Author: Tom Williams

I must state that that I detest rap and most rock music yet I enjoyed the 2008 Tony Award winning In The Heights more that I thought I would. The infectious, manic and deftly executed dances (by choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler) and the very likable characters gave me something to care about.

While the visual metaphors, the flying, and the movements were stunning, I quickly became lost as the story melted into too many unclear segments.

This, indeed, is an ‘actors’ show’ as the above eked out all of the dark humor and pathos David Mamet intended. Mamet is know as a “language playwright” in that he has an ear for the language, the cadence, and the rhythms of common man’s speech

The Addams Family is a flat out hit show that finds a fresh way to re-introduce us to the bizarre world of our lovable finger-clicking Addams clan. Based on Charles Addams series of cartoons that ran in the New Yorker from 1938-88 and the hit TV series, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice have written a gag-filled hilarious book that aptly depicts their family values through a macabre lens.

Aunt Dan is a dark cautionary tale, a black comedy and a mordant tale about the chilling subversive nature of influence. This is a play that demands sharp listening skills as it contains several long monologues about geopolitics, the nature of societal survival, and the roots of the urge to kill to preserve order in society.

When the eight hard working kids finished Kyle Jarrow’s satire of both Scientology and religious pageants, I was quite appreciative of their work ethic as they flawlessly, at their skill level, ran through their songs and routines and dialogue.

they got the dance part right–there are 4 or 5 high energy dance numbers including a manic tap number in act two danced to a techno-jazz orchestra. Unfortunately, much of the show is taken up with three unfunny and rather pathetic clowns that had a most tedious and ill conceived (boring) tired vaudeville act that had less than half the audience laughing.