Cabaret
Princess Of Wales Theater

The action takes place in 1929-30 Berlin, mostly in the seedy Kit Kat Klub.  As the movie, music and art capital of Europe, Berlin became a haven for young, unconventional hedonists from Britain and America -- and a turbulent hotbed for Communists and fascists, the latter claiming to be upholders of sexual morality and Aryan virtue.  Mentioned incidentally during the first act of Cabaret, the Nazis leap into action just before intermission, maintaining an unseen presence right up to the stunning new end.  En route are depictions -- spi

Alan Raeburn
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Candide
RNT

This musical has had more versions than a cat (or Cats) has lives. Playwright Lillian Hellman went through more than a dozen drafts of the original book. The public got its first taste of the work in 1956 when Hellman read her book and I performed the music -- at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of all places. At year's end, it reached Broadway in a production I liked; but it lasted only a few months, after which Hellman withdrew her participation. Hugh Wheeler provided a new book, and musical numbers dropped in and out during later revivals in New York and England.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Casanova, Sublime Histrion
La Comedie Italienne

For the 30th anniversary of La Comedie Italienne, the theater company he founded with his wife, Attilio Maggiulli decided to "stretch" her talents well beyond commedia. He chose to have her do so by playing a great character not meant for an actress, one that would excite her as L'Aiglon did Bernhardt and Hamlet challenged Duse. A serious, bio-historical play would also be a change for the theater that keeps alive the tradition of the Italian players and commedia in France.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2005
Carta canta
Teatro Filodrammatici

Maybe, just maybe, the enticing offer that came in the mail to research the family history will turn up something astounding -- amazing enough to impress the patronizing brother-in-law or even catch the attention of a special lady.  This is exactly what has happened to Aurelio Brandi, the lowly owner of a small stationery store.  As narrated by master character actor Ivano Marescotti, Brandi discovers that he is in fact descended from the noble Beraldis, and counts no less.  The research company unearthed a stack of documents that prove his noble roots, and our petty shopkeeper waves these

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
November 1999
Casper The Musical
Shaftesbury Theatre

Casper the Friendly Ghost is a familiar figure to children, and this musical is based on the theme of Casper (Siobhan Moore) being consistently harassed by his wacky uncles, Fatso (Marcus James), Stinkie (Glen Bowtell), and Stretch (David Jerome.)   Bil Con (Robert Austin) owns a mansion and is planning on renovating it.  He hires the Spookinators to rid the mansion of the ghosts.  His nebbishy nephew Donald (John Halmi) is terrified by the project and needs the friendly aid of Casper.  There's a lot of cat-and-mouse chasing as the Spookinators fight with a group of Un Dead who've been livi

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
Censor, The

(See Criticopia review(s) under "Il Censore")
http://www.totaltheater.com/?q=node/2706

Ces dames pointilleuses
La Comedie Italienne

As the program reveals, Ces Dames Pointilleuses is the one Goldoni play Giorgio Strehler wanted to stage but didn't, for lack of a young-enough Arlequin, so central to commedia dell'arte. His disciple, Attilio Maggiulli, trained one (Guillaume Collignon) so the play could be put on, and-while not yet a star, he brightly leads, with acrobatics extending to atop the banisters separating the audience, the cast of characters introduced by Pantalon (Jean-Pierre Taste) .

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 1999
C'est Magnifique
Theatre de Nimes at Chatelet

The Cole Porter song that gives its title to this "revue" is used satirically, because the proceedings are far from magnificent in the sordid surroundings: an industrial park, with seedy hotel, greasy spoon and nondescript spaces. We get a mix of circus, mime, take-offs on movies, set pieces, joking dialogue and sight gags involving what look like workers, jokers and geeky, goofy characters who move like low-lifes, Buster Keaton, automatons and clowns in an almost indescribable manner. One does Jerry Lewis-like contortions and childlike cries.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 1996
Chanteuse And The Dictator, The

(see Criticopia International listing under "La Perichole")
http://www.totaltheater.com/?q=node/2736

Cherry Orchard
Ortaoyuncular

Purists be warned that unless they are ready for a good laugh, Ferhan Sensoy's romp through Chekhov's Cherry Orchard will leave them cringing.  Sensoy transplants the familiar story to Turkey's Black Sea coast and has the cast sport the lilting accent characteristic of that region.  Actually it's not so outlandish a choice, since Turkey has seen a large Russian influx there.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Ciel! Mon Feydeau!
Comedie Bastille (reopened in 2004 at Theatre Michodiere)

Based mainly on Feydeau's Le Dindon ("The Turkey"), Anthea Sogno's modern-dress adaptation also incorporates scenes from A Flea in Her Ear and adds musical numbers. Sogno claims to have done everything with love and respect for Feydeau. Ciel! certainly proceeds along harmonious lines, not limited just to the few light songs and traditional comedy's finale with dance.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Cloaca
The Old Vic

Pieter is in a stew on the phone as Jan barges in and rattles forth a monologue about his plans for a Cabinet post possibly going awry. Having fought with his wife, he wants to stay over but not to hear that bureaucrat Pieter may have stolen and sold pieces from his Culture Council's storerooms of unwanted art. It's now valuable and wanted for an exhibition.  The lawyer he may need also soon wants to crash at Pieter's: Tom, a newly rehabbed addict.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2004
Closer
Royal National Theatre

This dark comedy by young Patrick Marber had an impressive premier at the English National Theatre in 1997 and won an Olivier, then had a disappointingly short run on Broadway. The American failure, I believe, was due to the casting of Natasha Richardson, hot off her Tony-winning performance in Cabaret. Richardson's presence led many to believe that (a) hers was the lead role, and (b) her character was youthful and immature like Sally Bowles.  But Closer is written for four characters of equal importance, two male, two female.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
December 1999
Comedy Of Errors, The
Shakespeare's Globe

This is in number of lines the shortest of Shakespeare's plays, but it is nonetheless particularly crowded with incident. The dramatist took most of his story from Plautus and observed the unities of time and place.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Comedy Of The Last Dinner, The
Niavaran Artistic Creations Foundation

Farhad Ayiish assembled a group of talented film and TV actors for his sparkling Comedy Of The Last Dinner, which had an extended run this past fall at the Niavaran cultural center, opposite Niavaran Park in northern Tehran.  Ayiish's long stay in the US probably accounted for the American-style direct contact the players established with the audience.  The action involved eight ingenuous eccentric guests at a fateful dinner party.  Each one was so caught up in his own super-high-priority concerns that the others were but a captive audience. 

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
November 2000
Core pazzo
Teatro Mercadante

Galleria Toledo artistic director Laura Angiulli has created a unique spectacle for popular singer Nino D'Angelo, uniting his songs with poetry recited by noted actor Tonino Taiuti to pay homage both to this street kid who made it big and to the city of Naples.  This show marks a natural evolution in the career of ever-popular D'Angelo, whose first major artistic recognition came from Miles Davis.  Since the texts of his songs and the poetry by him, Enzo Moscato and Rafaele Viviani are largely in Neapolitan dialect, this show is clearly intended for local consumption.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
December 1996
Coriolanus
Old Vic

After foisting on us last summer an abysmal Antony and Cleopatra, in which only one minor player could speak the verse acceptably, the Royal Shakespeare Company is back in top form with its current production of Coriolanus. Although it deals with the Rome of around 500 BCE, there are no togas here. In an acknowledged bow to filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, director David Farr has chosen to set the play in the world of Japanese samurai.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 2003
Coriolanus
Festival Theater Stage

Director Antoni Cimolino, newly appointed "General Director" of Stratford (he's been Executive Director since 1998), can get anything he wants for his own productions; and this Coriolanus is star studded, with superstar designers. Lighting is by Gil Wechsler, former head of lighting at Stratford and at the Metropolitan Opera House. Sets and costumes are by Theater Hall-of-Fame member Santo Loquasto, who has won Tony Awards in both categories, and Oscar nominations for some of his dozens of films.
 

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
June 2006
Count of Monte Cristo, The
Stratford Festival - Avon Theatre

Wouldn't you know that right after the official opening night of a botched Shakespeare classic, a new version of an old hambone drama would get a Stratford production that looks like great theater? When I caught up with Marshall Borden's The Count of Monte Cristo, it was a hit show and a supremely polished performance.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Crazy Heart

(see Criticopia International listing under "Core pazzo")
http://www.totaltheater.com/?q=node/1334

Creeper, The
Playhouse Theatre

A beautiful plant that creeps onto and strangles the tree it lives on in the garden of rich eccentric Edward Kimberly gives title to Pauline Macaulay's 1965 (but not dated) play, The Creeper, and symbolizes its action. Though an admitted "old Queen," Edward hires young men simply as companions. Extravagantly fed, clothed, entertained, housed, but not well paid, they become dependent on him while at his beck and call.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Cuckoos
Barbican Pit

An absurdist comedy, Cuckoos was written in 1990 and assigned by its author (born in 1956) to a group of plays that he called "the Theater of Excess." This designation is certainly a fitting one. Manfridi's works have been widely performed (there is even a theater named for him in Finland); but if this play is typical, he is an appallingly bad dramatist.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 2003
Cut, The
Donmar Warehouse

The title, "The Cut," refers to a mysterious, painful killing under the auspices of The State, of an apparently colonial type that for generations has dispatched rebels and just plain natives. Ian McKellen plays the bureaucrat Paul who interviews candidates for, and, if appropriate, administers The Cut. He does so superbly. His Paul is tired -- of the secrecy surrounding his job, of its seeming futility, and most of all of the stress it has put on his life at home. He tries to dissuade his latest victim, portrayed stubbornly by Jimmy Akingbola, from accepting The Cut but fails.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Cafe a Go Go
Cafe a Go Go

It's loud, it's fast, it gets the job done, and it's watchable all the way through - and it's also a show I could have left at any moment without feeling I missed much.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Chronicle Of A Death Foretold
Repertorio Espanol

(see Criticopia listing(s) under "Cronica De Una Muerte Anunciada")

Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), The
Century Theater

Entertaining throughout, with an occasional big laugh, this revival of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's world-famous compressing of the Bard's canon into two farcical hours proves less frantic than the Off-Broadway original. That's a good thing, even though too much time is spent on the three actors setting the scenes and squabbling. Dropping some of this filler in favor of one more long-form piece (a la the Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet sketches) would really kick the evening into high comic gear.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 2001
Consenter
Japan Society

(see listing in Criticopia Off-Broadway under "Taniko / Der Jasager")

Soldier's Play, A
Historic Asolo Theater

At Ft. Neal, Louisiana, 1944, Tech Sgt. Vernon C. Waters, in charge of a Negro unit in the still-segregated U.S. Army, is murdered. Is this fierce black disciplinarian, so racially self-conscious and particularly contemptuous of his easier-going southern charges, the dramatic subject? Or does the play belong to Capt. Richard Davenport, a Negro lawyer, sent to find and prosecute the murderer, much to the consternation of base Capt. Charles Taylor?

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
Shayna Maidel, A
North Coast Repertory Theater

Two sisters, a mere six years apart in age, are literally worlds apart in life experiences. Rose Weiss (Christy Hall) left Poland for New York with her father, Mordechai Weiss (Ralph Elias), at age four. Her mother (D. Candis Paule) and older sister, Luisa (Jessica John), were left in Poland, suffering under both the Russian and German invasions and occupations.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
Frozen
Geva Theater - Nextstage

Geva Theater Center, Rochester' leading professional theater, in a generous gesture, is presenting 14 regional theater companies in a 2007-2008 theaterfest program, each visiting company offering one work from its current season in Geva's intimate Nextstage, which is usually reserved for development of new plays. Currently in the Nextstage, Shipping Dock Theater, a daring, small company which has introduced challenging plays to Rochester for about 40 years, is performing Bryony Lavery's Frozen.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ark Theater

We are met by an attendant garbed in white. He reminds us we must be quiet and that electronic devices are not allowed, and then he slams the barred gate behind us.
We enter the day room. Off to our right is a door to the dormitory, the locked nurse's station with the drugs and records, and the lavatory. In front of us is a small table and some folding chairs. We are locked into a mental hospital in Dale Wasserman's adaptation of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2008
Hedda Gabler
Patio Playhouse Community Theater

Is Hedda Gabler Ibsen's female Hamlet? An idealistic heroine fighting society? A victim of circumstances? A prototypical feminist? A manipulative villain? See her in action and decide for yourself. Director Richard Gant has given us a fine opportunity to draw our own conclusions.

Hedda Gabler was premiered in Germany to less than enthusiastic reviews. Twelve years later it became a Broadway sensation. It subsequently became a classic of nineteenth-century realism. It is short on action and long on dialogue.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Margaret Cho
Warner Theater

Margaret Cho's hilarious one-woman show is a portrait of the artist as a young, self-described fag-hag. But then, who can fight nurture? As a child, the comedian lived in San Francisco, where her parents ran a bookstore. In charge of the gay porn section (although admittedly "not ready" for some of the illustrations), her mother tried to interest young Margaret. Apparently the infatuation, if not the orientation, took.

Barbara Gross
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Underneath the Lintel
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz Stage III

When a librarian in a Dutch town found a Baedecker travel guide returned 113 years late, he set out to find the culprit who kept it out and thus owes a fine. Now, after a long search that's taken him around the world, "The Librarian" is out of work but in on the borrower's identity and his mythical importance.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Rabbit Hole
PowPAC

Howie and Becca's home is lived in, comfortable, convenient -- and there is something terribly wrong. The humor is forced. It is as though they are wearing masks. They don't seem real because they are not. They are hiding a tremendous pain. The pain of losing a son, even before he would have entered kindergarten.

Rabbit Hole, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire's exploration of such a tragic loss, is currently at Poway's community theater, PowPAC, under the excellent direction of Sherrie Colbourn.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
This Beautiful City
Actors Theater of Louisville

Commissioned and developed by the group of New York theater artists called The Civilians, This Beautiful City, the third of six full-length plays to open at this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, is an unsettling, fiercely intelligent dissection of the American Evangelical movement.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Pillowman, The
Venice Little Theater - Stage II

Almost everything comes in twos. A drab cage of a police office bespeaks a totalitarian state, whereas flashbacks and colorful illustrations of stories take place behind a scrim or in a pleasantly furnished, rolled-out bedroom. Roughing up and blindfolding precede the interrogation of Katurian Katurian by Tupolski, self-styled "good cop," and eager-to-torture Ariel, "bad cop." Two children have been killed, another is missing in ways akin to murders in stories by Katurian.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Night is a Child, The
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

Milwaukee Rep's world premiere of Charles Randolph-Wright's The Night is a Child succeeds on many levels. Elements range from painfully realistic to almost mystical. It is the story of one family's tragic loss but also of a middle-aged woman discovering herself for the first time in her life. It is a story of journeys, both real and introspective.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Funny Girl
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

If a Girl Isn't Pretty," as the ladies of Henry Street sing, she'd better be talented. Luckily, Fanny Brice, as portrayed by Catherine Randazzo, is. She's not only that Funny Girl. She does a high-energy turn from rough-edged aspiring entertainer to an ending as star of an ill-fated love story. But after a while away from the boards, local favorite Randazzo (who's far from homely) seems to have gained as actress but lost as a singer. Too often her high notes get left flat.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2008
Neighborhood 3
Actors Theater of Louisville

Jennifer Haley's ingenious horror story about those video games kids get addicted to playing stands high among entries in this year's 32nd annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville. The last of six full-length plays to be unveiled, the fast-moving, comedy-laced Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom takes its unwieldy title from a game in which the real suburb where the obsessive players and their remote parents live merges with a make-believe online world where they must kill or be killed by roaming zombies who look a lot like the neighbors.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2008

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