Method Gun, The
Kirk Douglas Theater

The Austin-based Rude Mechs theater company has brought one of its typical productions, The Method Gun, to L.A. as part of the current Radar L.A. international festival. The Method Gun is performed by five actors, each of whom performs multiple roles during the show, which is a mixture of drama, satire, physical movement, circus bits (somebody prancing around in a tiger costume), nudity and violence.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Another Effing Family Drama
ArtWorks Theater

The Hollywood Fringe Festival, now in its second year in L.A., is the proper place for offbeat and irreverent work -- a case in point being Another Effing Family Drama, the new one-act play by Catherine Pelonero, author of such previously successful works as Family Names and Awesome Ghosts of Ontario, both published by Samuel French.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Marilyn, Forever Blonde! The Marilyn Monroe Story in her Own Words and Music
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Asolo Theater

I can't imagine anyone "doing" a better Marilyn Monroe. With the tousled blonde hair and luminescent skin on a curvaceous figure, Sunny Thompson has the sex icon down pat. With her mix of breathy and breathless voice, she relates her biog to a photographer (our surrogate). It's supposedly her last photo shoot before death from an overdose. She's wrapped in a sheet on a big central bed surrounded by lights, both the symbol of her life and the scenic metaphor of Marilyn, Forever Blonde!

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Fiddler on the Roof
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

It has been some years since the musical Fiddler On the Roof graced a Broadway stage. It was a long-running hit during its original run in 1964 and has been revived on Broadway four times. A new, North American tour of Fiddler recently reached Milwaukee. Showing no signs of its age, this energetic Fiddler can still captivate an audience with its charm, warmth and compassion.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Hilton Theater

Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, book by Julie Taymor, Glen Berger, Roberto
Aguirre-Sacasa; music and lyrics by Bono and The Edge; is a great entertainment with spectacular, absolutely brilliant design (set by George Tspin, lighting by Donald Holder, costumes by Eiko Ishioka, projections by Kyle Cooper, masks by Julie Taymor, makeup by Judy Chin). The show takes theatrical effects to a new dimension. It's shiny, it sparkles, you are in a sci-fi video game.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Rain
Brooks Atkinson Theater

Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles is touted as a re-creation of The Beatles. It's not. It's a performance of The Beatles' songs by young men who resemble the original four, but it is without the innocence, the sweetness of the originals.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Roberta MacDonald: Songs, Stories, and Mr. Chatterbox
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

There's so much variety in the professional and personal life of Roberta MacDonald (nee Schiff, now Turoff) that it's hard to believe she's lived 40 years of them as co-owner and leading lady of The Golden Apple Dinner Theater. As the theater faces a crisis threatening its existence, she's displaying a major reason for it to continue.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Side Effects
Lucille Lortel Theater

Michael Weller's 90-minute drama, Side Effects, is a duel between long-time antagonist-lovers, a domestic trauma-drama about a politically ambitious middle-aged man (Cotter Smith) and his medicated, bi-polar wife (Joely Richardson). He's a stiffo; she's beautiful, mercurial, wacko. The actors are totally believable: he in his closed-in state, she in her wide-open one.

Fine designer Beowulf Boritt outdoes himself in the upper-crust set with a billowing kind of detail. Lighting by Jeff Croiter is merely superb, and costumes for Ms.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Play Dead
Players Theater

Play Dead, written by Todd Robbins and Teller, directed by Teller and performed by Robbins, is a good-natured, terrific horror show. Robbins is a unique, charismatic personality whom I have previously reviewed favorably in his sideshow performance. Play Dead, with the addition of magic by Teller, one of the best magicians in the country, tops the old one by far. In addition to the eating of a light bulb as per his sideshow piece, there is disappearing, mind reading and lots of jokes.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Church Basement Ladies
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts - Vogel Hall

Church Basement Ladies is a folksy little musical that pays tribute to the "Steel Magnolias" of Minnesota's Lutheran church. The show, with a local cast, is spending the summer in Milwaukee.

Staged in the relatively intimate Vogel Hall, Ladies gets a lot of its laughs from the precise comic timing of the middle-aged women who rule the church kitchen. These are the unsung heroes who quietly manage every church function.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Side Effects
Lucille Lortel Theater

A marriage coasting along on a smooth sea rarely adds up to enthralling theater. It is a more tumultuous relationship, the more ferocious the better, that grabs the audience.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
The Difficulty of Crossing a Field
Terrace Theater

Long Beach Opera, southern California's maverick opera company, recently further enhanced its reputation with a bold and imaginative production of The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, a new work by composer David Lang and librettist Mac Wellman. Inspired by Ambrose Bierce's 1888 short story, the work, a cross between opera and musical drama, tells the story of Mr. Williamson (actor Mark Bringelson), a plantation owner in the pre-Civil War south, who takes a walk in full view of his family, friends and slaves and disappears from sight, never to be seen again.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Our Son's Wedding
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz Theater

Not without bickering before opening the door, Mary and Angelo Lo Presto arrive in the plushest of rose and green suites in the Ritz Carleton where their son Michael will be married that evening to Dr. David Schwartz. Mary is bent on control of the situation. Traditional Angelo is flustered: Is Michael the bride or the groom?

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Grapes of Wrath, The
Stratford Festival - Avon Theater

"The Grapes of Wrath," as a novel and later as a great film, was and is an overwhelming experience. Then Frank Galati's beautiful stage version was perhaps even more shattering to experience first-hand onstage in Chicago, then London, then on Broadway. Its unique, all-encompassing view of the forced exodus of a half-million people from the dustbowl of Oklahoma to the misery of exploitation in California -- those who got there alive! -- was enlarged and condensed in those former developments.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
June 2011
Music Man, The
Geva Theater - Mainstage

Geva Theater Center obviously has a hit in its new and reconceived production of The Music Man, Meredith Willson's enduringly beloved American musical, which is actually neither the easy crowd-pleaser nor surefire success that it is generally considered to be. I've seen elaborate-looking outdoor versions that didn't work well, and the expensive TV version with the almost-always winning Matthew Broderick didn't work at all.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Born Yesterday
Cort Theater

Born Yesterday, a witty crowd-pleaser in 1946, made a four-star audience favorite out of Judy Holliday, earning her a Tony Award. The current production of Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday proves again that this comedy is a classic, and the new production at the Cort Theater was long overdue.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
House of Blue Leaves, The
Walter Kerr Theater

John Guare's nutty 60's comedy, The House of Blue Leaves, about a song-writing zookeeper with high ambitions, features Ben Stiller, his crazy wife (aptly named "Bananas") Edie Falco, and his girlfriend, Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a zany, imaginative show with conventions battered about, the 4th wall shattered and the charisma of the three stars bursting from the stage.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Jerusalem
Music Box Theater

Here are my notes taken while watching the Broadway play Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, directed by Ian Rickson: We start with a fairy princess singing, and then we are hit with a lot of noise and are introduced to the epitome of slob perfectly, repulsively played by Mark Rylance and his amusing bunch of degenerates with working-class English accents, plus a demented professor (Alan David).

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Two Jews Walk into a War...
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz Theater

Who would have thought a play about trying to assure that one's religion and its practitioners survive could be so exhilarating? Happily, Florida Studio Theater and other venues in the National New Play Network have. Thus, Two Jews Walk into a War is surviving past its debut. I think it also has a future. I've seen few works so specific and yet universal in appeal, so seriously timely and yet as humorously timeless as vaudeville characters doing turns of comic schtick.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Locked and Loaded
Santa Monica Playhouse

Locked and Loaded, now in its extended West-Coast premiere, is a profane, bawdy and irreverent riff on mortality. Written by veteran actor Todd Susman, the play stars Paul Linke and Andrew Parks as two old geezers with terminal illnesses who decide to end their life with a bang -- pun intended, we quickly learn. They check into a hotel room, gorge themselves with food and booze, put out a call for a couple of hookers. The Linke character -- Irwin Schimmel, a foul-mouthed ex-comedy writer -- has secreted a pistol in his suitcase.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Minister's Wife, A
Lincoln Center Theater - Mitzi Newhouse Theater

It's unlikely this musical version of George Bernard Shaw's Candida will achieve the audience and critical acclaim of My Fair Lady, which was based on Shaw's Pygmalion. Lacking those sparkling, audience-friendly songs that have become standards, A Minister's Wife has an often dissonant, very contemporary and sporadically melodic score by composer Joshua Schmidt (Adding Machine) that weaves complex chamber music throughout the story. Jan Levy Tranen's lyrics reflect the wit and romance of the Shavian play.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Minister's Wife, A
Lincoln Center Theater - Mitzi Newhouse Theater

A Minister's Wife, book by Austin Pendleton, music by Joshua Schmidt, lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen, adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Candida, is a charming operetta - a moving play about love and its illusions.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Sister Act
Broadway Theater

Sister Act, music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater, book by Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner, based on the movie written by Joseph Howard, is a gentle, really funny, silly, sweet musical with a familiar plot: saw a killing, on the run from killers, hide in disguise ("Some Like it Hot"). The narrative works beautifully as a singer on the run (the dyunamoic Patina Miler) enters a convent disguised as a nun and meets two of the best singers on Broadway: Victoria Clark as Mother Superior and Marla Mindelle as a postulant.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Born Yesterday
Cort Theater

Director Doug Hughes plays most of Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday like slapstick farce. The entire cast is excellent with Terry Beaver offering a lovely turn as a senator's wife, and Robert Sean Leonard quite charming as the third point of the triangle because he plays it totally real. The end is a foregone conclusion, but that doesn't interfere with our enjoyment of this lively show.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
People in the Picture, The
Studio 54

The People in the Picture, book and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart, music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler, well directed by Leonard Foglia, gives us an old woman, beautifully played by Donna Murphy, who takes us back to a long-gone world as she has memory delusions of her past: 1937 Poland, where a Yiddish Theatre troupe goes from shtetl to shtetl performing. We travel through old photographs of these people to their lives portrayed on the stage by a lively, able cast of high level professionals.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Saint Hollywood
Ideal Glass

Saint Hollywood is a remarkable multi-media show: a creation of visual projections, multi-multi images and a physically active story-teller, guitarist, actor/singer with multi accents, Willard Morgan, who created the show with Jerrold Ziman. Morgan is backed by three gorgeous women, two who dance and sing, Shannon Antalan and Zoe Rosario, and one, Eunice Wong, as a DJ.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Lucky Guy
Little Shubert Theater

Lucky Guy, a cheery, Country/Western super entertainment created by Willard Beckham (book, lyrics, music and snappy direction) is a hoot. The leading man, Kyle Dean Massey, is handsome, charming, charismatic and a terrific singer. The leading lady, Varla Jean Merman (Jeffery Roberson) has gigantic personality (and stature); first banana Leslie Jordan is funny, twinkle-eyed and has no stature (4' 11"), Second banana, the cutest chicky in town, Jenn Colella, has beauty, sparks and is a helluva gum chewer, and ingénue Savannah Wise is a sweet June Allyson.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Juan and John
Kirk Douglas Theater

Roger Guenveur Smith, a master of the one-man show, returns with his ninth solo effort, Juan and John. In it, he alternately impersonates two baseball players, San Francisco Giants pitcher Juan Marichal and L.A. Dodger catcher John Roseboro, who in 1965 took part in an infamous brawl. Smith, aided by Marc Anthony Thompson's video projections, not only recreates the brawl but digs deeply into its social and racial ramifications.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Adding Machine
Broadway Theater Center - Cabot Theater

The venerable Skylight Opera Theater closes its 51st season (2010-'11) with the Wisconsin premiere of Adding Machine: A Musical, composed by former local resident Joshua Schmidt. He also contributes to the musical's libretto, along with collaborator Jason Loewith.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying
Al Hirschfeld Theater

This production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying could be titled, "See Harry Potter Sing and Dance." He does both with relative ease in this production. Sadly, however, that's not enough to make this old-fashioned musical sparkle. Daniel Radcliffe may go through the paces, but he is not the charismatic song-and-dance man this musical requires. Instead, this musical requires a male lead who can charmingly convey his yearning to move up in the corporate world. Of course, such performers are few and far between.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Small Engine Repair
Theatre Theater

John Pollono's Small Engine Repair, now in its world-premiere run at Rogue Machine, is a taut, gritty drama about three working-class guys who grew up together in Manchester, New Hampshire -- a city they derisively call Manch-Vegas for its lack of glitz and glamor.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Richard Rodgers Theater

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Moises Kaufman, is two shows: Robin Williams and everything else. We come to see Robin, and they hit us with Iraq in 2003.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
War Horse
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

War Horse is a theatrical masterpiece. In the atmosphere and projections of images related to World War I, puppeteers bring constructed horses to vivid life as they create the illusion of living breathing animals with intricacy, subtlety and nuance in the movements, lifted and sustained by the music, sound and projections.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
In the Next Room
GableStage

The 1880s was a time when American innovators found new ways to harness electricity, and as Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room or the vibrator play shows, it wasn't all about the lighting -- although the lighting for In the Next Room is very good at GableStage, where the play benefits from stunning tech.

Julie Calsi
Date Reviewed:
May 2011
Devil's Advocate, The
Los Angeles Theater Center

In The Devil's Advocate, Donald Freed not only uncovers the cesspit of contemporary politics but shoves our nose into it. His two-character play, now in its U.S. premiere at Los Angeles Theater Center, is set in Panama in 1989. The setting is the residence of The Archbishop (Tom Fitzpatrick), where the embattled General Manuel Noriega (Robert Beltran) is making his last stand. Surrounded by the CIA and U.S.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2011
In Acting Shakespeare
Broadway Theater Center - Studio Theater

Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee's only all female-run theater company, expands its artistic vision by presenting a one-man play, written by a man and focusing on another man. What gives? That's what audiences may be asking when they step into the intimate, 99-seat Studio Theater to see James DeVita in his acclaimed show, In Acting Shakespeare . The solo is DeVita's tribute to one of theater's greatest playwrights, William Shakespeare, and also a nod to one of today's most esteemed actors, Sir Ian McKellen.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
April 2011
Devil at Noon, A
Actors Theater of Louisville

It was a chore to sit through Anne Washburn's murky A Devil at Noon, directed by Steve Cosson of The Civilians. Apparently, some of its Kafka-like episodes involving unexplained and vaguely threatening incidents would make some sort of sense if one were familiar with the science-fiction writings of Philip K. Dick.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
April 2011
Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them
Actors Theater of Louisville

A. Rey Pamatmat's Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, movingly directed by May Adrales, was rapturously received by a tearful, obviously touched audience that thunderously applauded the three actors who spellbindingly brought to life 12-year-old Edith (Teresa Avia Lim), her protective big brother Kenny (John Norman Schneider) and his school chum, Benji (Cory Michael Smith), both 16 and avidly exploring their sexuality and deep love for each other.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
April 2011
Elemeno Pea
Actors Theater of Louisville

Molly Smith Metzler's Elemeno Pea (its title comes from the alphabet song that makes rushing through "l, m, n, o, p" sound like a word), directed with great flair by Davis McCallum on Michael B. Raiford's gorgeous, Martha's Vineyard guest-house set with a beach view, would seem to be the best candidate for a Broadway production.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
April 2011
Edge of Our Bodies, The
Actors Theater of Louisville

Oft-produced playwright Adam Rapp's The Edge of Our Bodies (his Finer Noble Gasses was in the 26th Humana Festival) is a mesmerizing, beautifully written monologue for the astonishing Catherine Combs, perfect in every way as Bernadette, a precocious 16-year-old who takes off without permission from her New England prep school to make a surprise visit to her 19-year-old New York boyfriend to tell him she's pregnant.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
April 2011

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