Les Miserables
Broadhurst Theater

Les Miserables by Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schoenberg, is arguably the greatest musical ever created, and the powerful, moving, new production brings much needed theatrical life back to Broadway. Strongly but sensitively directed (John Caird and Trevor Nunn), brilliantly designed (John Napier) and lighted (David Hersey -- I've never seen better lighting in a theater in my life) by the originals, it has breathtaking moments of theatrical grandeur mixed with the gripping plot of the story of the pursued Jean Valjean.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
Little Dog Laughed, The
Cort Theater

The Little Dog Laughed has moved to Broadway, and now that it is $96 a seat, I have to re-evaluate my earlier review when it was Off-Broadway. Then, I started with: Douglas Carter Bean is a smart writer with a sharp sense of humor; he's able to throw in jokes, quips and references that ring so true or familiar we can't help laughing. Some of this shows in The Little Dog Laughed. It's about a killer female Hollywood agent, a confused guy who is a movie star, his new boyfriend who is a prostitute, and the prostitute's sort-of girlfriend.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
Vertical Hour, The
Music Box Theater

David Hare is a smart cookie, a true intellectual. His Broadway play, The Vertical Hour, starring Julianne Moore and Bill Nighy, is basically his anti-war comment on Iraq. There is a lot of political instruction on terror and victims by an idealistic Moore, and a very mannered, twitchy Nighy gives us Britain contrasted to the U.S. politically. The question is: does one intervene where things are terrible? She justifies the start of the Iraq war; Nighy is anti.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
Fantasticks, The
Snapple Theater Center

The Fantasticks, now playing at the Snapple Theater Center, is a sweet, old fashioned, silly, romantic comedy with terrific songs that stick in your mind. What a pleasure to walk out humming "Try to Remember" or "Soon It's Gonna Rain." With a fine cast including the beautiful, clear-voiced Sara Jean Ford as the girl, Burke Moses as El Gallo and the extraordinary physical comedian Robert R.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2006
Beyond Therapy
Poway Performing Arts Company

Christopher Durang creates very strange, often incisive, plays, but they can also be obscure, with dialogue stylized and motivations fuzzy. Beyond Therapy, currently on the boards at PowPAC Theater under the direction of Marjorie Mae Treger, is a baffler. It's the story of a couple who met through an ad, and now both are going through therapy. Durang further obscures their relationship by the fact that he is bisexual, with a jealous boy friend, and she has gone to bed with her therapist. The author doesn't seem to have much regard for therapists.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Chorus Line, A
Gerald Schoenfeld Theater

Dance: Ten, Looks: Ten, Drama: Well, not that high. Paraphrasing one of its lyrics, that's my assessment of the new production of A Chorus Line. Today's hoofers dance as well as the original cast from 1975, and most of them sing better.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Confessions of an Irish Rebel
Irish Arts Center

Confessions of an Irish Rebel, now at the Irish Arts Center on West 51st Street, gives us the real flavor of Ireland in a show full of wit and wisdom in story and song. You're in a pub with a charming, smart, marvelous storyteller who sings the old tunes and becomes the many characters he talks about, each with a unique persona and voice. As Behan, Shay Duffin is the guy you'd actually love to meet in an Irish pub.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Culture Clash - Zorro in Hell
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

If you weren't offended by Culture Clash's Zorro in Hell, you were either not listening or not looking. The show is very funny and very profane. The F-word is used as a verb, noun, adjective, and adverb. The one-liners flow so fast as to make a stand-up comedian envious.

Culture Clash (Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Siguenza) are supported by Joseph Kamal, Sharon Lockwood and Vincent Christopher Montoya. The latter Montoya also doubles quite effectively on the guitar.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Music Hall - Fair Park

The experience of attending theater doesn't begin when you enter the theater; it begins when you leave the house, and it comprises more than just what happens on stage. The current State Fair Musical, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, rates a 10 on the Disaster Scale from 1 to 10.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Day in the Death of Joe Egg, A
Broadway Theater Center - Cabot Theater

The challenges of caring for a severely disabled child form the nucleus of Joe Egg, which is being staged by the Milwaukee Chamber Theater. While a damaged child may not sound like the funniest of topics, make no mistake; this is a comedy, albeit with dark undertones.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Jay Johnson: The Two and Only
Helen Hayes Theater

Jay Johnson is a master of his art on a level with a Vladimir Horowitz or Arthur Rubenstein on the piano, Picasso or Rembrandt as painters, Nijinsky as a dancer, Caruso as a singer. The art here is Ventriloquism, and in his show, Jay Johnson: The Two and Only, Johnson's complete unification with his art and his wit and humor are there to enthrall an audience in a performance that is rare, delightful, and at times, quite moving.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Times They Are A-Changin', The
Brooks Atkinson Theater

How wise director-choreographer Twyla Tharp was to title her latest danceical, The Times They Are A-Changin', since that song warns writers and critics to "keep your eyes wide / the chance won't come again." Verily, this critic's eyes had to fight to stay open, and any chance this half-baked mess has of lasting past December is slimmer than sheet metal from cannery row.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Hairy Ape, The
Irish Repertory

Eugene O'Neill is America's greatest playwright, and there is a powerful representation of his work at The Irish Rep on 22nd Street, directed by Ciaran O'Reilly: The Hairy Ape. It's a marvelous production on Eugene Lee's inspired, complex, brilliantly active set, with vivid lighting by Brian Nason and fine costuming by Linda Fisher.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Times They Are A-Changin', The
Brooks Atkinson Theater

The Bob Dylan (songs) and Twyla Tharp (choreography and direction) musical The Times They Are A-Changin', set in a circus, gives us an ensemble of acrobatic dancers whose bodies are like Slinkies, and three terrific singers: Michael Arden, Thom Sesma, and Lisa Brescia who perform the Dylan repertoire. The timing of the songs may be altered from Dylan's originals, but the songs are there, and I like them.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2006
Blithe Spirit
Legler Benbough Theater at USIU

Elvira Condomine has been a Blithe Spirit for 65 years. She oozed from the pen of Noel Coward in 1941 to haunt Charles Condomine's house in Kent, England. Her current revival at Scripps Ranch Theater makes for a delightful production.

The Condomine living room is suggestively elegant due to Chris Kennedy's creative open design. Walls are suggested by glazed doors open to the rest of the estate and out to the garden and stairs leading to the upper chambers, with a hall off to the rest of the main floor.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2006
Daddy's Dyin'...Who's Got The Will?
Sunshine Brooks Theater

Texas playwright Del Shores' Daddy's Dyin' Who's Got The Will? is set on the Turnover Ranch outside of Lowake, Texas (pop. 40) in 1986. Daddy is about to come home from the hospital to die is his own bed. Daddy, Buford Turnover, is played by Kirk Duncan. Buford is being wasted by dementia. He watches imaginary television, talks to imaginary people, and plays imaginary games. His moments of clarity are limited. The power is held by Mama Wheelis (Dovey Goral).

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2006
Dial M For Murder
Geva Theater Mainstage

I suppose that Dial M For Murder is an appealing show to open Geva's season, but it's an old warhorse and maybe sends the wrong signal for a theater company that has been specializing in reviving meaningful classics and developing new works. I do like Geva's version, which trims and clarifies the original stage-script, adapting it to include some of the excellent filmscript for Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 international hit movie. It's dramatically effective without being quite so stagy.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
September 2006
Ella
Lyceum Theater

This has certainly been the year of plays that were really revues or concerts. We've seen Always...Patsy Cline, My Way - Frank Sinatra, Our Story - Our Songs; The Shelly Hart Breneman & Shauna Hart Ostrom Story, and now, Ella, starring the fantabulous Tina Fabrique. Ella is staged as a concert; it is a concert. The patter between songs is Ella Fitzgerald's life story.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
September 2006
all wear bowlers
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

The stage is bare, save for a nine-by-twelve-foot white screen. The house lights dim. We hear an ancient film projector grinding away. We see the film leader: five, four, three, two, and then the film title, "all wear bowlers," staring Earnest Matters (Geoff Sobelle) and Wyatt R. Levine (Trey Lyford). The two are dressed in black, wearing bowlers. They are in a bleak landscape walking and walking and walking, finally getting closer to us. The scratchy film, with occasional subtitles, grinds on.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Barbara's Blue Kitchen
Lamb's Theater

They don't make many actresses as good as Lori Fischer. They don't make many country singers as good as Lori Fischer. They don't make many writers who can write with the depth and insight into character of Lori Fischer, or create her range of melodies that can make you smile or make you feel pangs of emotion. This great talent is on view at the Lamb's Theater, where she stars in her musical, Barbara's Blue Kitchen. It's an amazing performance of an exposition of people in a little town in Tennessee.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Billy the Mime
Players Theater

Did you see "The Aristocrats"? The sequence by Billy the Mime was one of the funniest. Billy the Mime is now playing in the NY Fringe, and it's a "Don't Miss!" He's one of the best mimes in the country with clean clear technique, a great sense of humor and perfect timing.

Although influenced by Marcel Marceau, Billy has his own sensibility and his own contemporary view of the world. He keeps his audience entertained from start to finish with nary a dull moment.

This is solo mime at its very best by a highly skilled, totally engaging performer.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Beard Of Avon, The
Cape Playhouse

There have long been multiple theories about who wrote the works attributed to Shakespeare. In this play (which has understandably received many productions since its 2001 premiere in California), Amy Freed has great fun toying with several possibilities. The result (under Russ Treyz's fast-moving direction) is clever, witty, sexy and unflaggingly entertaining, with nine adept performers taking on fifteen roles.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Boys Next Door, The
North Park Vaudeville

Tom Griffin's The Boys Next Door, directed by Summer Golden, is set in a communal residence in New England. Jack, an increasingly "burning out" young social worker supervises the four mentally challenged men sharing the residence. What is strikingly different about this production is that several members of the cast, in fact, fit the description and are members of STARS, a performing troupe of mentally challenged actors.

Luigi Flam (Norman), a member of STARS, plays a fun-loving resident, always ready to dance and date.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Copenhagen
Cygnet Theater

Copenhagen is guaranteed to make you think. Physics, mathematics and philosophy play major roles as we are whisked back and forth through time. It is after the deaths of the three protagonists, then it's the Twenties, World War II, post war, and more as the characters reminisce. Michael Frayn's play is a challenge to both actors and audience.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Festival of Independent Theaters - Evening 1
Bath House Cultural Center

The eighth annual Festival of Independent Theatres' (FIT) kicked off their opening weekend July 14, 2006 and presented many diverse offerings by five of the eight participating companies.

Theatergoers can always count on WingSpan Theater Company producer Susan Sargeant to come up with little-known, rarely staged, but always excellent scripts. She then hand picks her cast and director, which results in wonderfully staged work and top-notch talent. This year's FIT entry is no exception, Something Unspoken by Tennessee Williams, directed by Gail Cronauer.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Festival of Independent Theaters - Evening 2
Bath House Cultural Center

Second Thought Theater's production of Summer Evening in Des Moines by Charles Mee is a series of vignettes depicting wo/man's search for meaning. Underscored with great music, the play asks the universal question: How do people connect? Vignettes take the audience on a tour of forms of escape people use to make their lives meaningful. Edgar (Tom Parr IV) the puppeter, manipulates his puppets, Charlie (Erik Archilla) and Mortimer (Joel McDonald), his alter egos, with some very funny shtick.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Fartiste, The
Harry De Jur Playhouse

In Paris in the 1890s there was a popular music-hall performer called "Le Petomaine" who played tunes by passing gas. He was a huge star for about a decade.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
French Defense, The
Abrons Arts Center at Henry Street Settlement

The French Defense by Dimitri Raitzin is a fascinating look at a chess contest by then World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik (Robert J. D'Amato) and challenger Mikhail Tal (Daniel Hendricks Simon) in 1960. I'm not a chess player, but I was completely drawn into the drama of the contest between a champ and an annoying, insulting gadfly, and by the depth of the characterization by the actors, particularly D'Amato.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2006
Actors Alliance Festival 2006 - Program 2
Lyceum Space

Another successful Actors Alliance Festival program begins with The Secret Royal Order of the Feminine Gender by James Caputo and produced and directed by Julie Clemmons, with Aja Oberlies-Rodrigues and Emma Shea.
The two stars, I am told, are ten years old. They are shopping for that something special at the local Salvation Army store. They talk "the talk", i.e. dating and boy swagger. They sing and dance. There is even a booming voice-over of mother. Aja and Emma are excellent; don't miss them.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Actors Alliance Festival 2006 - Program 3
Lyceum Space

Program Three of the Actors Alliance Festival was yet another success. On the Corner of Art and Solita Street, by Sandra Ruiz, with Bryant Hernandez directing. The cast includes Sylvia Enrique, Megan Fonseca, Larissa Garcia, John Harris, Sophia Kostas and Sandra Ruiz. It's Christmas at the Cortez family home. Mom is a beautiful woman with two lovely kids and, as usual, her husband is away on a "business trip." Her mother and father are there along with her sister, who apparently doesn't have the wealth experienced by her younger sister.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Actors Alliance Festival 2006 - Program 4
Lyceum Space

Program Four was one of the best of this year's crop of the Artists Festival.

The Elixir of Genius written, produced and directed by George Soete, with Lori Pennington and Jonathan Sachs on stage. Soete captured the essence of the frustrations facing a fiction writer. Jake (Jonathan Sachs), a playwright, is slamming headlong into a major block. He immediately gets into a fight with his female protagonist, Laura (Lori Pennington). The rewrites don't work. She berates him, cajoles him, even becomes seductive. His block is monumental.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Actors Alliance Festival 2006 - Program 6
Lyceum Space

A Fare Ride written, produced, and directed by Matt Thompson with Colleen Kollar and Ted Reis sharing the stage. Kollar plays a stereotypical taxi jockey in any big city. She does everything her own way; that's her style, which includes singing, humming, as well as chewing and popping her bubble gum. She picks up a gun-toting bank robber wannabe (Ted Reis). What develops is a strange relationship. The taxi driver takes everything in stride as she tools down an L.A. freeway at 80 miles per hour. (I don't recall ever being on an L. A.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
All in the Timing
New World Stage

Ion Theater and InnerMission Productions has brought us David Ives' delightful, six-act, All in the Timing. First performed in 1996, the play has garnered acclaim as well as awards for its wit, intellect, satire and just plain fun. This production is no exception. Let's take a quick look at the six vignettes by this artful word master.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Bush Is Bad
Triad Theater

Bush is Bad is a first-class political satire that goes far beyond the obvious. The three highly talented performers -- Janet Dickinson, Neal Mayer, and Michael McCoy -- are comedians with strong musical voices and actors who can fully realize the many characters each plays.  Janet as Condoleeza Rice is brilliant, including a riff on the piano.

Richmond Shephard
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Bad Dates
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz Stage III

Haley, like the title character in "Mildred Pierce" -- a film of which she constantly reminds us -- is a single mother who runs a successful NYC restaurant. Having divorced a druggie in her native Texas, she was never about to get near drug dealings or laundered money. Her place of business, though, is suspected in both. Police are always asking her questions. Until recently, she hasn't had time for dating. Now that she has, she's found it hardly worth the time it takes to choose the right outfit and particularly the perfect shoes to wear to a date.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Come Blow Your Horn
OnStage Playhouse

Neil Simon's first play, Come Blow Your Horn, took three years to hone before it premiered on Broadway in 1961. Simon was already a successful writer, with his brother Danny, for radio and television shows. The play has aged well and certainly reflects some of the same values almost 50 years later (e.g., single men will be men, and their conquests will sooner or later change their ways). At OnStage Playhouse, the show makes for an enjoyable evening visiting a time past, a much simpler time than today.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Dames At Sea
Lamplighters Community Theater

Some shows, like Dames At Sea, can only be described as joyous. The George Haimsohn and Robin Miller musical, with Jim Wise's music, began as a short piece in 1962 at the Cafe Cino in New York City. It starred a 17-year-old newbie, Bernadette Peters. The creators were determined to fashion a big musical with only nine actors and succeeded admirably.

Dames At Sea is an affectionate spoof on the Hollywood musicals of the 30s.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Fiction
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

Perhaps a subtitle for Fiction should be "Or Fact?" Like playwright Steven Dietz, characters Linda and Michael Waterman are authors who keep us wondering what's true. Having met in a Paris cafe where their stimulating conversation (at least as remembered by Michael) led to a marriage of 20 years, both have successful careers. After early "dry" attempts at creating literature and a month at Drake Writers Colony, he became a best-selling novelist with annual movie adaptations.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Tarzan
Richard Rodgers Theater

The spectacular opening of Disney's Tarzan takes us to another dimension: at sea, under sea, changing our perspective. Director/designer Bob Crowley, one of my very favorite designers in the world, outdoes himself with these visuals. After an uninspired song, we again get great physical action as the young Tarzan (a wonderful Alex Rutherford) is revealed.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
July 2006
Actors Alliance Festival 2006 - Program 1
Lyceum Space

And let the plays begin. It's summer in San Diego, and the 16th annual Actor's Festival is underway. (San Diego is fortunate to be the site of several short play festivals, which begin in the summer and run through the fall.) This festival opened with two very, very funny comedians: Travis Sentell and Phil Johnson. The entered stage center, seated themselves and began a dialogue as two reviewers of the Festival. They gave all of us reviewers a bad name, panning show titles, actors and the festival in general.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2006

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