“Black Garden” is a theatrical collage set in the warring nations of Armenia and Azerbaijan and tells us several stories involving people such as an Armenian woman struggling to recall a lost lover through amnesia, a man being imprisoned and accused of espionage, two corrupt political leaders, and diaspora Armenians on the search for love and struggling to understand who they are.
Read MoreA bold, inventive and remarkable retelling of Hamlet produced by Why Not Theatre opened Thursday at the Berkeley Street Theatre. It is a remounting of a successful run in 2017 at The Theatre Centre in Toronto. The classic tale is invigorated with a gender bent cast and a bilingual component. Gender reallocation is not an entirely new format to Shakespeare audiences – consider Stratford Festival’s recent Julius Caesar or Prospero. Shakespeare himself experimented with men playing women playing men – consider Portia or Viola. What is more unique and creative is the combination of the spoken word and American Sign Language which elevates this production in profound new ways. The use of signing has two effects – most importantly, it brings the story to a deaf audience. Secondly, it adds a brilliant dimension of intensity to the emotion –packed story.
Read More“The Manufactured Myth of Eveline Flynn” at Theatre Three took the audience on an emotionally-charged, whirlwind journey through the shifting life, and mind, of self-described daydreamer, Eveline Flynn, played by the vibrant Lauren LeBlanc. This production not only traverses some uncharted waters, but it also does so with a unique flair and fresh perspective which breathes life into its characters in an accessible way.
Created by talented Dallasites Michael Federico and Ian Ferguson, “The Manufactured Myth of Eveline Flynn” places the audience inside the imaginative mind of a woman searching for meaning and connection while slipping in and out of a turbulent inner world. At first, we believe she’s an eccentric escapist but quickly come to discover that there’s much more to her story.
Read MoreOpening night at the Geffen Playhouse of “Julia Sweeney: Older and Wider” I didn’t recognize the beloved 90s Saturday Night Live superstar, as she walked out onstage dressed in black pants, shirt and shoes.
The friendly comedian who created and brought the androgynous character “Pat” to life on SNL, is older. Her hair has turned gray and she is a tad wider, however within two minutes, this raw and vulnerable woman sparkles onstage with joy and giddiness performing in the small and intimate Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater.
Read MoreThe production of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” that opened Thursday night at Westchester Broadway Theatre is the real McCoy, a fact that will delight devotees of Thomas Wright “Fats” Waller and his music—the Harlem-style swing that bridged Ragtime and mid-century jazz idioms. It will also tickle anybody with a scintilla of rhythm. Those lacking that innate quality should sit back and let the syncopated melodies and mischievous wordplay get their toes and fingers tapping.
Read MoreWalking up to the front of the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, I noticed a sparkly tiara and bouquet of red roses with petals scattered around Carol Channing’s star. Channing who passed away on January 15, 2019 was the quintessential Dolly Gallagher Levi in the musical “Hello, Dolly!” She brought Dolly to life over 5,000 times.
I remember seeing the Tony Award winning actress perform the role at the Hollywood Pantages when I was a young girl. About seven years ago, I saw her again dining with friends at Culina inside the Four Seasons Beverly Hills. She received the same adoration from the servers at the restaurant, as she did onstage.
Read MoreThe entertaining J.B. Priestley whodunit historical thriller “An Inspector Calls” enlightens Beverly Hills audiences thanks to Paul Crewes, the Artistic Director at The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts. He invited director Stephen Daldry and his touring production to perform for an exclusive West Coast engagement through February 10, 2019.
Read MoreLong Wharf Theatre’s latest, the beguiling and enigmatic “Miller, Mississippi,” begins with a ghost story. Doris (Benja Kay Thomas), a Black maid in 1960s Jackson, is recounting a tale right out of Shirley Jackson. There’s a house in town, she tells the three rapturous kids at her knee, that emanates the sound of a crying child from within its very walls, like something (or someone) was trapped inside. There’s also talk that blood has been known to seep out of the floorboards. A group of hooligan boys once tried to burn it to the ground, but despite their torches and gasoline, the house refused to be leveled.
Read MoreI had the opportunity to see Kate Henning’s extraordinary The Last Wife in 2017 at Soulpepper and was marvellously drawn back into the Tudor world and its events of the court of Henry VIII, Katherine Parr, his surviving wife and Henry’s three children from various wives – Mary, Bess (later Queen Elizabeth I) and Edward. I’ve always held a fascination with the world of the Tudors and found that Ms. Henning’s text completely captivated my attention.
For one, I liked the fact the story is told in ‘modern English’ as it was easy to follow the events of the plot since I remember a great deal of them from studies during my undergraduate years and in teaching English language and literature to secondary school students. When I had read that Ms. Henning was completing a trilogy of the story, I was looking forward to continuing the journey with the characters. The fact the second part would be directed by Alan Dilworth with Ms. Watson returning was a bonus.
Read MoreGarland Civic Theatre’s production of “The Buddy Holly Story” delivered a high-energy, immersive journey exploring the formative years of rock-and-roll as viewed through the bespectacled eyes of legendary Texas musician, Buddy Holly. With lively musical stylings and dynamic character portrayals, this supremely-talented cast took the audience on a surging, head-first adventure down Buddy’s path to break new ground in a music industry hell-bent on resisting change. Although hard to fathom, we’re now nearing the 60th anniversary of the musical pioneer and Lubbock, Texas’ native’s death, February 3rd, 1959.
Read More“Inside Danny’s Box” is the latest piece to be mounted as part of Origin Theatre’s First Irish Festival. In this Irish black comedy Derek Murphy crafts a world leaden with sacrilege, adultery and love all hidden behind the guise of feigned hospitality in a small Irish neighborhood where nothing is as it seems. We follow a priest Father Francis (Ken Forman) as he navigates his way through a sea of familiar faces in the days leading up to his mission in Africa. He comes across Danny a young man who confides his love for his neighbor Marybeth to his mother and a small wooden box and things only get stranger from there.
Read MoreI wanted so very much for the North American/world premiere opening night of ‘Rose’ to soar through the rafters of Baillie Theatre.
Well, it didn’t completely reach that height for me except for the ‘eleven o’clock’ showstopping number in the second act by a completely believable and touching Hailey Gillis as the title character.
Read MoreWhen thinking about World War II, and the atrocities committed by the Axis Powers, it’s often easy to want to lionize the war heroes who fought to protect democracy from the tyrannically governments that wanted to annihilate freedom. Having said that, a lot has changed for the better since World War II, in terms of younger generations being more progressive on issue of race, culture and equal rights. Given the feelings some World War II veterans had, it’s easy to overlook the fact that these two feelings – the need to celebrate our veterans and to fight against the evils of racism – can actually conflict with one another, a fact that is explored in Glory Kadigan’s new play Till We Meet Again, now in its third week at the 14th Street Y.
Read MoreIn her Disney-inspired dinner series, “12 Months of Disney Dinners,” foodie, blogger, adventurer and culinary mastermind, Katie-Rose Watson, not only crafts inspired recipes, but she incorporates elements of her background in the Arts to infuse dinners with a sense of magic. Her blog, The Rose Table, is the canvas she uses to paint an exquisite landscape to help us all learn more about taking time to savor life’s pleasures.
Read MoreIf I took a poll as audience members walked out of “Linda Vista” at the Mark Taper Forum, I wonder if men enjoyed Tracy Letts dark comedy more than women. While both my husband and I laughed during the first half of the show, the play grew heavy and the pace slowed after intermission.
Read More“Dear God, they’re in America now.”
John Noble uttered this line with brilliance and terror as the world-renowned maestro, Arturo Toscanini. It was a line that was not only spoken in response to the frightening growth of the Nazi party during World War II, but seemed to reach through time and space and clutch our hearts with a grip unyielding in its accusations and unmistakably clear in its call to action. The line sang through the piece like one long drag of a bow across the strings of a violin, poetic and artful in nature, but persistent in it its need to be heard.
Read MoreIn 2004, as war was waging in the desert of Iraq, another kind of battle was happening in the desert of California when the Wyeth family reunited for a tumultuous Christmas holiday. That’s the set-up for Jon Robin Baitz’s “Other Desert Cities,” a familiar but fully engaging play, that ran January 17-20th at The Kate in Old Saybrook. I know the theater well – I’ve worked on three shows there myself – but am new to the Saybrook Stage Company, having only seen their winning production of “Noises Off” some years back.
Read MoreCollective Consciousness Theater [CCT] – New Haven’s hidden gem of a theater company – specializes in plays that facilitate a conversation about race. Their last offering, the incredibly exciting “Jesus Hopped the A Train,” was among my favorite shows of 2018, a powerful look at identity and biases based inside the prison system. Their follow-up, “Rasheeda Speaking,” is softer than most CCT shows. It’s funnier too, more buoyant and it occasionally even flirts with satire. In that respect, “Rasheeda” is a nice change of pace for the company. But it’s also less effective than most shows I’ve seen from them, in no parts due to the fine actors assembled by director Elizabeth Nearing, making an assured CCT debut. The problem here lies in the script by Joel Drake Johnson. It has some fascinating ideas and solid moments, but put up against other works CCT has presented recently, by masters like Suzan-Lori Parks, Stephen Adly Guirgis and Dominique Morisseau, “Rasheeda” can’t help feeling well-meaning but clumsy.
Read MoreHow deep will you dig to find out the truth about your loved ones?
In a completely immersive experience, “The Mortality Machine” takes you through a laboratory After an illegal experiment caused five deaths, authorities quickly covered it up before loved ones could get any information. Now, five years later, the lab is finally open for inspection. Groups of friends and family of the five victims are gathered together to hopefully get some closure and some answers. Though what follows may raise more questions than it answers…
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