Haole
Next Stage

Haole, written and performed by Cindy Keiter, the daughter of Hall of Fame sportscaster Les Keiter, and directed by Padraic Lillis, gives us stories from her and her father's lives, about living and surfing in Hawaii, and about sportscasting. She is a good-looking, engaging athlete and actress, and her personal charm and good nature infuse the piece as her stories, including a demonstration of surfing, unfold. I enjoyed my visit to her life -- full of humor and some quite touching moments -- very much, but I don't think I'll start surfing just yet.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Here Lies Jenny
Zipper Theater

Bebe Neuwirth is breathtaking in her Kurt Weill musical cabaret show, Here Lies Jenny, now at The Zipper Theater on West 37th Street. It's set in a deteriorated basement, and somehow the strung-together Weill songs, with lyrics by several writers (mostly Bertolt Brecht), as directed by Roger Rees, seems to make coherent dramatic sense.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Frogs, The
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

The Frogs, now at Lincoln Center, billed as "A New Musical," is only about 2400 years old. Based on the play by Aristophanes, adapted by Burt Shevelove, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and re-adapted by Nathan Lane, the show is the broadest of farces, dripping with imagination, sparkle and laughs. It's not a great work, but Susan Stroman has directed and choreographed this mixture of Greek myth, contemporary political commentary, and absurdity with brilliance, imagination and flair.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 7
Lyceum Space

Program #7 of the Actors Alliance Festival 2004 brings to an end the orgy of one-act plays. It was fun, well representing local playwrights, local directors, and local talent. Tonight's program opened not with a play, but Fredi Towbin's amusing stand-up "Molly, With a `Y.'" While charming, with plenty of laughs, I felt like I was at the Comedy Club and not a festival of one-act plays. Towbin entered from the audience with her walker and regaled us with the observations of a New Yorker transplanted to California.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 5
Lyceum Space

For Program Five of this year's Actors Alliance Festival, the themes are love and marriage. In The "M" Word: Part I, it's wedding time for two couples, one gay and the other lesbian. Throughout this intense drama, with comic turns, we see the reaction of various family and friends. Each actor adeptly takes on additional characters besides being in the wedding party.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 3
Lyceum Space

The second annual Actors Alliance of San Diego Festival is a 12-day fest of over 30 short plays staged at the Lyceum Space in Horton Plaza. There are seven separate programs, each with two play dates. I only wish I could see all of the productions. Here's a sampling of Program 3 with five plays:

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Alligators
Riverfront Theater

Here again among the works of local writers is a novel posing as a play. If performed, it should be as chamber theater. A distinctive, poetic style proves both attraction and fooler.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Bee-Luther-Hatchee
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

When white Irish American Thomas Gibbons appropriated black African-American slang to title his play, Bee-Luther-Hatchee, was it presumptive and maybe an attempt to be deceptive? Or artistic and justified? His play poses similar questions as it presents "an absurd or ironic situation," as well as a "last stop after a train to a folkloric Biblical hell" - the title's meanings.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Cats
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

Calling itself "the only production in North America" (!), the musical Cats lives up to its motto of "now and forever" with yet another appearance in Milwaukee. Like Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, this production has seen better days. Sets and costumes have been so scaled back from earlier tours that they merely suggest the majesty of what Cats once was. The acting troupe, too, has changed for the worse. Performers have gotten younger (if that's possible).

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Wicked
Gershwin Theater

So much happened before Dorothy dropped in ... reads the poster for the musical, Wicked. Don't take those words lightly. Those familiar with "The Wizard of Oz" (and who isn't?) will never feel the same about the beloved Judy Garland film after seeing the revelatory "backstory" of Oz offered in Wicked. At the heart of this complex, multi-faceted story is the lifelong friendship between two women. One of them, a diminutive, dippy blonde called Glinda (Kristin Chenoweth), seems destined for future fame.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits
Second Stage Theater

Afterbirth: Kathy and Mo's Greatest Hits, now at the Second Stage Theater, gives us two extraordinary comedians, Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney, in a variety of sketches with top-level comedy writing and brilliant performance - the kind that can only be achieved by many years of working in comedy and performing together. They each play a wide array of characters, accents, attitudes, ages, ethnicities, all with complete conviction. Jokes come fast and furious-- and none of them miss.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Adult Entertainment
Broadway Theater Center - Studio Theater

Bialystock and Bloom theater company bills itself as "Milwaukee's Guilty-Pleasure Theater," and this production is right up its ... alley. Adult Entertainment is a lighthearted spoof about porn stars who long to do some REAL acting. However, their goal is not only to stretch their acting abilities, but also to show off their ... assets, as well.

Written by comedienne Elaine May, the show had a New York run at Variety Arts Theater in 2002. Perhaps a more seasoned cast than the one in Milwaukee could have succeeded in mining genuine laughs from the dialogue.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Boise
Rattlestick Theater

David Folwell may be the first playwright to use Boise, Idaho, as anyone's realization of Utopia. In his dark, humorous and kinky comedy, Boise becomes the ostensible paradise for two of the play's characters. For one, a notably dysfunctional, disenchanted and disillusioned New Yorker, it becomes an objective. Stewart (Christopher Burns) is clearly frustrated by the predictability his seven-year marriage to Val (Geneva Carr) and his dull middle-management job. At first, Stewart's itch is placated by internet porn and closeted fantasies of an affair.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Broadway By The Year: The Broadway Musicals of 1963
Town Hall

In just two seasons, Scott Siegel, the creator, writer and host of "The Broadway Musicals of..." series, has made these shows the talk of the town...with nary a Tony nomination in sight. This absolutely wonderful show happens only on Monday nights five times a season at Town Hall. Siegel's clever idea to present musical salutes to those songs from vintage shows produced during a selected calendar year, whether a hit or flop, and that deserve to be heard again, has caught on big with the public.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Barrymore
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stiemke Theater

As a finale to its 50th anniversary season, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater offers Barrymore, staged in the Rep's intimate, black-box performance space. Written by William Luce, the one-man play chronicles the rise and fall of John Barrymore, the famous younger brother of Lionel and Ethel. Today, John Barrymore is little more than a historical footnote, known best as someone related to actress Drew Barrymore. But long before a teenage Drew had her problems with drugs and alcohol, John was wrestling with his own demons.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Bed and Sofa
Cygnet Theater

Immediately dial 619-337-1525 for your reservations to Cygnet's production of Bed and Sofa, a theatrical event you must see.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Bruschetta: An Evening of Short New Plays
Act One Studios

If Bruschetta means a crusty bread topped with various flavors, then this group of six one-acts is represented by a misnomer: they are all too easy to take in and forget about to be hard to chew on.

In Stardust, Louanne and Arthur, two freshmen in college, share romantic moments in Arthur's bedroom.

Kevin Henely
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Continental Divide: Mothers Against and Daughters of the Revolution
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

If you like politics, you may like this two-play cycle about a Republican and a Democrat running for governor of California. Tthe acting is quite all right, if a bit preachy -- but then so is politics. Let's look at each play in Contental Divide.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Experiment With an Air Pump, An
Adams Avenue of the Arts

1799 and 1999: What's the common element? Both periods had serious ethical issues. In 1799, it was the beginning of medical research; in 1999 it was the advent of genetic research. In 1799, physician and scientist Joseph Fenwick was experimenting with a dove and oxygen deprivation. In 1999 Ellen is offered a great job in genetic research with pre-embryos. The common element is the moral dilemma both face.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Sight Unseen
Biltmore Theater

What a pleasure it is to be in the presence of writing by a smart playwright. Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen, about love, ambition, and the twists and turns in the life of a popular artist, is clever, bright, incisive, with an excellent cast, all perfectly timed and tuned by director Daniel Sullivan. Laura Linney has blossomed into one of the finest actors on the New York stage -- she seems to be the character she plays, with the subtle changes in her emotions delicately shown with infinite depth, clarity, and power.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
After Ashley
Actors Theater of Louisville

The 28th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, KY, generated a number of fine offerings. The most buzz surrounded After Ashley, a searing black comedy by Gina Gionfriddo.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Anything Goes
Broadway Theater Center

One of Milwaukee's top theater troupes, the venerable Skylight Opera Theater, closes its 45th season with a rousing production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. Using the updated 1987 version of this musical evergreen, Skylight understands that it's the music that carries the evening. From "You're the Top," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Friendship" and "It's De-Lovely," plus the title song, Anything Goes overflows with musical riches. The tunes are so wonderful that it helps to obscure the corny plot, which concerns a multitude of shipboard romances.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Arms and the Man
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

War certainly isn't what it's been trumped up to be in 1885-86 Bulgaria. Not in general, either. So learns romantic Raina when Swiss mercenary Bluntschli, a Serb captain seeking safety from would-be captors, hides in her bedroom. Though Raina's father is a Bulgarian army leader, and she is engaged to up-coming officer Sergius, she helps Bluntschli by giving him food (notably chocolates), shelter, and a needed rest. Before he rejoins his regiment, he tries to disabuse her of her idealism about war, especially as espoused and practiced by Sergius.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Aspects of Love
Blackfriars Theater

Once again a brave theater group is giving a surprisingly effective revival to a difficult cult musical which its admirers insist was never properly appreciated. And once again I've belatedly been introduced to a well-known old show and impressed by the performance. But again I've had to admit that I think the thing deserved to be a flop in the first place and still does.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
At The Vanishing Point
Actors Theater of Louisville

Another highlight of the 28th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays was At the Vanishing Point, a commissioned piece by noted playwright Naomi Iizuka. The playwright is a frequent presence at the Humana Festival, having had a number of her works produced here. This time, she was asked to create a community portrait of a working-class, meatpacking district in Louisville called Butchertown. Not surprisingly, she tells the story through the eyes of those who have lived in this district, both past and present.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Bombay Dreams
Broadway Theater

Bombay Dreams is a sort of "Cinderfella" --  a totally predictable, rather amusing, corny melodrama about a poor boy and his rise to Movie Star, with big splashes of color (set and costumes by Mark Thompson).  It has the feel of Las Vegas as seen thru the eyes of a bad dinner- theater choreographer with dance movements all synchronized and all right on the beat. In fact, choreographers this artless, without counterpoint or counter rhythm, should have their dance shoes removed and be drummed out of the movement business.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Boy From Oz, The
Imperial Theater

Hugh Jackman is a phenomenon: the very rare "Matinee Idol." He's a rocket, a flare, a slinky -- joy fills the theater. The women kvell, and the men grin broadly at everything he does. His voice is thrilling, with almost a Willie Nelson resonance and nasality; his lean, springy body flashes and bounces around the stage; he even twists like Jim Carrey. And he does standup interaction with the audience between his episodes in the life of cabaret performer/songwriter, Peter Allen, who knew Judy Garland and married her daughter, Liza.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Brando
Irish Arts Center

Imagine that someone has written a play entitled Brando, exploring the mystique of Marlon Brando, which features a character named Brando, who is actually supposed to be Marlon Brando, and that this character is rendered as a fat joke, nothing more.

You'd have an idea just how cluelessly awful this play is.

David Steinhardt
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Cancell'd Destiny
Martin Experimental Theater at Kentucky Center for the Arts

Teacher/scholar Christine Burleson's shocking suicide in Johnson City, TN, took on the trappings of a real-life literary mystery for a transplanted husband and wife who learned about it when they moved into the house where she killed herself. No one in the town where the arthritic, wheelchair-bound 68-year-old woman was a well-known and much-admired teacher of Shakespeare at East Tennessee State University seemed to understand, crippling illness aside, why she put a plastic bag over her head and shot herself in November 1967.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Cast Me, Tony!
Patio Playhouse

Last night I went to the Peri Playhouse Community Theater for the auditions for Tony and Ann Peri's new musical. They had posters hung everywhere. It was amusing to see that Ben Damon was cast in all their shows. Hm! The 12 hopefuls were milling around outside, in the lobby, and in the theater. Even John Doe, the resident set guy, was auditioning. The undercurrent was tense. Cattle calls (an affectionate term for auditions) are a combination of intense competition, meeting old friends, and trying desperately to do your very best.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Jumpers
Brooks Atkinson Theater

Tom Stoppard is one of the greatest wordsmiths ever, and his 1972 play, Jumpers, now on Broadway, is an early expression of his agility. It's a little razz-ma-tazz, a lot of philosophical fol-de-rol, and a speculation on God, Man, moral philosophy and logic. Stoppard shows his glittering mind as it explores conundrums of reality and contradictions in perception.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Match
Plymouth Theater

Frank Langella is a theatrical treasure. In Match, by Stephen Belber, zippily directed by Nicholas Martin, with a fine set by James Noone, now on Broadway, he has a great time (and so do we) as he plays a former dancer/choreographer in a camp caricature with a tres gay sensibility. There's much amusing banter as he interacts with an interviewing couple, the grim Ray Liotta and the delicate, sensitive Jane Adams who prompt him to talk about his life and times.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Assassins
Studio 54

Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, about famous killers and would-be killers (like John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinkley, Squeaky Fromme) of famous people (like Lincoln, Kennedy, Sharon Tate), with songs by Sondheim and book by John Weidman, is a piece of expressionist theater that occasionally works as vibrant musical drama, but often sinks into inane verbiage.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
April 2004
Ain't Misbehavin'
Dallas Theater Center

Dallas Theater Center opened the Fats Waller Musical Show, Ain't Misbehavin', on April 13, 2004, following five days of previews. There's no plot line, just two hours of rousing music associated with Waller. The most recognizable songs include: "Two Sleepy People," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "It's a Sin To Tell a Lie," "Honeysuckle Rose," and the title song. The performers are first-rate, especially Dallas regular, Liz Mikel, who commands attention just by walking onto a stage. Her interpretation of "Squeeze Me" was interrupted several times by applause.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
April 2004
Anita Bryant Died For Your Sins
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

Despite its title, Anita Bryant Died for Your Sins has little to do with her except that her crusade against homosexual rights makes gay Horace Poore, the main character, apprehensive. Despite being touted as a contemporary Our Town, the major likeness here is that Horace narrates the play. He does so by typing-out-loud the story of how he gets through life amid the events and changes of the 1960s and '70s, bound up with what happens to his family.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2004
Barefoot in the Park
Charlotte Rep - Booth Playhouse

Everything about Charlotte Rep's new production of Barefoot in the Park is smartly done. So I enjoyed myself, despite the fact that I never saw a single compelling reason why Rep had revived Simon's lightweight comedy. Milking yuks from a 40-year-old script isn't nearly the same as demonstrating enduring relevance -- or making good on the promise in Rep's season brochure to present a "fresh look" at the 1963 smash. Breach of promise, if you ask me.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
April 2004
Boy Gets Girl
Off-Tryon Theater Company

As playwright Rebecca Gilman deftly ratchets up the tension in Boy Gets Girl, we realize that the onslaught of suspense isn't her chief concern. Yes, she wants us to viscerally experience the feelings of violation and paranoia that bedevil New York magazine writer Theresa Bedell when an ungainly blind date morphs into a vindictive stalker. And we do. But Gilman also wants to investigate why Tony is out there in the middle of the night, seeing whether Theresa's light is on.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
April 2004
Cripple of Inishmaan, The
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

When The Cripple of Inishmaan opened Off-Broadway in 1998, it was accompanied on Broadway by another of Martin McDonagh's plays, The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Although it was Beauty Queen that picked up a handful of Tony Awards and much critical praise, it does not make Cripple a less worthy play. (And at least nobody dies.)

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
April 2004
Dirty Blonde
Theater Three

Theater Three has a solid hit in Dirty Blonde, Claudia Shear's comedic musical salute to Mae West, the bawdy 1920s musical comedy performer with an attitude. Julie Johnson does Mae justice in an all-out recreation, with all the peccadilloes firmly intact.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
April 2004
Ears on a Beatle
DR2 Theater

Twenty/twenty hindsight is always helpful when you're deciphering who might be a safety threat to America and why. In retrospect, the FBI's surveillance of rock legend John Lennon seems like a waste of time and taxpayer money, though a case could still be made that among his fans and worshipers lay radicals far more dangerous than the former Beatle (e.g., if only the FBI had followed the Beach Boys' activities more closely, tabs might've been kept on their wild-eyed-songwriter friend, Charlie Manson). And of course, the clear irony in Mark St.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 2004

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