the elegantly appointed library in his home outside of London.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Chorus Line, A
Drury Lane - Evergreen Park

Marc Robin must somehow be related to Croesus, because whatever production he touches (whether to direct, choreograph or both) turns to gold.  He makes what could be a dated production of A Chorus Lineshine like new, its now-tarnished plot a freshly polished, and very moving, jewel.  He's assembled a talented cast that make the premise -- each individual Broadway gypsy is singular with a telling life story -- believable. 

Effie Mihopoulos
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Chorus Line, A
Paper Mill Playhouse

It has been ten years since the Paper Mill Playhouse last staged A Chorus Line. That we can still feel responsive to the passionately shared personal life stories of dancers says something about the durability of one of the most emotional musicals you are ever likely to see. For those not in tune with the difficulties that mark the life of the gypsy, the musical will feel like a music and dance-propelled, group therapy session.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
September 2001
Chosen, The
Florida Studio Theater Mainstage

A stage framed in shelved books with a Hebrew legend above metaphorically sets up this story of a friendship between two Brooklyn Jewish boys (1944-49) and their relationships as sons to their fathers (1944-49). All are steeped in the Talmud, but from the differing stances of Orthodox Judaism and Hassidism. Lex Woutas, as adult Reuven Malter (and minor characters from the "outside world"), tells their tale articulately and with warmth.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2001
Christmas Carol, A
Lyceum

This is San Diego Rep's 30th production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Each production has been unique. Bringing in the directing talent of Kristen Brandt and the design talent of David Lee Cuthbert has guaranteed that this version would follow the tradition. Set in a period of American history from 1885 to 1945, adaptor D. W. Jacobs maintains the spirit of the original. We are quickly moved from the Industrial Revolution through two world wars and the Great Depression, following the life of rundown nightclub owner, Scrooge.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Christmas Carol, A
Applauz Theater

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol has had many permutations and interesting interpretations. At Applauz, under James Dublino's direction of La Jolla playwright David Wiener's adaptation, the classic is liberally laced with holiday songs. Wiener's script gives us the essence of Dickens' classic.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
Christmas Carol, A
Goodman Theater

When Henry Godinez assumed directorial responsibilities for the Goodman's annual production of A Christmas Carol in 1997, a fable in danger of eroding into complacency had its philanthropic imperative restored with an immediacy as vivid as a George Cruikshank engraving.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2000
Christmas Carol, A
Goodman Theater

With Kate Buckley, the director of Among The Thugs and A Few Good Men, at the helm of this year's Christmas Carol, audiences might have anticipated the Cratchit children marching through the streets of London on a rampage. Most noticeable about Buckley's interpretation, however, is its singularly un-violent nature. Gone are the searing images and volatile emotions associated with the Henry Godinez Carol of recent years, replaced in this 25th anniversary production by a more even-tempered verging-on-bland ambiance.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2002
Christmas Carol, A
88 Tremont Street

Upon its first publication in 1843, Dickens' A Christmas Carol became an instant hit.  Since then, it has become the most popular and beloved story in English literature.  In the early years of our century, the allegorical novella spawned a dozen silent films.  The advent of sound brought nearly 150 audiovisual versions.  Starting in 1934, it was a family tradition for two decades to listen to Lionel Barrymore portray Ebenezer Scrooge annually on CBS radio.  The work has been turned into countless straight stage adaptations, musicals, parodies, and animated cartoons - a parade that s

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
November 2000
Christmas Carol, A
Guthrie Theater

Maybe it's the looming holiday season, but my reaction to the Guthrie Theater's 25th production of A Christmas Carol is a decided bah, humbug.  The adaptation of Charles Dickens' venerable tale has all the hallmarks of a classic, from a sumptuous set to talented actors to a bevy of special effects.  But the whole enterprise has left me empty instead of uplifted.  It isn't the actors' fault.  A talented cast -- led by Philip Goodwin as Scrooge -- wrestle plenty of humanity out of the Christmas tale.  Scrooge is given some extra depth, especially in scenes with the woman he loves -- an

Ed Huyck
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
Christmas Carol, A
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Pabst Theater

One of America's favorite holiday traditions, A Christmas Carol comes to life each year in Milwaukee's Pabst Theater, a beautifully restored, historic theater in the heart of downtown.  This is the 25th annual production staged by the Milwaukee Repertory Theater.  Traditions are not to be tinkered with, and the Rep has remained faithful to the spirit and the story of Ebenezer Scrooge.  This recent adaptation by the Rep's artistic director, Joseph Hanreddy, is an audience-pleasing triumph that weaves traditional holiday carols into the timeless tale.  Many of the songs are historic En

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
December 2000
Christmas Carol, A
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Pabst Theater

As a holiday gift to its hometown, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater has invested more than $1 million in revamping its traditional holiday classic, A Christmas Carol. Much of the cash went into hiring a set designer and costumer with Broadway credits, and in the process of translating their vision to the stage. The money was well spent. The New Yorkers (in conjunction with dozens of local and regional theater artisans) have created an enchanting and authentic look for this production.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2003
Christmas Carol, A
Pabst Theater

Few regional theaters have capitalized on the public's eagerness to see A Christmas Carol more than the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. This year the company stages its 29th consecutive year of A Christmas Carol in Milwaukee's gloriously renovated Pabst Theater. Over the years, more than a million people have seen the Rep's version of Dickens' timeless fable. Yet it still manages to satisfy as few other holiday shows can. Although small things are constantly changed from year to year, the overall effect remains the same.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2004
Christmas Revels, The
Cahn Auditorium

It's not often one hears "Shalom Chaverim" sung in a program purporting to replicate a medieval Christmas Revel in celebration of the winter solstice. But at the Revel on the campus of Evanston's Northwestern University, the Jewish song shares equal time with "Dona Nobis Pacem" under the collective title "Canons Of Peace". Anyway, Sidney Carter's "Lord Of The Dance"' -- set to a traditional Shaker hymn -- leads audiences up the aisles at intermission, so authenticity is no stricter than necessary to give us a feel for our milieu.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2000
Christmas Revels, The
Cahn Auditorium

Revelers expecting a repeat of last year's Medieval Solstice-themed show were in for a surprise -- the program for 2001 was still rooted in Anglo-Celtic heritage, but the setting this time was a pub in Ireland finding itself playing host to a band of Welsh wayfarers. The entertainments engendered by this meeting likewise reflected major improvements over the ingenuousness of the Revel's debut in 2000.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
Christmas Schooner, The
Bailiwick Arts Center

The CD of The Christmas Schooner might make the lyrics on the chorus numbers more intelligible, but nothing matches the scope of Bailiwick Rep's thrilling wintry sea-storm, conjured on the Penrods' cinema-sized vessel by a company whose teamwork serves to define ensemble playing, nor the engaging exuberance of its crew rejoicing in their safe arrival on shore.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
November 2000

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