Author: Tom Williams

MUST SEEREVIEWSREVIEWS BYTheatre ReviewsTom Williams

Porgy and Bess

The clarity of the Newell-Peck production gives our understanding of the angst and pain of the Gullah community a new richness. We feel Porgy’s pain and Bess weakness. We also appreciate the strength of the Gullah community. After seeing several strong productions of Porgy and Bess (including the amazing Lyric Opera of Chicago production) , I must state that this truthful Court Theatre production is a masterpiece of art. It has the best of opera with the strengths of musical theatre.

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REVIEWSREVIEWS BYTheatre ReviewsTom Williams

Three Days of Rain

When Pip (Tony Bozzuto)- Welker’s best friend and son of Walker’s father’s partner joins the two siblings, old memories kindle trouble. We learn about the complex relationship between the three that was strongly influenced by the father’s partnership. Walker finds a journal left by his father that is filled with hints an a reference to “the three days of rain” back in 1960.

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MUST SEEREVIEWSREVIEWS BYTheatre ReviewsTom Williams

The Outgoing Tide

Jack and Peg want to convince Gunner to move to an assisted living facility. Gunner, becoming frustrated with his worsening mental state, has an alternate plan to deal with his condition. Gunner has a quite unorthodox plan to secure both Peg’s and Jack’s future. The play deftly deals with the ramifications and ethical dilemmas as Gunner chooses a final solution that will solve everyone’s need for financial security and his need for peace and dignity.

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REVIEWSREVIEWS BYTheatre ReviewsTom Williams

Aces

When the girl-next store pretty blond, Samantha (Simone Roos) arrives from Reno to become the fourth dealer, she has a soothing effect on all the characters. After a meeting, the ‘Aces’ agree to each get to know the new dealer with an eye on trying to determine of she’ll go along and join their scam.

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REVIEWSREVIEWS BYTheatre ReviewsTom Williams

Fifty Words

Fifty Words – an exercise in hurt-your-spouse relationship dynamics. The show is a scream-and-holler affair that moves from being sensual seduction to brutal verbal and physical love making that moves into hurtful physicality. It depicts the deep seeded resentments that a marriage can encounter when the bond that unites two people is shallow.

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MUST SEEREVIEWSREVIEWS BYTheatre Reviews

War & Peace

Jim Manganello has set himself quite the task: adapt Leo Tolstoy’s epic War & Peace into an hour-long piece of dance-theater. On the face, it seems almost comical, absurd. But with theater like this, it forces one to strip everything but the essentials away, and we are left with a very raw, very real piece of theater, that somehow, through it all, remains true to the original text.

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