Little Shop of Horrors
Come on downtown to Skid Row and visit this little shop. A crowd-pleasing blend of genres, it’s the second performance from Street Tempo and demonstrates their emerging affection for spicy—and twisted—pieces.
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After the Revolution
We see the dynamic of family relationships as three generations emerge with different political and social beliefs. Ben is an open Marxist apologist while Emma is both an American patriot and a leftist. We see the generational conflicts with Ben and her grandmother Vera (MaryAnn Thebus). The common binding thread here is the Marxist beliefs shared by all.
We Are Proud to Present…
if – you can get over the actor’s struggle to tell and move the story along. The leaderless troupe finds the black women (Tracey N. Bonner) trying to arbitrate, stimulate and focus the storytelling to mixed results. All the bickering, backstage humor and role playing games eventually sets up the final powerful racially-charged final role playing game that becomes much
The Rainmaker
When a stranger, a fast-talking man, Starbuck (Matthew Keffer) arrives at the Curry ranch, his high-powered charismatic manner and slick talking charms H.C. and young Jim but turns off the pragmatic skeptical Noah and Lizzie. Starbuck promises to deliver rain within 24 hours for $100. Starbuck is “selling” hope–dreams- promising rain if the family has faith in him and if they do his rituals.
Re-Spiced: A Silk Road Cabaret
Stronger voices with a clearer focus which may have exuded more empathy and charm like the first Silk Road Cabaret show did would make this revue more stage worthy. As it plays now, there is enough quality tunes to give an honest portrait of Asian and Middle Eastern psyche as part of the unique melting pot know as the USA.
Tunnel Rat
But my irritation to this work rests mainly with the repetitive circular structure of the play. Giles and Lucy go over the events and source of Giles’ PTSD so often that I was about to scream. Giles’ lifelong memories from the horrors and fears of his tunnel activity that led to his killing of a female Vietcong are never resolved nor fully developed by his visits to the mental health professional. Amazingly, Lucy has nothing to offer Giles as psychological help. Instead, she does what no professional therapist would do – she tells himof her personal demons and foibles that comes from her being an over-achieving Jew.
Chesapeake
Remy Bumppo think theatre has mounted Chesapeake under the thoughtful direction of Shawn Douglass. This one-person comedy, staring Greg Matthew Anderson, is quirky yet funny cautionary tale about artistic expression and the ignorant governmental attempts to stifle art.
The Turn of the Screw
Nick Sandy plays The Man, an old women housekeeper and a young boy, among others while Melanie Keller plays the governess as the horror genre works to create the necessary tension to scare us. The psychological mystery is both vague and frightening.
Pippin
Pippin, with Stephen Schwartz’s music and lyrics, is a musical fable about the son of Charlemagne set in 780 A.D. Pippin (Andrew Keltz) is the young prince in search of happiness and personal fulfillment. We meet a troupe of actors channeling the style of Bertolt Brecht led by the Leading Player (the charismatic Joey Stone)
Fela! A New Musical
At first, I was enchanted with the pulsating rhythms of Fela’s music but after several extremely long songs, the music sounded to me like the same song being played over and over again. They used super titles to show the lyrics of these songs – a good idea. But, when Sahr Ngaujah spoke with his fast-talking heavy Nigerian accent, I could not understand much of what he was saying. That is a major flaw for my appreciation of the show.