Shape of Things, The
First Unitarian Church of San Diego

In the '50s, the Detroit Institute of Arts was doing a clean-up on "The Wedding Dance" created by Pieter Bruegel the Elder around 1566. They discovered an overlay paint covering up the men's codpieces. Altering art, it seems, goes back decades as well as centuries.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
November 2007
Christmas Carol, A
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Pabst Theater

One would guess that, after more than three decades of producing A Christmas Carol as part of its regular season, the annual Milwaukee Repertory Theater production may be getting shabby around the edges. Nothing could be further from the truth. A sparkling opening night performance kicked off this annual yuletide treat.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2007
Love's Labour's Lost

Following in the footsteps of actor, writer and director Woody Allen's 1997 film, "Everyone Says I Love You," writer and director Kenneth Branagh has fashioned a similar starring vehicle for himself with the 2000 film musicalization of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. You may recall that Allen's 1997 film featured dramatic actors, not known or remembered for their singing abilities, such as Edward Norton, Billy Crudup, Goldie Hawn, Alan Alda (The Apple Tree Broadway 1967), Woody Allen and Julia Roberts.

Ezio Petersen
Date Reviewed:
2000
Gypsy

It is hard to believe that with four active Gypsy CD recordings on store shelves (Merman, Daly, Lansbury, Midler), the film soundtrack album is not among them. This oversight has now been temporarily addressed with the recent release of the complete 1962 film soundtrack score of Jule Styne and Stephen Sondheim's "Gypsy," in a limited CD pressing.

Ezio Petersen
Date Reviewed:
2001
Aida

t has been a unique recording trek for composer Sir Elton John's first original stage score, "Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida" now simply titled "Aida". The fun started with the star-studded promotional studio cast album released in 1999 and its advance promo, three-track CD with John and Leann Rimes performing two alternate versions of "Written In The Stars" (not released on the studio album). This was followed by an unofficial composers' demo CD culled from John's studio takes to illustrate his studio cast album.

Ezio Petersen
Date Reviewed:
2000
Cudahy Caroler Christmas, A
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts - Vogel Hall

For those unfamiliar with neighborhoods surrounding Milwaukee, the name "Cudahy" in the title of I>A Cudahy Caroler Christmas may need a bit of explanation. Located on the south end of the city, it's more than a place; it's a distinctly unfashionable address. It's the kind of working-class area that supports what Milwaukee is traditionally famous for: beer, brats and bowling. In fact, one of the play's characters owns a bowling alley.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2007
Christmas Carol, A
Torrey Pines Christian Church

Director Jessica Seaman takes David Wiener's adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol to a new level of entertainment. The incorporation of classical and traditional music, off-stage narration, and the use of much of the audience space at Torrey Pines Christian Church as a playing area brings this classic up-close and personal. The venue, which has been used by at least one other theater company, offers an extremely large auditorium and an ample stage area.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Off The Ground
New Village Arts Theater

Playwrights Amy Chini and Tom Zohar's Off the Ground may well become the alternative Christmas play. It has the elements that make for a good holiday play. There is conflict, there is personality, and there is a happy ending. Why alternative? There is also profanity. Lots of it, but not one word gratuitous.

Robert Hitchcock
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Off The Ground
New Village Arts Theater

 It would be easy to copy last year's review of Amy Chini and Tom Zohar's Off the Ground, change the names, and call it a day. But that's impossible. New Village Arts' seasonal offering is different this year. Aside from being a wee bit shorter, John Decal and Jo Anne Glover took over the roles of Joel and Donna this year.

The action takes place in 80-something Grandpa Dick's home, currently occupied by him (Charlie Riendeau) and grandson Joel (John DeCarlo, another new actor).

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
December 2008
Season's Greetings
Theater Three

Theatre Three opened the funniest play in all of 2007 with their production of Alan Ayckbourn's Season's Greetings downstairs in Theater Too.

Under the able and clever direction of Kerry Cole, with wonderfully imaginative set design by Jac Alder and David Walsh, and a top-notch cast, it would be hard to go wrong. Season's Greetings is one of Ayckbourn's most outrageously funny plays. First produced at Ayckbourn's Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round in Scarborough in 1980, it is ideally suited to the Theater Too venue.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Farnsworth Invention, The
Music Box Theater

Aaron Sorkin's The Farnsworth Invention is a fascinating play that is surprisingly engaging for this serious look at the theft of Farnsworth's invention - one he even thought of the name for – "television" -- by David Sarnoff and RCA. It is awfully good writing as the conflict grows, sprinkled with good humor. But it's seriously flawed by the intrusion of anachronistic vulgarities that destroy the reality of the time. It would have been unthinkable back then to sprinkle speech with "the F word."

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Nutcracker, The
Dallas Children's Theater

Kathy Burks Theater of Puppetry Arts opened its month-long run of The Nutcracker November 24, 2007, but make no mistake; this is not your grandmother's "Nutcracker." All the characters are puppets and inanimate objects, grown larger than life, embarking on a familiar adventure at a Christmas Eve party at Clara's home. If you're expecting to see ballet, well, you won't; unless you consider as ballet a large standard poodle executing some fancy pirouettes to the gleeful accompaniment of howling laughter from the moppets in the audience.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Polly Bergen
Feintein's at the Regency

I know what you're thinking. You thought I was dead, says Polly Bergen, the 70-year-old, still-quite-beautiful-and-svelte singer who greeted the audience that was packed in like sardines at Feinstein's at the Regency. Bergen, who, for whatever reason, chose to leave the professional stage thirty five years ago at the peak of her popularity, has retained the smoky sensual and strong voice that made her the undisputed queen of smoke-filled (the good-old days) cabarets.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
October 2000
Pumpgirl
Manhattan Theater Club at CIty Center

Pumpgirls would not be the first play to interweave monologues to tell the same story from different points of view (e.g., Brian Friel's Faith Healer), nor would it be the first play to illustrate the adage that "the wages of sin is death," so Abbie Spallen's new Irish drama, currently at Manhattan Theater Club's second stage, lacks both the thrill of surprise and the kick of heated conflict.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Bitterroot
La MaMa ETC

LaMaMa presented, in June, a new music-theater work by the Talking Band company called Bitterroot, which offers a clever play-within-a play. The frame: after Lincoln's assassination closed the theaters, the company that had been performing My American Cousin at Ford's Theatre (Abe was shot during a performance) goes on tour with an historical play about the Lewis and Clark expedition. They never get more than fifty miles from Washington, but we're always rooting for them.

Steve Capra
Date Reviewed:
June 2001
Blabbermouths, The
Present Company Theatorium

(see Criticopia off-Broadway review of "Habladores") http://www.totaltheater.com/?q=node/2768

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
August 2000
Ordinary People
OnStage Playhouse

About two years ago, the Jarrett family suffered the loss of their oldest son Buck, while sailing with his younger brother, Conrad. A freak storm dismasted the sailboat. Buck, a sports jock and all round fun guy, drowned. Judith Guest's book, "Ordinary People," dramatized by Nancy Gilsenan, explores the effect of this tragedy on the family.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
Thirty Nine Steps, The
American Airlines Theater

Alfred Hitchock''s The 39 Steps, now on Broadway, is a great way to start the new year. Adapted (or rather deconstructed and reconstructed) by Patrick Barlow from the film, brilliantly directed with impeccable timing and grand innovation by Maria Aitken, this is a stylized melodrama played seriously by a team of master farceurs.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
39 Steps, The

See all Criticopia reviews under "Thirty Nine Steps, The"

Doubt
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

"What do you do when you're not sure, ...lack God's guidance?"

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
New Jerusalem
Classic Stage Company

"New Jerusalem - The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656" by David Ives. What a title! What a play! How often do we see a play that expounds ideas, philosophical and practical, that wake up the corners of our minds in fascinating dramatic fashion?

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
Cemetery Club, The
PowPAC

It has been just over ten years since I last saw The Cemetery Club at Scripps Ranch Community Theater, just a piece down the road from PowPAC. Now it's Poway's turn to house this charming play. Kate Hewitt is at the helm, directing a fine cast. Her designer, Raylene J. Wall, has provided a well-lived-in set and a unique and very personal setting for the cemetery. I got just a touch of déjà vu remembering that Wall directed that other version ten years ago.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
Anton in Show Business
6th@Penn Theater

Prolific Jane Martin, who has written several plays about theater, created this wonderful satire, Anton in Show Business, currently at 6th@Penn Theater.

The first question is: just who is Jane Martin? She has never been seen. Could she be a pseudonym for the retired Actors Theater of Louisville artistic director Jon Jory, where her plays are premiered? Nobody seems to know. What we do know is that she has written a host of popular plays over a 25–year period, among them, Anton in Show Business which premiered in 2000.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
Topdog/Underdog
Actors Theater of Louisville

The best reason to see Topdog/Underdog in its limited engagement at Actors Theater of Louisville is the mind-blowing performances of Stephen Tyrone Williams as Booth and Don Guillory as Lincoln in the Pulitzer Price-winning play by Suzan-Lori Parks. As two African-American brothers whose father gave them those names "as a joke," they live together in a seedy rooming house and constantly lament their unfortunate circumstances that began with parental abandonment. Their promiscuous mother first deserted them. Two years later, their alcoholic father did the same.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
String of Pearls
North Coast Repertory Theater

By the numbers: 4...27...24...38. Four Actresses. 27 roles. 24 perfect pearls. 38 years.

This is Michelle Lowe's String of Pearls, currently on the boards at North Coast Repertory Theater, under the direction of Karen Carpenter. There is just a slight touch of Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde as the pearls make their way through 38 years, beginning and ending at the same point.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
Black Nativity
Historic Asolo Theater

When I reviewed Black Nativity two years ago, it seemed to be headed for the annual holiday celebration it has become for the Westcoast Black Theater Troupe. As such, I declined to review it again last year. But publicist Eva Slane assured me that the production is constantly evolving, so I decided to re-review. Since WBTT's remove to the gilded Historic Asolo Theater, Langston Hughes' self-described "Lyrical Poem" is indeed at a different stage, both physically and artistically, than when presented at the warehouse-like Backlot.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
August: Osage County
Imperial Theater

Tracy Letts' powerful new play, August: Osage County, is a shattering three-and-a-half-hour piece of rural drama. But we might have suspected this from his other plays. Letts shatters, and the intricate family melodies in contrapuntal dysfunctional clashings at this family get-together in Oklahoma, is a wonderfully-directed (by Anna D. Shapiro) slice of twisted life with a super ensemble cast.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Faith Healer
Off-Broadway Theater

When Brian Friel's Faith Healer opened in 1979, critics debated whether it was a play at all. Instead of offering the typical dialogue between actors, Faith Healer consists of four long monologues delivered by three characters. All the characters are linked. Their individual speeches conflict, although they cover some of the same ground.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
Price, The
Geva Theater - Mainstage

 I remember how pleased a well-known actor and I were when we saw a pre-opening performance of Arthur Miller's The Price on Broadway 42 years ago. Miller's plays had been disappointing for awhile, and this was undeniably a moving, thought-provoking, rewarding drama. And funny! Moments in Miller's earlier plays had hinted at the comic talent in his remarkable ear for realistic dialogue and behavior, but his 89 year-old Jewish antiques dealer, Gregory Solomon, delighted audiences with wise, insightful, offbeat, and altogether hilarious comments.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
February 2010
Norman Conquests, The
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

Any time of year would be appropriate for a comedy by renowned British playwright Alan Ayckbourn, but the winter holiday season may be the best. Around the holidays, theatergoers are looking for lighthearted entertainment -- something fun and funny – and Ayckbourn can always deliver.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Bronx Tale, A
Walter Kerr Theater

I saw the original production of Chazz Palminteri's spectacular vivid picture of his old neighborhood in The Bronx and was knocked out by the writing, basically a morality play, and his performance. Then I saw the De Niro movie. Terrific.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Seafarer, The
Booth Theater

The Seafarer, written and directed by Conor McPherson, is about a bunch of Irish drunks talking banalities with not much happening.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Is He Dead?
Lyceum Theater

Mark Twain is very much alive; the rumors of his death are premature. His play, Is He Dead?, adapted by David Ives, has opened on Broadway, and it's hilarious.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
Oh, The Humanity
Flea Theater

The Flea Theater's production of Oh, The Humanity and other exclamations, five short plays by Will Eno, directed by Jim Simpson, with Marisa Tomei and Brian Hutchison is now running. Here's my brief rundown:

1. "Behold the Coach in a Blazer, Uninsured": A losing coach talks to the microphones. Dreary introspection -- all whine.

2. "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rain." Two morons in pursuit of the ordinary describe themselves with no effect.

3. "Enter the Spokeswoman, Gently" -- Air crash -- morbid -- some humor, but no joy.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2007
This Is Our Youth
New Village Arts Theater

In Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth, Dennis Ziegler (Joshua Everett Johnson) is a small-time drug dealer and user. He is a mental mess. As with his two contemporaries, he comes from an affluent family but prefers to live in an unkempt dump. Warren Straub (Tom Zohar) has a hero-worship complex of Dennis. He is emotionally immature and has run away from his wealthy, abusive father, impulsively absconding with $15,000.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
Shadow Box, The
Legler Benbough Theater

Michael Cristofer's The Shadow Box is not for the faint of heart. It is an intense story of three dramatically different, terminally ill patients and their loved ones. The setting is a hospital campus. The playwright's inspiration was his personal experience with two of his friends with terminal cancer. Still, it is not a depressing play, rather an insightful one with touches of humor.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Daddy Machine, The
Diversionary Theater

Based on the book by Johnny Valentine, The Daddy Machine has a book by local playwright Patricia Loughrey, with music and lyrics by local composer Rayme Sciaroni. This is a family-friendly musical commissioned by Diversionary Theater. I can assure you that both adults and kids enjoyed the show.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
European Cabaret
Florida Studio Theater - Goldstein Cabaret

Probably the most authentic cabaret Florida Studio Theater has offered in seasons emphasizes Berlin as a European center of the art. France follows, but at the same time, stars.

A flamboyant four may be in black (peek-a-boo outfits for the women), but their moods are blue and renditions often purple. Exceptions include "guest" songs from Americans like Lerner and Loewe ("Thank Heaven for Little Girls") and Porter ("It's Delovely"), the latter because cabarets often used his songs.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2008
B.S.: The Completely Improvised Hospital Drama
Ivanhoe Theater

In a city full of improv companies, the Free Associates have to be one of the hardest working.  Not satisfied with Cast On A Hot Tin Roof, The Completely Improvised Play Not By Tennessee Williams, and Pick-A-Dick - The Completely Improvised Select-A-Detective Play, the group have added B.S.: The Completely Improvised Hospital Drama. The facility in question is Benevolent Saints Hospital, "One of Chicago's finest."  Even the program hype is a stitch: "Located somewhere between here and Belmont and eternity, B.S.

Effie Mihopoulos
Date Reviewed:
February 1995
Baby
North Coast Repertory Theater

Procreation, that's what it's all about, procreation, in this charming musical tribute to the complexities of having a baby.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
May 2007

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