nine/eleven
The Players

Written shortly after September 11, 2001, following Linda MacCluggage’s first visit to ruins of the Twin Towers, nine/eleven,her self-described “play for voices” conjures visions beyond the limits of traditional staging.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
September 2012
Bring it On
St. James Theater

For someone who loves physical action, dance, gymnastics and high-flying acrobatics (like me), the cheerleader musical Bring it On(libretto by Jeff Whitty, music by Tom Kitt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, lyrics by Amanda Green and Lin-Manuel Miranda, based on the movie by Jessica Bendinginder), is a joy and a thrill.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
September 2012
Assassins
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

The dark and haunting Stephen Sondheim musical, Assassins, opens the fall season at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Assassins is far from being your average crowd-pleaser, and artistic director Mark Clements is to be commended for mounting this big-budget musical.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2012
Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Rd.
Pacific Resident Theater

Actor/writer Keith Stevenson has tapped into his West Virginia background in his hillbilly comedy, Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Rd. now playing in its six month at Pacific Resident Theater. The one-act play is a prime example of Southern Gothic humor: all five of its characters are caricatured outrageously as they live their lives out in a setting of extreme squalor and ignorance (a ramshackle motel out in the boonies).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2012
The Bible: Complete Word of God (Abridged)
Next Act Theater

Is this show the “blasphemous” production that religious conservatives managed to boot from its desired facility in a state park? Hardly. The Bible: The Complete Word of God (Abridged) is more of a gentle satire than a full-fledged attack on sacred texts. Certainly, liberties are taken with the text. But who wouldn’t want to hear Moses recite the “Ten Rejected Commandments?” (“Sorry, adultery is still in there,” he notes).

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Gutenberg! The Musical!
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stackner Cabaret

As an unusually warm Milwaukee summer slides into cooler fall nights, the hottest show in town these days is Gutenberg! The Musical! A tag line in the show’s press release says it all: “They (don’t) have a cast, an orchestra or a clue.” What it does have are two naive, would-be musical creators, Bud and Doug, who believe they have created the greatest musical comedy of all time. They are staging a backer’s audition to find money to finance the show’s Broadway debut.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro!
Traverse Theater

Mark Thomas is a well-known British comedian, but his new one-person show, Mark Thomas: Bravo Figaro!, now in its world premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, offers a lot more than just a string of one-liners. Instead, the charismatic Thomas delivers a monologue about his late father, a working-class bloke packed with enough contradictions to give Sigmund Freud fits.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Morning
Traverse Theater

One of the best things about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the chance it affords to see the work of young playwrights, actors and directors from around the world. Among the many neophyte theater companies appearing at the 2012 Fringe was the Lyric Youth Company (which is attached to the Lyric Hammersmith in W. London).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon
Roy Arias Theater

All Things Jewish seems to be all the rage here in New York City. Old Jews Telling Jokes, a fun-filled revue starring Marilyn Sokol is packing them in like nobody’s business at the Westside Theater. Soul Doctor, the musical based on the life of singer-songwriter Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, recently closed at the New York Theatre Workshop after a three-week run – is currently looking to reopen in a larger space.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Static, The
Underbelly

The Static, the well-titled play by the young Scottish writer Davey Anderson, is bristling with noisy, crackling energy. Performed by the adventurous Thickskin Theatre company, the play takes the familiar subject of disaffected youth and gives it a fresh gloss.

Mavis Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Gulliver's Travels: After Jonathan Swift
King's Theater

The Radu Stanca National Theatre of Sibiu, Romania, had a big hit at the 2009 Edinburgh International Festival with its production of Faust. Now the state-subsidized company has returned to the Edinburgh International Festival with a new production, Gulliver’s Travels – After Jonathan Swift.

Mavis Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Perfect Wedding
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz

Bill, a Brit, wakes up in an English country hotel bridal suite on the morning of his wedding with a hangover, a woman he doesn’t recognize in his bed, and a short time until his fiancée arrives with her mother to dress for the ceremony a few hours away. Also due is best man Tom -- whom Bill hopes will help him get out of his jam.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Harrison, TX: Three Plays by Horton Foote
59E59 Theaters

Harrison, TX: Three Plays by Horton Foote– what a theatrical treat!

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Closer Than Ever
York Theater at St. Peter's Church

Closer than Ever, lyrics and direction by Richard Maltby Jr. and music by David Shire, is a musical revue without a through line of specific characters. The theme is: the foibles of romance. Songs about love -- finding it, losing it, missing it, are full of ironic comments on marriage and the tribulations of relationships.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Last Smoker in America, The
Westside Theater

The Last Smoker in America, with book and lyrics by Bill Russell and music by Peter Melnick, is a broadly-played cartoon taking anti-smoking to its absurdist limit. It’s a totally imaginative trip to a bizarre future performed by four top-level singer/actors in stylized, sometimes sparkling, costumes by Michael McDonald. He gives us a surreal trip to a fantasy world on a brilliant flexible set by Charlie Corcoran full of innovations and surprises, with lighting by Jeff Croiter and Grant Yeager that enlivens everything.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Harrison, TX: Three Plays by Horton Foote
59E59 Theaters

There is a quirky gentility about Horton Foote’s characters that builds and develops into universal truths. In Primary Stages’ production at 59E59 Theaters, Harrison,TX: Three Plays by Horton Foote: Blind Date, The One-Armed Man, and The Midnight Caller,each dramatically addresses the need for community, interaction, and understanding. Each play is set in Foote’s fictional community of Harrison, based on Wharton, TX, the town where he was born.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Elektra
Stratford Festival - Tom Patterson Theater

One thing I’d say for the translator of this Elektra, Canada’s award-winning poet and classical scholar Anne Carson: she certainly managed to remove the poetry.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Word or Two, A
Stratford Festival - Avon Theater

I really hope that this beautiful, valuable-beyond-price theatre-piece will be recorded in Christopher Plummer’s incomparable performance of it, because it is a treasure truly worth preserving for future generations.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Thousand Clowns, A
Broadway Theater Center - Cabot Theater

Although decades have passed since this award-winning chestnut debuted on Broadway in 1964, the characters in A Thousand Clownsring as true today as they did then. The play revolves around the life of Murray Burns, a real-life Peter Pan. Despite the fact that he’s in his 30s, Murray just doesn’t want to grow up; “responsibility” is a dirty word in his vocabulary. No wonder he has no wife, no family, and no decent place to call home. What he does have is a bright, precocious 12-year-old, unwittingly dumped on him years ago by his even-more-irresponsible sister.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon
Roy Arias Theater Center

In his show, Shalom Dammit!, David Lefkowitz, in his persona of “Rabbi Sol Solomon,” gives us an entertaining evening of humor, song, physical action, as he explores worldly incongruities and the consequences of being Jewish. His folky presentation is full of sparks of insight and sprinkled generously with jokes, from an unabashedly partisan point of view. He’s lively as a herring, smart (as a rabbi should be), tasty as a gefilte fish (with red horseradish), cute - as he bounces around the stage, and quite entertaining. What more could you want?

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Crimes of the Heart
Florida Studio Theater Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

Crimes of the Heart is a comedy in the way Chekhov’s self-described comedies are. Indeed, Barba Redmond in her director’s notes has reasonably compared it and its leads to his Three Sisters.Each play is really site-specific, Henley’s in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, with a quirky fall atmosphere like the dropping leaves outside the three Magrath Sisters’ house.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Dandy Dick
Theatre Royal

Dandy Dick, the first production launched by a brand-new partnership between several large regional theaters in the UK, made a sparkling debut at Theatre Royal, Glasgow. The Victorian comedy by Arthur Wing Pinero was written in 1887, but it has been given a fresh gloss by director Christopher Lucombe, whose specialty is classic comedies.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2012
Anything Goes
Woodlands College Park Theater

It is no secret that when the Class Act Productions company put on a show, they pull out all the stops. As Director/Founder/Producer Keith Brumfield comments in his opening remarks for the printed program of the group’s latest show:
“Professional costumes, extravagant sets, authentic props, a live professional orchestra . . . these elements – along with some of the most fantastic young performers in our area – are what set Class Act apart from other youth theater groups.”

David Dow Bentley
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
Miss Lilly Gets Boned
New Ohio Theater

Bekah Brunsteller’s Miss Lilly Gets Boned is a captivating piece of rare theatricality involving a huge, very animated, three-man elephant puppet (ala War Horse), the elephant’s psychotherapist (the sensitive Sanam Erfani), and, in a parallel story, two sisters, one a profligate (the vivid Liz Wisan), one a 30 year old virgin (the super-charming, highly-talented and skilled, good-looking Jessica Dickey). The latter meets a South African father (Chris Thorn) and his precocious son (David Rosenblatt) whose mother was killed by an elephant.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
Billy Elliot: The Musical
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

Almost any review is certain to short-change the magic that is Billy Elliott the Musical. Words alone cannot describe the unique chemistry among all the elements that come together in this award-winning musical. The North American tour gave Milwaukee audiences their first look at this international sensation.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
Henry V
Stratford Festival - Festival Theater

Some of Des McAnuff’s trademark theatrical tricks are in evidence in this entirely effective but not always affecting Henry V:wild fight scenes, flights of arrows onstage, much live music throughout , battles up and down a drawbridge thrust downstage, rapid scene shifts, etc.; but the action is mostly across the downstage area, making little use of the Festival Theatre’s huge thrust stage and multiple entrances and exits.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
Piano Teacher, The
Florida State University for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

Shock and awe! A thriller with secrets to be revealed, dealing with a moral problem -- not far from an education-related scandal in today’s headlines. Yet in the sparsely appointed parlor where, centered in old armchair with antimacassar and faded as the rose wallpaper, sits arthritic Mrs. K. Obviously lonely, she welcomes us as her guests. (We can’t help but respond to Donna Gerdes’ warmth, her portrayal of need for human contact.)

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
Hirsch
Stratford Shakespeare Festival - Studio Theater

I truly do not know what to make of this work. It was “created and conceived” and entirely performed by Alon Nashman, and the program notes make it clear that its picture of the late, former artistic director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, John Hirsch, is a personal and creative one, not entirely historically accurate, but based upon reports and observations of Nashman and many artistic associates of Hirsch. I saw and heard references to this new play as a “tribute” to John Hirsch.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
Wanderlust: Based on the Poems of Robert Service
Stratford Festival - Tom Patterson Theater

This is a narrated, dramatized history-biography, with some songs and dances, and recitations of Service’s popular poems. So we might as well call Wanderlust a musical.

To be fair to those who really like Robert Service’s poetry, and even those who think it important, I should note that Panych and Norman have created a pleasant little drama with some appealing music, some of it an accurate account of Service’s life, and got it staged with winning skill by Stratford’s extraordinarily gifted performers and designers.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
Anne of Green Gables
Concordia University - Todd Wehr Auditorium

This classic, turn-of-the-century novel, turned into a musical by Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, could strike some modern audiences as Pollyannaish. Anne of Green Gablesis an innocent tale about a young orphan taken in by an aging couple (brother and sister) in a faraway state. However, the arrival of this 11-year-old girl, Anne Shirley, is met with surprise and derision. The couple “ordered” for a boy who could help Matthew around the farm. “What use do we have for a girl?” asks Marilla, a humorless, no-nonsense woman who prefers function to frivolity.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
All Shook Up
PLATO at Golden Apple Dinner Theater

Everyone can find something to be happily All Shook Upabout in PLATO’s upbeat rock-and-rolling comedy at The Golden Apple Dinner Theater. For fans of Elvis’ music, for lovers of Shakespeare who’ll search for story and added references to his plays and sonnets, for anyone who likes satirical bites at social excesses and prejudices, exuberant performances match author Joe DiPietro’s typical excess of plot. Motorcyclist Chad (sexy, exciting Logan O’Neill) roars into a stuffy ‘50s Midwest town in black leather jacket and with guitar at hand.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2012
War Horse
Ahmanson Theater

A miracle show about a miracle horse.

War Horse, which premiered in London in 2007 and won five Tony Awards for its 2011 Broadway run, has checked into the Ahmanson as part of its national tour. With its epic story, dazzling puppetry, gifted cast and impeccable production values, War Horse is without question one of the great theatrical events of our time.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2012
Iceman Cometh, The
Goodman Theater

When a theater company tackles something as weighty as a Eugene O’Neill play, it doesn’t forge ahead lightly. That was evident with the Goodman Theater’s “major revival” of The Iceman Cometh, which received such popular critical notices and audience reaction that its run has been extended. The Chicago production is directed by the notable Robert Falls.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2012
Eastland
Lookingglass Theater

The world premiere of the musicalEastlandopened at Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre, with a script by Artistic Director Andrew White and music by Ben Sussman and artistic associate Andre Pluess. The result is promising but still feels like a work in progress.

The show’s current length, 90 minutes, doesn’t allow much time for character development, which makes Eastland less than it could be.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2012
Lesson from Aloes, A
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

Following a failed revolt against apartheid in South Africa, 1963, a trio of survivors -- or are they? -- will meet for a reunion and a parting. Afrikaner Piet works on his aloes collection, especially naming what he thinks is a new species found on the land his family’s farmed for ages, but no longer. Naming or classification of people distinguished the political “system” and also displaced his wife Gladys. She’s back from being nursed for a nervous breakdown.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2012
Love, Loss and What I Wore
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Merz Theater

A stunning example of Readers Theater, Love, Loss, and What I Woreseats five vibrant interpreters behind traditional stands holding texts. They reveal stages of women’s lives recalled in connection with the clothes, shoes, accessories that figure in their memories.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2012
The Last of the Knotts
Santa Monica Playhouse

The sins of the father is the theme of Doug Knott's compelling solo drama, The Last of the Knotts, which has been turning up at various L.A. venues over the past few years.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2012
Harvey
American Airlines Theater

Jim Parsons, Emmy-winner for television’s “Big Bang Theory,” is charming Broadway audiences in Mary Chase's 1944 long-running, Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, Harvey,a Roundabout Theatre Company revival at Studio 54.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
June 2012
Floyd Collins
Theater Wit

Adam Guettel and Tina Landau’s Floyd Collinspacks a powerful clout in a production by Chicago’s BoHo Theater.

This isn’t a new work. Floyd was performed by Chicago’s Goodman Theater in 1999, and the following year by Milwaukee’s Skylight Opera Theater (now Skylight Music Theater). Although this reviewer didn’t see the Goodman production, the Skylight show proved to be a memorable experience.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2012
Rise
Theater Asylum

Zenith Ensemble, one of L.A.'s newest theater companies, really put itself on the map with its production of Rise at the 2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Written by first-time playwright Cal Barnes and featuring two dynamic actors, Brett Colbeth and Gowrie Hayden, Risehas a raw, visceral intensity about it, an intensity that is maintained over the entire course of its 60-minute length.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2012

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