Tom Williams Without the choruses, Brook’s Carmen depends on the strong vocals by Sandra Piques Eddy’s Carmen and the discovery of Noah Stewart, the mellow tenor who sings Don Jose. Together with Krenare Gashi’s Micaela and Michael Todd Simpson’s Escamillo, the cast reaches new heights of vocal acumen.
Rough Crossing focuses on two European playwrights who have nothing to do before their ship docks in New York except create and rehearse a new ending for their latest musical before the composer finds out the leading actress is cheating on him. What could be simpler!
The line between a sermon, a polemic and a one-person show has become muddled. McLean does put a human face on the New Testament but it isn’t enough to render the work more than a well performed sermon or recital.
It is rare that a playwright also doubles as the lead actor in his own work—but Tommy Lee Johnston is perfect as the eccentric man who can see color auras surrounding others. His talent or curse allows him to feel a person’s emotions whether their vitality or their imminent demise.
Old Times is a memory play enriched with realistic dialogue filled with long silences, start and stop responses—just as we often speak in life. This gives power and credibility to the work.
Certainly, the intimacy of the Raven Theatre provides wonderful immediacy. The audience becomes completely involved with the dispossessed Joad family, economic victims of the Great Depression, thrust from their homes in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma and forced to board their makeshift truck to undertake a hard, tedious migration across the U.S.
Tom Williams discusses the following stage plays: The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, The Overwhelming, Sunday in the Park With George, with host Carl Amari on the Radio Program Hollywood 360 on WIND 560 AM. April 25, 2009.
The History Boys covers the life of eight English boys prepping for their entrance exams designed to get them into Oxford or Cambridge. But playwright Alan Bennett has a much larger agenda than merely a coming of age story or a debate about the purpose and style of education. He tackles issues such as sexual identity, teen angst and the role of teachers as mentors to their students.
Steppenwolf Theatre’s series for Young Adults mounts terrific theatre—period! Under the tight, flowing direction of Michael Patrick Thornton, Of Mice and Men left the high school students in the audience in tears. They strongly emphasize with both George and Lenny. Of Mice and Men is a compelling and unsentimental tale of friendship and loneliness.
Big Noise Theatre Company has reached into the stratosphere with their stunningly beautiful production of Stephen Sondheim’s 1985 Sunday in the Park with George. Utilizing an amazing amount of video animation depicting the painter at work, George explodes as an ode to the creative process and the pains associated with the creation of art