Tom Williams This is a slick journey through the roots of both vaudeville and the African-American musical experience…that explains Black history from 1830 to 1930 with emphasis on the Great Migration Era of 1910-1930, Keep A Song In Your Soul is a tuneful expose on American country, blue grass, work songs & chants, gospel, ragtime and jazz styles that shaped 20th Century vaudeville shows.
Playwright Harrison offers not enough motivation for Katha and Ryu to drop their contemporary lives for the degrading life of 1955 that finds Katha as a housewife and Ryu (a Japanese-American) relegated as a factory worker who assembles cardboard boxes. Really?
By Liz Duffy Adams Directed by Catherine Weidner Produced by Caffine Theatre At the Flatiron Building, Chicago A rollicking, bodice-ripping farce has its moments “Here in debtor’s prison I do lie For lack of funds promised me as your spy. To nag and scold my own adored king Believe me, pains me more than anything. … Read more
In the early scenes, we meet three small-time gang-bangers: Mimic (Steve Casillas), Shine (Marvin Quijada) and Thug (Jesse David). Mimic attends Shine’s funeral and he expresses his grief. We see the ghost of Shine as we learn that Thug shot Shine as a result of an argument over how drug selling corner is to be maned.
Maria teaches the kids to sing (the toe-tapping “Do-Re-Me”) and wins their hearts with her unconditional loving spirit and energy. Maria also falls for the Captain (Larry Adams). The family is forced to flee the Nazi’s before the Captain is forced to join the German navy. The Sound of Music is a charming, heartwarming musical treat containing some of the best know show tunes and filled with enough goodness and purity to entertain all ages.
Eye Inside is a blatantly great concept. It’s – okay, it kind of sounds chintzy at first glance – it’s about an evil agent who takes uniformly good-spirited and magnanimous actors and turns them into fame-whores and coke-fiends. He is a corrupter of the pure. But, honestly, making a rock opera out of the subject – and I’m selling it short, it’s far trippier than that sound-bite summation – well, it just makes sense.
This is a sweet, feel-good musical that is as much an Irving Berlin musical as a holiday show. It is family friendly and a toe-tapping delight. Once you see it, it’ll make you enjoy the eventual White Christmas to come.
Ronan Marra found and expertly directs Canadian Hannah Moscovitch’s two one-acts: East of Berlin and The Russian Play. I can’t remember when I’ve witness such a riveting and fully engrossing new works!
There are two schools of thought as to how Shakespeare is to be done: there are those who think of it as sacred text, and would not have it touched but for (necessary) cutting; and then there are those who see it as a playground and something meant to be reconstructed and reimagined. The Globe Theatre in London certainly is not afraid of improvisation and crowd interaction from on the stage. Indeed, that position almost is more truly Shakespearean – one cannot expect Richard Burbage to have followed exactly the text.
McDonagh’s absurdist bent and his love for pitch-black humor mixed with Grand Guignol elements makes for a pulsating 90 minutes of terror-filled theatre. Weirdness, mystery, dark obsession and revenge fill the low-life world of four distinct characters.