Must See

This romantic journey is filled with Sondheim’s marvelous, almost hypnotic, lush melodies sung wonderfully mostly in duets with stirring solos that depict the wide pain and ecstasy of the yearning for love and the struggle of romantic interludes. Colette Todd’s rich soprano voice is a wonder to hear and Peter Oyloe combines intensity with his strong voice to make Giorgio a charismatic and empathic character. Danni Smith gave Fosca a depth and painful presence that eventually explodes into a chilling obsession that becomes hypnotic

Written by Andrew Hobgood and Megan Johns with input by the cast, reWILDing Genius is a tale of brilliant techie hackers, each expert and successful in their given cyber fields, who live together in an Uptown Chicago loft under the radar. This group of social dropouts are wondering through life until one newbie to the loft challenges the group to do an ambitious task that could change the world

Heartbeat of Home is a refreshingly new take on Irish step dancing in that it has the manic energy and style but with more pizazz, improved Irish styles with smart inclusion of other sounds and dance styles. The result is a dramatically exhilarating new show with hints of the glory of Riverdance. Doherty and McColgan have another hit on their hands. The dancing go on…

Seminar is funny, stinging, smart, as it stirs us with biting comments on the world of both fiction writing and our quest to achieve fame and fortune in the creative arts. Anyone who has ever penned a story will relate to this show. Haven Theatre has mounted a gem of a show. A strong script presented by a terrific ensemble are ingredients for a wonderful trip to the theatre. This show is worth seeing.

Director John Mossman sure gets his game cast of five to exude every ounce of comedy from Jean Cocteau’s 1938 French farce, Les Parents Terribles. We meet the ultimate tangled and twisted dysfunctional family that finds the father, George (Frank Nall) a wacky inventor; his wife Yvonne (Kathy Scambiatterra) the hyper-excessive mother who clings to her son, Michael (Julian Hester) in a passionately unnatural way. But Michael is in love with Madeleine (Allie Long) who also has an affair going with George. Aunt Leo (Miranda Zola), who has been in love with George for decades, live in the household is the only one present with a sense of order.

Golden Boy, written in 1937 (later made into a film with William Holden), is Joe Bonaparte’s (Nate Santana) story. Set in Depression era New York, Joe, a talented violinist and son of an Italian American immigrant chooses to be a boxer in his relentless search for the American Dream. Filled with gritty underworld characters and real family members (and, of course, the local socialists), Odets has the knack for presenting exact models of 1930’s frustrated lower class.

Director Peter Marston Sullivan has created the proper passionate tone to highlight Peter Shaffer’s fictional account of Antonio Salieri’s relationship with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The result is Amadeus, a rivetingly emotional gem.

Anchored by the in depth and glib work of Steve O’ Connell as Antonio Saleri and Chris Ballou as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Amadeus brings us into the fascinating world of Mozart as he strives for fortune and fame in Vienna at the court of Hapsburg Austrian Emperor Joseph II (David Tibble) in the late 1780’s.