Doubt
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

As its title implies, Doubt concerns some murky circumstances involving a priest and his young male students. The excellent script, which earned the play a Pulitzer Prize and several Tony Awards, presents the "facts" and puts the audience in the role of judge and jury. Just what, if anything, was going on between a priest and a young pupil in a Catholic school in 1964?

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2007
LoveMusik
Biltmore Theater

In LoveMusik, book by Alfred Uhry, music by Kurt Weill, an examination of the life and music of Weill, Donna Murphy as the sprite Lotte Lenya gives us an amazing characterization unlike anything she has done before. This skinny little waif is sexy and sensuous, with impeccable comic timing and a unique, very musical voice with great range in sound and emotion. She's a delightful, mesmerizing presence.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2007
Will Durst: The All-American Sport of Bi-Partisan Bashing
New World Stages

In Will Durst: The All-American Sport of Bi-Partisan Bashing, Durst, an engaging political comedian, takes big hits at Bush and little taps at Hilary. It's all observational humor, and he evokes chuckles, smiles, and laughs as he skewers political figures. As the show goes on, Durst reveals himself to also be a terrific physical comedian and impressionist with broad, complete expressions of body and face that take the show into a higher dimension of comedy as he covers a wide range of contemporary topics.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
September 2007
Adding Machine, The
La Jolla Playhouse - Potiker Theater

Elmer Rice was not only a prolific writer; he was extremely versatile and covered a myriad of genres including drama, comedy, musical, romance, mystery, documentary and fantasy. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929 for his controversial Street Scene. He may have been the first American playwright to embrace expressionism with The Adding Machine, currently playing at the Potiker Theater at La Jolla Playhouse.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2007
Biloxi Blues
Sunshine Brooks Theater

New Vision Theater at the Sunshine Brooks Theater in Oceanside opened Biloxi Blues. Part of a semi-autobiographical trilogy, which also included Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound, Biloxi Blues covers the first eight weeks in boot camp circa 1943.

Director Jerry Pilato, along with producer Jerry Pilato, creates a realistic barracks with a series of move-in sets which include a train–car section, latrine area, a sleazy hotel bedroom and other minor areas.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2007
Bye Bye Beeler Canyon (Hello Poway Daze)
Poway Performing Arts Company

Playwright Kirk Irvine follows the 17th through 19th-Century definition of melodrama: a romantic dramatic composition with music interspersed, with his Bye Bye Beeler Canyon, Hello Poway Daze currently at PowPAC in Poway. The show is in a limited two–week run in conjunction with the Poway Days annual celebration. The evening opens with pre-show "Groaners and Knee-Slappers" by Danny Morris and Barbara Seagren. The jokes are old, the questions for the audience real groaners, and the audience is slapping their knees. Then it's on with the show.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2007
Chicago
Civic Theater

Hot, Hot, Hot -- and that's just the orchestra conductor, Leslie Stifelman. She and her 14 piece orchestra play center stage in a high-tiered structure leaving a bare six feet on either side for the cast to enter. The structure has several areas (one with an elevator) for cast to enter and exit. Grand entrances are usually from a center location adjacent to the conductor's podium. Ms. Stifelman is an integral part of this almost all-singing, all-dancing show.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2007
Communicating Doors
Cygnet Theater

Communicating doors are doors that are joined, often found in hotels between adjoining rooms. Both doors are locked in each room. Accessibility is available only when both doors are unlocked. Communicating Doors is a charming, amusing, excellent play from the pen of Alan Ayckbourn, brilliantly directed by Esther Emery, and the current hit at Cygnet Theater. The setting is an elegant hotel suite. The bedroom is off-stage, but an indication only of a wall to the bathroom reveals that it is well appointed, including a bidet.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2007
Cyrano de Bergerac
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

Affairs of the heart take audiences on a magnificent journey in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Thanks to a brilliant translation by Brian Hooker and the talents of noted director Sanford Robbins, this Cyrano is certainly a highlight of the fall season. It has it all: a breathtakingly epic sweep that's set against a historical backdrop; a love triangle; gorgeous costumes; manly fight scenes and a three-hankie ending.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2007
Deathtrap
North Park Vaudeville

I visited an old friend last night: Ira Levin's Deathtrap, which is the current offering at North Park Vaudeville and Candy Shop. This is a playwright's play, i.e., a play about a play about... Director Terie Trenchard obviously had fun staging this piece.

Once-successful playwright Sidney Bruhl, Jonathan Wexler, is long on intrigue and short on new ideas. He enlists Clifford Anderson, Nick Louie, whom Bruhl recently met after one of his talks to new playwrights, to work with him. Simple. Straightforward. Well, not quite.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2007
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

Milwaukee's Broadway Theater Series closes its season with a rousing national tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. If the name sounds familiar, you may recall that a film with the same title (and plot) was released in 1988. The simple story focuses on two con men who connive to cheat wealthy, unsuspecting women out of their fortunes. One of the con artists, Lawrence Jameson, is the older and more suave of the two. He has built not only a reputation but also an enormous mansion, filled with servants and accomplices who do his bidding.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2007
Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean
Sixth at Penn Theater

I was just taken on the emotional rollercoaster ride of my life. It seems these six lovely ladies, who graduated from high school just two years after me, decided to have a 20-year reunion on September 30, 1975. Those gals really knew how to party. We were all at the five and dime an' Sissy (Leigh Scarritt) brought the Lone Star. I don't know who brought the bourbon, but Stella May (Wendy Waddell) was swigging it like it were water. Man, that woman can drink.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
August 2007
Anything Goes
Westminster Theater

Anything Goes has an interesting heritage. It began life at the Alvin Theater in New York City in November 1934. It was revived at the Orpheum Theater in 1962. In 1987 it was updated and some other Cole Porter songs were added. In between there were also film and television productions. The musical may be 73 years old, but its story is a classic, and Cole Porter's tunes are memorable. Vanguard Productions' staging, under the competent direction of Sue Murphy, features Lesley K. Person as Reno, a manipulative lady who knows how to get things done.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Actors Alliance Festival 2007 - Program 2
Lyceum Space

The Honking Geese is produced and directed by Dallas McLaughlin. The sketch comedy is written and performed by Nick McCann, Dallas McLaughlin, Sean O'Donnell and Brad Davis. The pieces are collectively billed as “Sketch comedy gone wild.” This is a bit of an understatement. The various pieces are quite different and produce an interesting audience response that, many times, is age-based. Some bits appeal to the general audience; some are only appreciated by the younger members. Well, something for everyone.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Actors Alliance Festival 2007 - Program 1
Lyceum Space

The Festival at Actors Alliance of San Diego's Program One provides a mixed bag of treats. Let's get right to them:

The Pygmalion Project, written and directed by George Soete, produced by Eric Poppick, stars Julie Inmon and Duane Weekly, as a quite backward couple from a small hamlet in Arkansas. They are contacted by a couple from New York, Amee Wood and Eric Poppick, who have strange but unidentified plans for the Arkansas lady. This is some kind of extremely extreme makeover.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Actors Alliance Festival 2007 - Special Program
Lyceum Space

Let the plays begin. Actors Alliance of San Diego have begun their run of short plays, and what a festive beginning this year. The Space at the Lyceum is the location of this grand event. Over thirty plays and over 100 actors and directors in five programs play the Special Program and Youthfest. Each program runs two nights. You are sure to find many plays you like with a host of excellent actors and actresses.

The festival opens with Easy Targets written and performed by Burglars of Hamm.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Actors Alliance Festival 2007 - Program 3
Lyceum Space

Program Three of the Actors Festival is a truly mixed bag; a wee bit of something for just about every taste. So let's get started.

Amici's: another of festival artistic director George Soete's pennings. Eric Poppick directs Paul Bourque, Bebe Brodie, Jill Drexler, Christine Huddle, Duane Weekly, and himself in a bit of truth-telling, anger-provoking and just-plain-nasty attitudes. It never ceases to amaze me what spills out of the mouths of alleged friends when they over-imbibe in high octane sauce.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Actors Alliance Festival 2007 - Program 4
Lyceum Space

Program Four of the Actors Alliance Festival is an interesting mix of local writers and the likes of Harold Pinter and Stephen Sondheim. Let's take a quick look at the five pieces.

Matt Thompson is a quadruple threat as playwright, producer, director, and talent in A Short History of Dating. The description says it all, "Will Cleopatra choose Bachelor #1 or . . .?" The cast includes Sunny Smith, Matt Warburton, Dallas McLaughlin, and Matt Thompson. Will her choice be Julius Caesar, a gruff conqueror who prefers a special salad dressing?

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Actors Alliance Festival 2007 - Program 5
Lyceum Space

All good things, I fear, do come to an end. Actors Alliance of San Diego's Actors Festival 2007 has but a very few more events.

Tall Tale , produced and directed by George Soete, begins Program Five. Steve Koppman penned this tale of two princes from Queens who discover the truth. One, played by Dave Rich, is overly impressed with his prowess with the opposite sex, while the other, Rob Conway, tries to cut through the thick layer of obfuscation. Amusing study of young men in action -- or is that inaction?

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
After the Quake
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

After the Quake, currently at the Mandell Weiss Forum of the La Jolla Playhouse theaters, is a co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theater. Director Frank Galati has adapted two of the stories from Haruki Murakami's six-story collection of the same title. The two stories, "Super-frog Saves Tokyo" and "Honey Pie," intertwined in this telling.

Set on a simple stage enhanced only by a table and a few chairs, in black, with horizontal, light-colored bars as a background, the action moves from one tale to the other with ease.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Agnes of God
Poway Performing Arts Company

I'm sometimes asked who is my favorite actor. My standard answer is that if, at the end of the performance (stage or film), I say, "Oh my God, I didn't realize that was so and so!" then realize it was an actor totally immersed into their role. Yes, it's the actor so good, you forget who they are. In our small arena of community theater, that is almost impossible. But last night, at PowPAC, I watched three actresses, two of whom I've seen many times and one I've never seen. They were directed by an actress/director whose work I've seen many times.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Avenue Q
Spreckels Theater

We left the restaurant for the theater. First we were trapped in the Horton Plaza elevator with a guy in his bathrobe; then, upon exiting the elevator, there were other strange visions: sparsely dressed young ladies, weirdly costumed males, possible vampires, and other totally indescribable beings, possibly homo sapiens, assaulted our eyes. It is always a bit disconcerting to go downtown during Comic-Con.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Break Up Notebook, The: The Lesbian Musical
Diversionary Theater

Breakups are difficult. Almost all of us have experienced the collapse of a relationship, and the hurt has no relationship to our sexual orientation. Pain is pain.

In Diversionary Theater and Rose Marcario's great production of The Break Up Notebook: The Lesbian Musical, it is Helen (Beth Malone) who is suffering.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged), The
OnStage Playhouse

The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged) is not the only work by the prolific Reduced Shakespeare Company. Their pieces include, The Complete History of America (abridged), All the Great Books (abridged), The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged), The Complete Western Civilization: Millennium Musical (abridged), and Reduced Shakespeare Company Christmas. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to see one of their works in a small, intimate theater.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Deception, The
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

In 2005 I raved about Steven Epps' and Dominique Serrand's interpretation of Moliere's The Miser. Their current collaboration, The Deception, is based on 18th century writer Pierre Marivaux's La Fausse Suivante, which has been freely translated as, The False Servant or Companion or Follower or Confidante. All are equally fitting. However, their choice of "The Deception" is certainly most appropriate.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
End of Death, The
Swedenborg Hall

The End of Death, by prolific playwright Janet S. Tiger, explores a long life – life as long as you want to live while still retaining your chosen age. Director Diane Shea has a difficult job with 11 actors and times shifts that go back to a cave family, in more or less current day, and a future world.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Gypsy
City Center

Thank God Patti LuPone decided not to spend the summer at her South Carolina beach house. She's right here in New York City at City Center, and wow!, does she entertain.

Ellis Nassour
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Cyrano
Nova Southeastern University - Black Box Theater

The Promethean Theater opened a new, localized adaptation of Edmond Rostand's French classic of 1897, Cyrano de Bergerac - changing the sword-wielding poet/soldier to a modern day Miami-based plastic surgeon - on the weekend of Bastille Day, but the result lacks the sharpness of sword or scalpel.

Julie Calsi
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Gone Missing
Barrow Street Theater

I'm proud to say I came very well prepared to experience Gone Missing at the Barrow Street Theater. Two days before I saw the show, which deals with people misplacing and losing all sorts of items, I'd left a box of minidisks and a calendar book at a radio station. Plus, the week before, my wife accidentally left her keys (later returned) at a bed and breakfast in Philadelphia.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
July 2007
Arcadia
Cygnet Theater

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, spanning 180 years, encompasses drama, romance, poetry, and science. The two time periods, 1809 and 1989, occupy an English country house in Sidley Park.

First we meet an almost 14-year-old daughter, Thomasina Coverly (Rachael VanWormer), and her tutor, Septimus Hodge (Matt Biedel), in the year 1809. We soon learn that the young lady's talents include complex mathematics that neither she nor her tutor totally comprehend. During the tutoring session we meet the rather snoopy servant, Jellaby (Jim Chovick), who always has a tale to tell.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2007
Carmen
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen, one of the most popular operas of all times, has had many iterations. Among them are the 1954 film, "Carmen Jones," starring Dorothy Dandridge; a 1983 flamenco-based version, the 2000 dance version, "Car Man: An Auto-Erotic Thriller," the 2001 "Carmen: A Hip Hopera," and many more. If you are a purist and prefer Bizet's music, read no more, but please remember that his opera was, in fact, an iteration of Prosper Merimee's 1845 novella. Director Franco Dragone's uniquely staged Carmen retains the storyline in a period setting.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2007
Cymbeline
New Theater

Pity poor Cymbeline, the late Shakespeare play without a single memorable speech to bolster it through the centuries. Oh, there are some good lines; "Falsehood is worse in kings than beggars" travels well, even though the story's set in pre-Christian Britain. Some situations and scenes evoke earlier, better plays: Romeo and Juliet (a secret potion and a parentally forbidden love), Macbeth (the scheming wife of a title character), Richard III (the last-act visitation of ghosts).

Julie Calsi
Date Reviewed:
June 2007
Old Acquaintance
American Airlines Theater

The Roundabout is now presenting John van Druten's 1940 romantic comedy Old Acquaintance on Broadway, directed by Michael Wilson, and it's mostly lots of fun. 

Harriet Harris is a great farceur (farceuse?), and her over-the-top portrayal of an idiotic, narcissistic pop writer lifts the entertainment level of the play and drives the show. Her literary-writing closest friend, in love with a younger man, is played by the beautiful Margaret Colin in a solid performance. Corey Stoll is fine as the young man. 

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2007
Devil Dog Six
Lyceum Space

Devon Tramore (Jo Anne Glover) is one of the first female jockeys, a winning jockey, but horse owners think she's just a fluke. She has won on Devil Dog Six, but when the big race comes, it is a male jockey in the saddle – even though the previous Preakness had been won with a female astride.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2007
Baby
North Coast Repertory Theater

Procreation, that's what it's all about, procreation, in this charming musical tribute to the complexities of having a baby.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
May 2007
Book of Liz, The
Bathhouse Cultural Center

Bootstraps Comedy Theater opened The Book of Liz by the Sedaris siblings, David and Amy, on May 11, 2007. If this were a TV show, I would tell you to settle down in front of the tube with a big bag of popcorn, hit the mute button, and enjoy 90 minutes of some outlandish mugging by five very talented actors. If the drama teacher in Acting 101 told the students to come up with a script that would showcase their versatility, the result would be The Book of Liz, some of the most inane drivel I've witnessed in several years.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
May 2007
Bunbury
Diversionary Theater

At least two years of college English Literature should be a requirement for seeing Tom Jacobson's recent work, Bunbury. However, were that true, many of us would miss one of the funniest shows of the season. Arrive a few minutes early, open the program to the page headed, "Referenced Works of Literature," and refresh your memory. It would help to reread Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and the Bard's Romeo and Juliet, but not much!

Bunbury is directed with panache by Esther Emery.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
May 2007
Coram Boy
Imperial Theater

Coram Boy, adapted by Helen Edmundson from the novel by Jamila Gavin, is a Dickensian melodrama, a tale of brutal murder in the 18th Century told with a great deal of mournfully grotesque style punctuated with the magnificent music of Handel and Handelesque music by Adrian Sutton. We get lively schoolboys in chorus, dark pageantry and a totally predictable story: rich boy and poor boy want to be musicians (rich boy's aristocratic father objects).

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2007
Caught in the Net
Poway Performing Arts Company

Suddenly London playwright and farce master Ray Cooney is rediscovered and playing at both Patio and PowPAC. Patio's It Runs in the Family was reviewed two weeks ago, and now we have the equally humorous Caught in the Net, which is the sequel to his Run For Your Wife. Be prepared for two hours of almost constant laughter. This is farce at its very best as the cast delivers Mr. Cooney's lines with almost perfect timing.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
May 2007
Cirkus Inferno
New Victory Theater

Cirkus Inferno, the loudest and quietest show in town, gives us Jonah Logan, a super physical comedian, as a dead-pan Buster Keaton in conflict with everything in his environment and Amy Gordon, the supplest rubberband on skates, who is a Chaplinesque mime and a dancer/acrobat with a bit of Imogene Coca and Lily Tomlin in her.

May 2007

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