King Lear
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

 Staging a production of King Lear has sometimes been compared to scaling a mountain. The play is considered (by some) to be the playwright's finest work, and it is often treated with reverence and, perhaps, terror. The Milwaukee Repertory Company opened its fall season with this powerful work. What they have achieved is a production that is both riveting and accessible. While this won't be the Lear to suit everyone's taste, it certainly does an exemplary job of highlighting the themes of Shakespeare's work.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2006
King Of The Moon
Seven Angels Theater

 Conflict between two brothers, debate over the war in Vietnam, and a discussion of the rules of the Catholic Church, all set in the tumultuous 60s, could be an interesting play. Last year, a new autobiographical play by Tom Dudzick, Over the Tavern, set in the 50's, won us over with its tasty concoction of tartness and sweetness of spirit. It was all about the Pazinski family from the East Side of Buffalo.

Rosalind Friedman
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Kinks, Shrinks And Red Inks!
MeX Theater

 Jefferson Ensemble, formed less than two years ago in Louisville, is currently presenting three one-act plays under the Kinks, Shrinks and Red Inks! title. With these three shows tailored to their particular talents, the group's fine actors can really strut their stuff. Local playwright Elaine T. Hackett's A Clash of Invitations is the lengthiest and most satisfying of the three.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
January 2000
Kiss At City Hall, The
Pasadena Playhouse

 Why doesn't romance last? asks Joe DiPietro in this "relationship" comedy, which comes off as a slightly-better-than-average TV sitcom in its West Coast premiere production. Inspired by French photographer Robert Doisneau's snapshot of a man and woman exchanging a passionate public kiss, Di Pietro gives us two New York couples grappling with issues of commitment, unwanted pregnancy, infidelity and neurotic behavior, against a backdrop of the idealized romance embodied in the controversial snapshot (which may or may not have been staged).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
January 2000
Kiss Me, Kate
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

 Hugs and kisses to the wonderful pair (Lillie played by Angela Bond and Fred by David Engel) who rediscover their love through sparring and starring in a musical version of Taming of the Shrew. There may be Sharon Scott's rousing "Another Opening, [but it's not just]Another Show" as director Will Mackenzie uses all his TV expertise fitting onto a relatively small stage the excitement of a Broadway extravaganza. Oh, yes, he uses the whole theater, too (so nicely for "We Open in Venice") and has more than the doublings called for by the script.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2003
Kiss Me, Tony
Patio Playhouse

 Deborah Ann Zimmer's homage to 27 years of Tony-winning Broadway musicals, Kiss Me, Tony, is just plain fun. Starting with Kiss Me Kate and closing with The Producers, the selections make a virtual history of contemporary musicals.

She stages each number with just enough action to set the scene for the selection from the show. Musical Director Ann Savage, aided by April Haarz's vocal direction, brings panache to each song. Choreographer Dawn Marie Himlin adds to the evening's polished, theatrical style.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Kiss Of The Spider Woman
Ahmanson Theater

 [Reviewed at Orange County Performing Arts Center, Dec. 1996] To make a musical of Manuel Puig's novel, "Kiss of the Spider Woman," Terrence McNally, John Kander and Fred Ebb simply put Puig's story on stage as a play, then superimposed on it 20-some musical numbers, most of which have nothing to do with the plot but feature a dazzling performance by Chita Rivera.

T.E. Foreman
Date Reviewed:
December 1996
Kiss Of The Spider Woman
Rudyard Kipling

 In its various formats -- novel, play, film, musical -- Manuel Puig's Kiss of the Spider Woman evokes powerful emotions as two male cellmates jailed in a totalitarian country (Argentina) lay bare the politics of seduction. Who could be more different than Molina (Michael Drury), a flamboyant homosexual window dresser charged with "gross indecency," and Valentin (Andrew Pyle), a dedicated humorless Marxist whose zeal for social revolution excludes pleasure from his life?

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
January 2000
Krapp's Last Tape & Not I
New World Stage

 "Ion Theater's new space, World Stage, on 9th, puts them almost back-to-back with 10th Avenue Theater. A new downtown theater district? World Stage is a very welcoming facility complete with a roomy lobby and a modest-sized theater space with tiered seating providing great sight lines. Their opening offerings are definitely for the serious theater patron. A Tuesday-through- Sunday performance schedule alternates between two Samuel Beckett plays and one Ionesco play. There are a variety of curtain times, varying from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2006
Kwaidan
Albert Simons Center, College of Charleston

 Normally, I despise puppets, marionettes, and their wooden brethren. But the artistry of director/adapter Ping Chong, production designer Mitsuru Ishii, and the puppeteers from the Center of Puppetry Arts is so exquisitely hypnotic, I surrendered to Chong's charms. And the trio of Japanese ghost stories adapted from the 1904 work by Lafcadio Hearn glow with a quiet intensity that I found quite unique. "Jhininiki" was a weird, ghoulish beginning.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
June 1999
Gore Vidal's The Best Man

 (see Criticopia review(s) under "Best Man, The")

Razorback
Theatre Theater

 The formula that draws youthful audiences to the movies today -- extreme violence interspersed with raunchy wisecracks -- has been tapped by John Pollono in the writing of his new play, Razorback, now in its world premiere run at Theatre Theater. A lurid melodrama filled with killings, profanity and jokes, Razorback drew laughter and cheers from those in attendance on opening night, most of whom seemed were in their twenties.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2008
Eyes Of Love, The
Producers Club Theater - II

 This is a shrink play. Three black, faux-leather swivel chairs become the offices of two analysts: level-headed Kathryn Brooks (Linda West) and earnest Mark Ryan (Thomas F. Honeck). Mark accepts an emergency call from volatile Annalisa Dominico, who is having boyfriend trouble. She pours out her problems to Mark, who in turn airs them with his own shrink, Kathryn. Annalisa has rapid-fire oscillations in her relationship with Anthony Fatima (Frank Caruso), to whom she is as addicted as to her cell phone.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
May 2000
One On One
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

 Robert Mansell has fulfilled many an actor's dream: gathering up scenes and roles he'd like to play and doing so in a well-directed, designed, entertaining program. Though without a thematic frame, the first half of this one-man show mainly presents men involved in monstrosities.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2007
Further Than The Furthest Thing
Manhattan Theater Club - Stage I

 Further Than the Furthest Thing is the absolute worst kind of bad play -- the kind where you cannot imagine anyone deriving any sort of pleasure from it. An unbearably downcast, coma-inducing story by Scottish playwright Zinnie Harris, it is the latest Manhattan Theater Club production that begs the question of why anyone there ever thought it would work. It is also the latest import from the West End that transfers so poorly in America, you wonder what's in the water over there.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Warrior, The
Backlot Theater

 Dog-tagged, in fatigues, dragging her huge canvas sling-bag, Tammy, veteran of Desert Storm and now Iraq, suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Giselle, an old school mate (heard but not seen), is filming a documentary. Tammy's agreed to be interviewed, desperately hoping it'll help win back her daughter from her soon-to-be ex-husband. He found another woman -- just one of the terrible things that happened to Tammy when at war in Iraq.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2007
La Discreta Enamorada
Southern Methodist University - Greer Garson Theater

 Southern Methodist University mounted a student production of Vern G. Williamsen's ill-conceived translation of La Discreta Enamorada by 16th century Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, in the Greer Garson Theater. The setting was updated to 1950s Madrid. This is a review of portions of Act I -- the parts I saw when not hiding in the lobby to escape the excessive stench of on-stage smoking, at times by two characters at once who paced back and forth downstage.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
Labor Day
Weiss Arts Center

 Summerfun is a true summer stock theater, changing shows every week, and as a result, the product varies greatly. Labor Day is one of its best successes, featuring a good cast in a well-directed, one-set play. Obviously autobiographical in part, the Gurney piece tells the story of John, a playwright, who for forty years has achieved moderate success although never a Broadway production.

Donald Collester
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Lady Cries Murder, The
Lamplighters Community Theater

 John William See's The Lady Cries Murder, Lamplighter's current offering, was premiered by the San Diego Rep almost 22 years ago, and it has aged well. Placed in 1938, the story is a classic detective tale of the period, cram-packed with twists. See has a special talent for the unique language of the film-noir style. The script is also rich in interesting, almost contemporary, phrases that add extra bite to the dialogue.
 

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
April 2002
Lady In The Dark
Prince Music Theater

 This is a sumptuous and beautiful revival of a challenging 1941 play-with-music. The timing couldn't be better, since the script includes references to "these difficult times" and national emergency. Early in the show, the troubled magazine editor, Liza Elliott, says to her psychoanalyst: "I feel ashamed to sit here whining about myself, with the world at war." The show's structure is unusual, starting cold, without music, and the scenes in Liza's office and the psychiatrist's office are straight Moss Hart dialogue.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
October 2001
Lady Windermere's Fan
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

 Coming directly from real London theater-going to go to this play set in London but performed in Sarasota seems a trip from the sublime to the ridiculous. Director Eberle Thomas claims to have approached Wilde's comedy of manners straightforwardly, "not overly concerned about what the style of the play should be." As a result, all that seems highlighted is what's melodramatic about the plot. Exaggeration, especially in manners and vocalization, substitutes for stylization.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Lady, Be Good
Broadway Theater Center - Cabot Theater

 Few musicals can match the pedigree of this 1924 classic. It has a number of "firsts," including being the first of 14 musicals written by the legendary team of George and Ira Gershwin. It also established a pair of dancers, Fred and Adele Astaire, as Broadway's leading dance team. Then there are the songs, which have become standards through the years: "Lady, Be Good," "Fascinating Rhythm," "I'd Rather Charleston" and "Nice Work if You Can Get It," among many, many others.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Language of Their Own, A
Asian American Theater Company

 An elegant John Lee design (recalling the genius of Ming Cho Lee), expertly lit by Rick Martin, sets the scene for the Asian American Theater Center's lyrical A Language Of Their Own. The quartet of this Kushner/Pinter-influenced play search for ways to express them selves by going to the ends of words, hiding within words or silence. Chay Yew's touching, talky drama about love, loss and linguistics finds its structure in solos and duets. Oftentimes circuitous and repetitious, Language reflects the Yin and Yang of life.

Larry Myers
Date Reviewed:
January 1996
Laramie Project, The
Lumia Theater

 The outstanding docu-drama The Laramie Project is getting a first rate in your face production by the New Jersey Repertory Theater. The play -- a series of dramatic interviews that arose from the horrifying events surrounding the fatal 1998 beating of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming, is recreated by eight excellent actors, each of whom brings a realistic resonance and stirring emotional truth to the compelling text.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Laramie Project, The
Zachary Scott Theater

 The Zachary Scott Theater in Austin, Texas is the hub of where it's happening this spring as they mount two thought-provoking and highly-entertaining productions, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and, on the mainstage, The Laramie Project, helmed by producing artistic director Dave Steakley.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
March 2002
Laramie Project, The
Chapel Theater at Salt Lake Acting Company

 Moises Kaufman and the members of Tectonic Theater Project took Father Roger's advice to heart when they painstakingly constructed The Laramie Project from more than 200 interviews conducted in the year following Shepard's death. They let the words of Laramie's citizens stand on their own in simple eloquence. The commendable and amazing thing about The Laramie Project is what a balanced viewpoint it maintains amidst the conflicting emotions -- anger, grief, blame, self-righteousness, guilt, justification, and denial -- of such a polarizing situation.

Barbara Bannon
Date Reviewed:
August 2001
Las Meninas
Cygnet Theater

 Theater can be so much more than entertainment. Cygnet's current production tells of a mere dot in the history of France. A very interesting dot, at that. In Las Meninas we are in the court of France's Louis XIV with his Spanish Queen Marie-Therese, a marriage of political import. Louis was a womanizer, practically ignoring his queen. Enter Nabo Sensugali, an African dwarf servant to the Queen. He fills a need in her. The result is biracial Louise Marie-Therese, who is quickly dispatched to a Benedictine convent, where she eventually took her vows.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Last Five Years, The
North Coast Repertory Theater

 The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown's somewhat autobiographical musical, has been described as a contemporary song-cycle musical. I prefer a more contemporary description: contra-linear musical drama. Cathy Hiatt (Erin Cronican), former wife of Jamie Wellerstein (Jerimiah Lorenz), begins her story starting today and regressing through break-up, marriage, falling in love, and the first meeting. Jamie, in full opposition, prefers to start at the beginning: first sight, first love, marriage, disillusionment and finally, divorce.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
November 2004
Last Five Years, The
Cabot Theater - Broadway Theater Center

 A contemporary romance adds nothing new to theatrical dialogue - unless, of course, there's a twist. The twist in The Last Five Years is a clever one. The musical unfolds as a sequence of songs, with very little dialogue. Two attractive, twentyish actors portray a couple who meet, fall in love, get married and eventually part. What's the twist? The guy's story is told in forward time - meaning that his first songs are about meeting the girl of his dreams. The girl's story is told in reverse. She is saddened by the demise of what once was a promising relationship.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
March 2005
Last Night Of Ballyhoo, The
Parker Auditorium

 In 1996, five years after Alfred Uhry brought the world Driving Miss Daisy, he was commissioned to write a play to coincide with the Olympic Games being held in Atlanta. The Last Night of Ballyhoo went on to win both a Tony and an Outer Critics Circle Award when it premiered on Broadway. The play's theme deals with Jewish anti-Semitism in Atlanta in 1939 -- that is, anti-Semitism practiced by Jews upon other Jews. The script ranges from subtle remarks, easily missed, to sledgehammer attacks.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2001
Last Night Of Ballyhoo, The
Westport Country Playhouse

 This masterful play, which won the 1997 Tony Award for the best work of that year, deals with exclusion and prejudice within the Jewish community in Atlanta, Georgia in 1939, against the backdrop of the exciting opening of the film, "Gone with the Wind," and Hitler's march on Poland. These are serious cultural and religious issues never discussed outside the inner circle, but Uhry, as he did in Driving Miss Daisy, uses high humor and love of character to bring it all to the forefront.

Rosalind Friedman
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Last Night Of Ballyhoo, The
Maguire Theater

 It is December, 1939 in Atlanta at the home of Adolph Freitag (George Garfield). The unusual thing is that this Jewish family has a Christmas tree in the living room. The Last Night Of Ballyhoo moves along in the style of a domestic comedy of the '30s, but we will come to discover the tension signified by the display of that tree. In this city that is largely Christian, the Freitags fit into middle class Southern Society well. It takes a rough outsider, a Jew from Brooklyn, to set the family on end.

Mark Donnelly
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Last Night Of Ballyhoo, The
Contemporary Theater of Dallas

 Alfred Uhry's 1997 Tony-winning play, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, lives up to its reputation in the new production by Contemporary Theater of Dallas. The play was originally commissioned for the cultural Olympiad of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and had its world premiere at the Alliance Theater.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
December 2006
Last of the Boys
Off-Broadway Theater

 If you have any doubt regarding the parallels between the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and the current events in Iraq, run - don't walk - to the Next Act Theater production of Last of the Boys. Some of the play's dialogue, taken verbatim from the writings and speeches of Robert S. McNamara, actually draws gasps from the audience. While the play probably won't change anyone's views about Vietnam, it certainly makes the audience think. It also poses interesting questions that go beyond its war theme.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Last Of The Red Hot Lovers
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

 Even though the windows of his mother's apartment look out on a wall, Barney closes the curtains before he opens his briefcase to pull out Scotch and two glasses. He's preparing, of course, to have an affair. When his sophisticated co-worker Elaine shows up, he's as on-edge as she is. But in her case it's because she's forgotten her cigarettes and would like to move on as quickly as possible to another form of gratification -- the kind she's used to, and family man, fish restaurateur Barney is not.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2000
Last Schwartz, The
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

 On the eve of their father's Yarzheit (year after death) when his headstone will be unveiled, a gathering of the Schwartzes at their old home reveals the family disintegrating. Older sister Norma (serious Sheila Stasack) hopes to keep them, the home, and their Jewish heritage going, but personal problems grab each of them much more. Brother Herb (for whom Ron Bagden wins sympathy), whose comfort involves reading the paper with his feet on an old sofa table, much to Norma's chagrin, just wants to get on with his business and life.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2005
Last Train to Nibroc
Florida Studio Theater

 Meets don't get any cuter. Boy: nice, good looking Raleigh, just medically discharged from the service. Girl: pretty, pageboy-neat and proper Amy, an aspiring Christian missionary. Setting: December 27, 1940, an eastbound train from L.A. carrying the bodies of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathaniel West, famous writers like Raleigh hopes to go to New York to become. Tired and put out from visiting a "changed" fiance and then having a pushy seat partner on a previous train, Amy's wary of sitting by a soldier. Then they find they're from the same area in Kentucky.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2001
Late Nite Catechism
North Coast Repertory Theater

 The following warnings must be heeded:
Do not come late.
Do not chew gum.
Do not apply anything to your lips.
Do not touch your neighbor, even if you came with them.
Do not talk to your neighbor.
Do not get caught doing anything in class that irritates the good sister.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2005
Late Nite Catechism
Encore Room

 The 125-seat Encore Room at Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami would seem to be a better fit for the audience-participation of Late Nite Catechism than the larger venue it has played in previous incarrnations in South Florida. But the laughs, as well as the house, are smaller this time. Blame, perhaps, audience familiarity with the well-traveled play's idea of a stern but gentle and fully-habited nun trying to teach the rudiments of Catholic beliefs and practices to a class of adults.

Julie Calsi
Date Reviewed:
November 2004
Late Nite Catechism
Ivanhoe Theater

 Joining the roster of performers in Late Nite Catechism (still going, like the Energizer Bunny, after three years) is Bailiwick's Artistic Director, Cecilie D. Keenan. Director Marc Silvia also makes a brief appearance as Father Gilby, asking the audience for suggestions on how to stage the community production of the Seven Sacraments and how to integrate their favorite musicals as part of it. Silvia even improvs funny repartee with the audience in his priest persona.

Effie Mihopoulos
Date Reviewed:
January 1996

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