Director Ed Rutherford’s unique story theater approach sprinkled with a spirited folk-infused music score together with a hyper-manic performance style by the cast made for a tedious uneven production. The mix of music, puppetry, physicality, and over- acting fueled the complex and confusing parable that quickly became hard to follow
Read MoreI left 16th Street Theater last night quite baffled because I witnessed a most engaging and theatrical production of a one-person show – The Agony And The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Lance Baker, a surefire actor who has a special talent for presenting one-man shows, was at the top of his art in this perplexing show. Baker’s performance was exquisite as he deftly navigates through Mike Daisey’s controversial polemic.
Read MoreThe BoHo Theatre and Stage Left Theatre jointly present a most engaging and fully authentic production of Shaw’s 1913 work – Pygmalion. Shaw’s most popular play became the great musical My Fair Lady that used much of the original Shaw script including much of the dialogue in the songs. Pygmalion, in its initial script, had a different ending that many producers and Shaw himself changed several times. This production used Shaw’s original ending which may be a surprise to My Fair Lady and fans of the 1930’s film of Pygmalion. Kudos to BoHo and Stage Left for sticking to the initial ending.
Read MoreThis evening’s CSO program marks the second time in the past three seasons that music director Riccardo Muti has had to bow out of a scheduled performance of Beethoven’s legendary Eroica Symphony; Muti developed a case of the flu and was replaced for the duration of his present two-week engagement by Edo de Waart, currently music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Given the short notice on which he took up the program, de Waart led finely polished and alert performances that often lacked the last degree of dramatic intensity.
Read MoreLucy fans will enjoy Sirena Irwin’s take on Lucy – red hair and all. She has Lucy’s comedic facial gestures and eye movements done; she even has Lucy’s terrible singing in tow.
Read MoreThe Motherf**ker With The Hat is , indeed, about addiction on many levels that ultimately shows us how we keep fooling ourselves as we use our addictions or habits to keep ourselves from taking responsibility for our lives. This play contains lessons on how we use our habits or addictions to mask our self-delusional behavior. It has much to say and it says it with humor and profanity. I think this is Stephen Adly Guirgis’ finest play. Jimmy Smits and John Ortiz are particularly outstanding here.
Read MoreThe play starts out a comic parody that eventually turns into a serious cautionary tale about the corruption of accumulating excessive power. John Henry Roberts is effective, first as the pompous governor, than as the worn-out obsessive ruler. Joel Ewing is terrific as he moves back and forth from three distinct characters. Once he tones down his booming voice a bit, his performance becomes engrossing.
Read MoreThe plot is only hinted at but we never see the scheme unfold. Instead, we see Fran turn psychopath as she killed Joe on their wedding night. In act two, Fran tells Virginia about her killing her war injured sister. This play turns from a song-and-dance infused sexual ramp to gain allotment checks to a murdering psycho seems to come out of nowhere.
Read MoreThe Top 10 Plays of 2012
Read MoreGenerally, when I dislike a play, I don’t review another production but, since I’m a fan of Redtwist’s work, I thought that they’d make Purple Heart stage worthy. But since the play is so weird, nothing can save it. My problems come mainly from the script that finds all of the characters devoid of empathy and the situation is fueled by repetitive dialogue with an under rehearsed feel.
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