Blithe Spirit
Broadway Theater

It all started with Shelley's poem, "To a Skylark." That's where Noel Coward found the title for his 1941 hit, Blithe Spirit. The play caused quite a stir when it opened in the West End district of London with World War II in full swing, because of the light-hearted theme of death.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
October 2007
Humor Abuse
City Center

Humor Abuse, Lorenzo Pisoni's theatrical memoir of growing up as a member of a circus troupe founded and run by his father, is thoroughly entertaining -- though I have to say that I found some of the stunts in this one-man-show very scary in their potential for serious injury. (After one intentional fall, Pisoni notes that his father broke his back doing the same stunt. Yikes!)

Michael Portantiere
Date Reviewed:
April 2009
Dracula
North Coast Repertory Theater

I woke up this morning, the last vestiges of night clinging to the barely moving trees shrouded in thick fog. Or was this just my imagination stimulated by last night's Dracula?

Set aside contemporary logic. Enter the 19th century and the world of Bram Stoker, and immerse yourself in North Coast Rep's production of suspense and seduction. Playwright Steven Dietz's take on this classic is chilling.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
October 2007
Doubt
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater
As its title implies, Doubt concerns some murky circumstances involving a priest and his young male students. The excellent script, which earned the play a Pulitzer Prize and several Tony Awards, presents the "facts" and puts the audience in the role of judge and jury. Just what – if anything – was going on between a priest and a young pupil in a Catholic school in 1964?
Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2007
Wonder Bread Years, The
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts - Vogel Hall

The Wonder Bread Years is a G-rated trip down memory lane for Baby Boomers. Like Wonder Bread itself, this one-man show is more carbs than nutrients. But that's the way it's supposed to be, and it allows the audience to sit back, relax and laugh at the common memories that connect this generation. The lone actor (John McGivern) basically plays himself as a young boy growing up in a working-class neighborhood in Milwaukee during the 1950s. He performs on a set that represents a stylized version of the back door to his family home and the concrete stoop below it.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2007
Almost Famous

(see Criticopia review(s) under "Bruce Vilanch: Almost Famous")

Callaway, Ann Hampton

(see Criticopia review(s) listed under Ann Hampton Calloway)

Aristocrats
Lincoln Center Festival `99 at La Guardia Theater

In a rural community in Ireland, the Catholic, once-wealthy O'Connell family molders in their decaying mansion. Outsiders on two fronts, they're amongst predominantly Protestant gentry, and they keep their distance from the lower class Catholics of the village. All have broken lives.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
1776
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

Recreating the Continental Congress of May through July of the year of its title, a musical centering on debate comes out firmly in the affirmative in a production as warm as summer. So realistically presented are the viewpoints challenging John Adams, we seem to be in the crowded Philadelphia "court" and...is that suspense we feel? Gary Marachek's firm Adams grounds the action with help from Robert Turoff's alternatingly wise and funny ole Ben Franklin. Hopping in with humorous heroics is Ben Turoff's Richard Henry Lee, a nice counterpart to Chris O'Brockto's serious Jefferson.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2001
Seventeen Seventy Six

(see Criticopia review(s) under "1776")

15 Minute Play Festival, The
Bunbury Theater

Bunbury Theater's current offering of six 15-minute plays in celebration of its 15 years entertaining Louisville audiences turns out to be one of its finest -- a real treat to mark the occasion. Entries were submitted from all over the country, and the excellence of the final choices would seem to indicate that overall quality was high, indeed.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
June 2001
Fifteen Minute Play Festival

(see Criticopia review(s) under "15 Minute Play Festival")

1940s Radio Hour, The
Lamplighters Community Theater

It was a time before television, CDs, DVDs, and surround sound. Commercials were live, as were most of the shows on the East Coast. Sixteen-inch transcriptions were used to record shows. It was the time of live radio, the time of The 1940's Radio Hour.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Nineteen Forties Radio Hour, The

(see Criticopia review(s) under "1940s Radio Hour")

3hree
Ahmanson Theater

A triptych of one-act musicals developed by Harold Prince at his New York workshop and world-premiered last fall at Philadelphia's Prince Music Theater, 3hree features the work of a batch of gifted young writers and composers. There is no over- riding theme or concept to the evening, except that all three pieces take place in small towns and are acted by the same team of actors (whom we see in the two brief act breaks changing costumes and wigs right on stage -- a clever touch).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2001
Three

(see Criticopia review(s) under "3hree")

4.48 Psychosis
Tenth Avenue Theater

4.48 Psychosis. Rebecca Johannsen, the artistic director, directs this, the last work of Kane, completed shortly before the playwright committed suicide. Stone Soup is one of the few theaters that mandates taking risks with less commercial plays that challenge their audiences. Kane's plays easily fit that requirement. Like her Crave, 4.48 Psychosis is guaranteed to challenge directors and producing companies. Truly an experimental play, it assigns no lines to a given character.
4.48 Psychosis is an experience.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Four Point Four Eight Psychosis

(see Criticopia review(s) under "4.48 Psychosis")

42nd Street
Welk Resort Theater

42nd Street crosses Broadway at Times Square, and it crosses our path joyously at the Welk Resort Theater, just north of Escondido. It hit Broadway with a bang, garnering Tony awards for Best Choreography (Gower Champion) and Best Musical in 1982, running for an astounding 3,486 performances. Remember "We're In the Money," "Lullaby of Broadway," and “Shuffle Off to Buffalo?”

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2005
Forty-Second Street

(see Criticopia review(s) under "42nd Street")

42nd Street
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

As the ur-backstage musical, ironically first "staged" on screen, 42nd Street is famous for its story of the small-town girl who steps out of the chorus of a show opening on Broadway, replaces the incapacitated leading lady. and becomes a star. With her last-minute triumph, she restores her director to fame, keeps cast and crew from falling out of work in hard times, and finds off-stage romance with her on-stage partner. It's all with the blessings of the last star, who hooks up with a romantic offstage co-star of her own.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2001
42nd Street
Theater at the Center
It's all in the feet -- ten pair of those dancing feet striking the floor at precisely the same instant in patterns complex enough to make Michael Flatley's kids look like toddlers. And in the costumes that make you want to forget your arthritic knees and two left feet and become a dancer, just so you can wear dresses like the "beautiful dames" in the song of that title. Of course, it's also the sturdy score reflecting a universe where boy gets girl -- even if the boy is old enough to be the girl's father -- means happy ever after.
Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
42nd Street
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

Among those rare chestnuts that stand the test of time is 42nd Street, which tap-danced its way into Milwaukee for a week-long run. This town doesn't get many national tours, but when it does - wow! The pure energy of more than 50 tap dancers onstage was a sight to behold, not to mention the zillions of gorgeous, glittering costumes and the Art Deco-themed sets. This is a dance show to end all dance shows, and it makes this point very clear from the opening number.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2002
Eighty-Four Charing Cross Road

(see Criticopia review(s) under "84 Charing Cross Road")

84 Charing Cross Road
Studio Theater

On the eve of St. Valentine's Day, Milwaukee's Chamber Theater dishes up a delightful helping of English trifle in the form of 84, Charing Cross Road. The play is based on the real-life writings of New York scriptwriter Helene Hanff. Its title is based on the address of a London bookseller's shop (more about this below). Charing Cross is something of a signature piece for the company, as it was first performed in 1982. Chamber Theater has revived it several times over the years, always with the same two actors portraying the main characters.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
February 2004
A.M. Sunday
Actors Theater of Louisville

In his claustrophobic a.m. Sunday, the fourth offering in the 26th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, playwright Jerome Hairston drops us into the home and lives of a troubled interracial couple and their two uneasy sons. Hairston himself was born to a black father and a Korean mother, and though he has said the play is not autobiographical, one would expect more dramatic revelations from the situation than he provides. Little here makes this family and its problems different from others without the racial mix. Is that perhaps his point?

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
A...My Name Will Always Be Alice
Oregon Cabaret Theater

As presented by Oregon Cabaret Theater, A... My Name Will Always Be Alice earns an A-plus. A five-woman ensemble present more than two hours of on-point, sharp edged vignettes of civilization and its discontents, on the feminine side. The journey goes from childhood to old age, from the home to the office, from put-downs in kindergarten to send-ups in the art gallery. Together and individually the cast is excellent. The show, a themed musical revue about relationships, is laced with sketches and monologues; a mix of stops-out laughs and barely-contained tears.

Al Reiss
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Absence of a Cello, The
Lamplighters Community Theater

Ira Wallach's The Absence of a Cello explores that special terror of getting hired. Ex-physics professor Andrew Pilgrim (Donal Pugh) is in the interview process. His wife, Celia Pilgrim (Kathy Hardman), a renowned authority in her field, and he quickly learn that deception is the only way to get a job with "Corporate America." In consort with the deception is their daughter, Joanna Pilgrim (Jennifer Cruz), and Andrew's sister, Marian Jellicoe (Jeannine Morton), along with neighbor Emma Littlewood (Lois Corbett) and her grandson, Perry (Jonathan Kabacek).

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2001
Turn of the Screw, The
Cygnet Theater

It was just before the twentieth century when Henry James' novella, "The Turn of the Screw," brought a ghost story to his readers. In it, we're faced with the dilemma: is the story true or a mere figment of a deranged mind?

With a cast of only two, as written by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, the density is only compounded. The first stage adaptation was by William Archibald in 1950. Benjamin Britten created an opera in 1954, and a movie was produced in 1961. In the former productions, the cast was somewhat larger, leading to less ambiguity.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
November 2007
Jerry's Girls
PowPAC

Two revues in two weeks, as different as night and day, makes for a happy reviewer. This week's was PowPAC's very ambitious Jerry's Girls, directed by Jeffrey Gastauer, with Rich Shaffer as musical director and Alisa Williams on the choreography. This is a big show with a large cast, and lots of production numbers and dance routines.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
November 2007
Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The

(see Criticopia review under "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The")

25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

A musical with a most unusual title and the surprising winner of two Tony Awards is about to say adieu to Broadway after a long run. What better time to hit the hinterlands? So it happens that a tour of the tiny musical-that-could, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, appeared in Milwaukee, WI.

This oddly-named musical had an equally unlikely rise to Broadway fame, triumphing first in regional workshops and productions and off Broadway before landing on the Great White Way.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2007
Mystery of Irma Vep, The
Off-Broadway Theater

The work of playwright Charles Ludlum, who created a kind of goofy, singular brilliance at his old Ridiculous Theatrical Company in New York's Greenwich Village, shines in his most popular play, The Mystery of Irma Vep. It's a goofy Gothic send-up of several mystery books and horror movies.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
April 2008
Accomplice
Actor's Theater of Charlotte - Duke Power Theater
Prepare to be bamboozled. This murder mystery is fiendishly dedicated to deception before you've settled into your seat. Even your sacred playbill isn't completely on the level. Then prepare to be royally amused. The jokes and the sexual give-and-take come fast and furious. Surprises grow and multiply. Most fascinating, the sands are frequently shifting. Which two characters are plotting foul play? Who is being double crossed, and who is the murder victim? Even where we are is subject to abrupt change.
Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
May 1999
Act a Lady
Actors Theater of Louisville
Two years ago Actors Theatre of Louisville opened its prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays with young Jordan Harrison's Kid-Simple, a radio play in the flesh, a feverish adolescent concoction (my words) that bored me silly. ATL has now chosen Harrison's Act a Lady to open its 2006 Humana Festival, and it comes across as a very good choice under Anne Kauffman's admirable direction. This wild and witty take on gender bending overlays a campy French play-within-a-play.
Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 7
Lyceum Space

Program #7 of the Actors Alliance Festival 2004 brings to an end the orgy of one-act plays. It was fun, well representing local playwrights, local directors, and local talent. Tonight's program opened not with a play, but Fredi Towbin's amusing stand-up "Molly, With a `Y.'" While charming, with plenty of laughs, I felt like I was at the Comedy Club and not a festival of one-act plays. Towbin entered from the audience with her walker and regaled us with the observations of a New Yorker transplanted to California.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 5
Lyceum Space


For Program Five of this year's Actors Alliance Festival, the themes are love and marriage. In The "M" Word: Part I, it's wedding time for two couples, one gay and the other lesbian. Throughout this intense drama, with comic turns, we see the reaction of various family and friends. Each actor adeptly takes on additional characters besides being in the wedding party.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 3
Lyceum Space
The second annual Actors Alliance of San Diego Festival is a 12-day fest of over 30 short plays staged at the Lyceum Space in Horton Plaza. There are seven separate programs, each with two play dates. I only wish I could see all of the productions. Here's a sampling of Program 3 with five plays:
Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2005 - Program 1
Lyceum Space

The opening of Actors Alliance Fest is a resounding success. If the four one-acts and two one-pagers presented in Program #1 are any indication, this is going to be a festival you should see.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2005
Actors Alliance Festival 2005 - Program 5
Lyceum Space

American Cheese is produced, written and directed by Sandra Ruiz with Monique Fleming and Jay Jones in the cast. The questions posed are: "Can a high-school quarterback be an actor?" Can a freaky costumer actually have a non-violent relationship with such a person?

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2005

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