Evita
Historic Orpheum Theater

 Remember when one of the joys of being an actor was the opportunity to play characters of all kinds of social and ethnic backgrounds? In these politically-correct times, thanks in part to the brouhaha over Jonathan Pryce and Miss Saigon, that sort of opportunity is temporarily in abeyance. Thus we have this Class A staging of Evita, perhaps the most powerful and most likely to last of the Lloyd Webber musicals, in which the three principal characters are played by Latino actors.

Michael Sander
Date Reviewed:
June 1999
Evita
Theater Charlotte

If you've followed Billy Ensley for the past three years, you'll notice that Charlotte's preeminent triple threat has expanded his horizons as a singer and an actor. To effect his startling transformations -- most memorably as Fagin in Oliver! and as the lead rocker in Hedwig and the Angry Inch -- Ensley has radically changed his look.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
September 2003
Exonerated, The
Lynx Performance Theater

 It seems inevitable that sometime during our childhood we are unjustly accused of an infraction of the rules. The result was probably a bit traumatic, but we survived. Take a mega leap in complexity: think of being accused of a capital crime punishable by death. You are innocent but can't convince anybody, and you end up on death row. The Exonerated is the true story of five men and one woman of just such a case.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Exonerated, The
Gompertz Theater - Stage III

 From interviews with over 40 people who'd been exonerated from death row, the authors interweave the words of a presumably representative six. In a front row of chairs, those words in their hands, sit five who'll tell and act the stories. One representative of the accused, intellectual Delbert, effects transitions moving from a stool on one side of the row to another on the other side. (LeRoy Mitchell, Jr.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2005
Expecting Isabel
Mark Taper Forum

 There's good news and bad news about Expecting Isabel. The good news is that Lisa Loomer, an ex-standup comic and sitcom writer, is a funny writer, someone who can find much humor in the trials and tribulations of a 40-something couple trying desperately for its first child. The bad news is she will stoop at nothing to get laughs: cartoon characters, cliche ethnic types, dubious one- liners. Loomer also stretches out her thin story to such inordinate length that it ends up wearing out its welcome.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2000
Expecting Isabel
FSU Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

 How hard can it be to have a baby? If the couple Expecting Isabel is any example, it's very difficult, expensive, aggravating, and l-o-n-g. Witness commercial writer Miranda and fine artist Nick, on the cusp of middle age in a world uncertain except about ways to go to pot. His spur-of-the-moment desire for a child to come out of their love turns into a years-long quest to beget one, naturally, then artificially. It merges into simply GETing a child and ends, only with maturity, in wanting to raise one.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2007
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. Another common element in Shelagh Stephenson's An Experiment with an Air Pump is that the location is a family home owned for hundreds of years in Newcastle, England.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Eye of the Storm
Cook Theater at Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts

 Time: 1997 (with flashbacks starting just after D-Day, WW II). Occasion: Lecture by Federal Justice Frank Johnson. Place: Harvard Law School. Like the new graduates whom he addresses, we hear "Stars Fell on Alabama" and soon fall into fascination with the Alabama boy who became the judicial star of the Civil Rights Movement.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2003
Moon for the Misbegotten, A
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

Banyan Theater Company proves a small company can do great things with one of the great Eugene O'Neill's greatest plays, given three fine lead actors and outstanding tech support.

A constant moon hangs over the wooden bag-supported fence squeezing in the worn New England farm-shack that crusty old Phil Hogan rents from James Tyrone, Jr. Symbolically opposite the weathered porch, a tree spreads little-used shade over a well pump. But liquor primes the pump of the main players in a long night's journey into dawn.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2008
Elaine Stritch at Liberty
Neil Simon Theater

Wow. Just wow. About as riveting as a one-woman show can get, from Stritch's confessional memories of a date with Brando and a lifelong friendship with Noel Coward to her knockout versions of "Broadway Baby," "I'm Still Here" and "The Ladies Who Lunch" (yes, all in one night!).

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Enchanted April
Belasco Theater

 The idea of adapting that enchanting romantic film, "Enchanted April," for the stage seemed an odd choice. How could the visual beauty of that movie be recreated on the stage of the Belasco? But this delightful production is not a re-run of the film. Instead, it has been ingeniously adapted from the original novel by Elizabeth von Arnim. The walls of designer Tony Straiges' Italian island-castle are covered with great flowers - suggesting the beautiful gardens seen in the film.

Glenn Loney
Date Reviewed:
May 2003
Enchanted April
Belasco Theater

 Matthew Barber's Enchanted April is a fine English play done beautifully -- a domestic drama that peeks into a pre-feminist time as four women rent a chateau in Italy to get away from their London lives.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2003
Epic Proportions
Helen Hayes Theater

 Howevermuch the ancient Israelites would have loved to sprint across the desert towards the promised land, fate decreed that they spend forty years slogging across the sand, turning a joyous deliverance from Egypt into a tedious shlep. To some extent, the same thing happens to Larry Coen and David Crane's zany comedy, Epic Proportions, which has the campiness and punchlines to be a romp but succumbs to inconsistency and clumpy pacing.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Lea DeLaria: Who You Callin' Ho-Ho-Ho

 (see Criticopia Listing under "Who You Callin' Ho-Ho-Ho: A Very Lea Christmas")

Der Jasager

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

Do They Know It's Christmas?

 (see Criticopia off-Broadway listing under "Kiki And Herb: Do They Know It's Christmas?")

Doubt
Manhattan Theater Club at City Center

 Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley, is a powerful play -- a peek into Catholic education; a conflict between a loving, compassionate priest and a severe nun who runs the school. The play is a brilliant dissection of the human soul, with a stunning performance by Cherry Jones, in which she totally invests herself into the character. It's one of the finest, most moving performances of the year. The rest of the cast of the four character play is quite good, especially Brian F. O'Byrne as the priest.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2004
Imaginary Invalid, The
Shakespeare Theater - Lansburgh Theater

In their only slightly less elegant new theater, the Lansburgh, Washington's Shakespeare Theater Company is performing a splendid version of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid, adapted by Alan Drury. Certainly not Moliere's funniest comedy, this rather formal satirical farce is a rather didactic attack on the pretensions and hypocrisy of the medical profession in its time. It is charming and entertaining but little like the slapstick farces that recent revivals of Moliere's more popular comedies have become.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
June 2008
Antony and Cleopatra
Sidney Harman Hall

It was unfortunate that before seeing this production, quite a few members of the American Theater Critics Association, being hosted by The Shakespeare Theater Company, were required to listen to a lengthy canonization of STC founder/artistic director Michael Kahn, followed by Kahn's wordy acceptance of the nomination and expansion of details of his accomplishments. Kahn directed this Antony and Cleopatra, and it turned out to be a chore to sit through.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
June 2008
Fuente Ovejuna
Tom Patterson Theater

What a treat it is to see a first-rate performance of Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuna on stage! Far more lovers of the drama know about this play than have ever seen it performed. And while Laurence Boswell's new version is not a perfect English rendition of Lope's poetry, nor is his direction as consistently captivating as it might be, it does present this remarkable play with clarity and punch.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
July 2008
Hughie & Krapp's Last Tape
Stratford Festival - Studio Theater

Along with his beautiful classical delivery as an elegant King of France in Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well the night before, Brian Dennehy's strikingly contrasted performances in Hughie and Krapp's Last Tape made an impressively versatile Stratford debut.

Herbert M. Simpson
Date Reviewed:
July 2008
Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, The
Historic Plaza Theater

Palm Springs is synonymous with Hollywood glamour and ritzy recreation, so it's no surprise that a local show incorporates both elements into one highly original and entertaining show. Now in its ninth year, The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies lives up to its name. It is truly a fabulous cavalcade of performers, ranging from aging vaudevillians such as The Mercer Brothers to an equally ancient stand-up comic (Dave Barry) and juggler (Nino Frediani). There's also a headliner from yesteryear, in this case, Anna Maria Alberghetti.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
February 2000
Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, The
Plaza Theater

The California desert's answer to both Paris and Las Vegas is The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, and it is truly fabulous. It is produced with all the spectacle and technical expertise one would expect from a first-class, professional show. This "Follies" is, shall we say, a wee bit different from the offerings in Las Vegas and Paris. The beautiful, leggy, and talented chorines are, shall we say, seasoned pros. The kid in the group is Jill Gordon, 58, with Beverly Allen the matriarch at a mere 84.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
Faculty Room, The
Actors Theater of Louisville

 It's unlikely any role model teachers with even a slight resemblance to Mr. Chips, Miss Dove or Miss Brooks could stay the course at Madison-Feurey High School, the setting for Bridget Carpenter's The Faculty Room, the third entrant in this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2003
Faith Healer
Rudyard Kipling

 Four mesmerizing monologues by three characters -- faith healer Frank Hardy, his wife Grace, and his manager Teddy -- constitute Brian Friel's Faith Healer, the celebrated Irish playwright's exploration, in the style of "Rashomon," of the trio's shared lives.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
October 1999
Fallen Fruit
Martin Experimental Theater at Kentucky Center for the Arts

 Fallen Fruit is the umbrella title Hadley V. Baxendale has bestowed on his theatrical adaptation of two landmark Victorian poems, an outwardly incongruous match-up of Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market and Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade."

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
February 2005
Falsettos
Diversionary Theater

 William Finn, who conceived Falsettos over a 10-year period, so named his musical because "these were characters outside the normal range." A musical about a man who leaves wife and son for a male lover, a psychiatrist who get close and way-too personal with his patients, a lesbian couple, and a challenging love story -- that barely touches the themes of Falsettos. Funny, amusing, poignant, and sad are just a few words that describe Finn's music and lyrics, which demand a lot from the cast. He requires not only a musical range but also a rollercoaster emotional range.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2003
Fame
Pantages Theater

 Fame musical tries hard to seem fresh and original after its previous outings as a movie and syndicated tv series but doesn't quite make the grade. How many variations on the struggling-high school student theme can we sit through? What also disappoints in this road show production is the sameness of the music and lyrics, the sound of which is severely flattened by the electronic amplification of the miked cast.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
November 1999
Fame
Milwaukee Theater

 A current ripening of Milwaukee theater, in which such "landmark" companies as the Milwaukee Repertory Theater are hiring a production staff with strong Broadway credits, makes it more difficult to appreciate a non-Equity road tour like Fame: The Musical. That's not to say there isn't quite a bit to like about this show, which came to town recently for an eight-performance run.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Fantasticks, The
Patio Playhouse

 The Fantasticks seems to be staged somewhere every year. It is cute, has some "rememberable" songs, and has been the longest- running musical in Manhattan. At least three productions reached San Diego county in the last three years, each with its own uniqueness. Scripps Ranch Theater had one of the best El Gallos I've heard; Moonlight tended to be overly choreographed. At Patio Playhouse, The Fantasticks production is nicely balanced and fits the small venue, since the show requires no set but much ingenuity.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2001
Fantasticks, The
Boulevard Ensemble Theater

 Few chestnuts have weathered the seasons better than The Fantasticks, a musical fable about life and young love. Even now, 40 years after its debut, it continues to charm with its tuneful balance of innocence and wisdom. Perhaps it's fitting that The Fantasticks arrives in Milwaukee not long after its final Manhattan performance (the longest-running play there ended its 40-year run on January 13, 2002). With its signature song, "Try to Remember," The Fantasticks reminds us how our own follies have shaped us into the adults we have become.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
October 2002
Fantasticks, The
Cabot Theater - Broadway Theater Center

 Few shows can boast as proud a heritage as The Fantasticks. It debuted in an Off-Broadway playhouse in 1960. Audience numbers grew over time, and eventually, this show became the longest-running musical in history. Its appeal, though elusive to some, has drawn more spectators than Cats, A Chorus Line, The Lion King or any number of mega-musicals you can name.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2003
Far Away
Broadway Theater Center - Studio Theater

 Written prior to 9/11, Caryl Churchill's searing Far Away is almost certain to recall the confusion, fear and horror that rocked America on that day. The same unsettling feeling pervades the world of Far Away, which has been aptly described by another critic as a "nightmare fable." Indeed, it has all the trappings of a nightmare. It starts with a young girl in a white nightgown telling her aunt about a strange and disturbing scene she witnessed earlier in the evening. We never find out exactly why the girl is staying at her aunt's house.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2004
Far East
Westport Country Playhouse

 Finally, a play! A. R. Gurney's Far East, originally produced at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts and presented at Lincoln Center earlier this year, is a rewarding piece of theater inspired by the plot of the opera, "Madame Butterfly," and the James Jones novel and film, "From Here to Eternity." Drama is chaos with control, and Gurney, who has written more than 25 plays, demonstrates the art of not only creating original material, but masterfully shaping it.

Rosalind Friedman
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Far East
Florida Studio Theater - mainstage

 Culturally, East -- specifically Japan -- is as far as can be from the "normal," Midwest country club world of Lt."Sparky" Watts. Having fallen in love with a young Japanese who waits tables at his newly-assigned base, 1954, he's trying to "Orient" himself. Enthusiastic Jason Kuykendall gentles a bit the brash WASP whose military stint began as an entrance qualification for Harvard Business School.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2000
Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, The
First Unitarian Universalist Church

Prolific playwright Paul Rudnick has entertained audiences with Jeffrey, I Hate Hamlet, "The Stepford Wives," and now The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. The current production, under the able direction of Geoffrey A. Cox, is a charming, albeit long, interpretation of the script.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2008
Far From The Madding Crowd
Lifeline Theater

 Her name is our first hint that Bathsheba Everdene is a woman of passions, a trait attracting her three suitors -- one seeking to exploit them, another, to protect her from them, and a third, to wait patiently for her to discover for herself the folly of allowing one's actions to be governed by romantic impulse.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
March 2003
Fast and Loose
Actors Theater of Louisville

 For this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theater of Louisville, the customary dramatic anthology that showcases ATL's Apprentice Company has been created jointly by four playwrights under the title "Fast and Loose: An Ethical Collaboration." Jose Cruz Gonzalez, Kirsten Greenidge (whose satirical full-length play, Sans-culottes in the Promised Land, is a highlight of the festival), Julie Marie Myatt, and John Walch started with these four questions involving ethics, according to program notes: "If you found out a terrible secret that might hurt the ones you lov

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
March 2004
Fat Lady Sings, The
Theater Works

 Draped shoulders to toes in shiny swirls on black falling as if from epaulettes, she might be Kate Smith imparting Irving Berlin's blessing of America. Carol A. Provonsha's voice is bit higher and hair blonder, though. The cascades of cloth turn out to be drapes when returned to her entrance arch. But Kate is definitely Provonsha's model in the sense of her inspiration as a performer of size. And of sex? As a Catholic schoolgirl, Provonsha -- whose mother costumed drag queens and brother was one -- met Sophie Tucker and also saw Mae West in person.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2002
Fat Men in Skirts
Broadway Theater Center - Studio Theater

 Sometimes, a good play is judged by whether it makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. However, Bialystock and Bloom goes one better in its production of Nicky Silver's Fat Men in Skirts. In this case, the audience often wants to laugh, cry and throw up -- simultaneously! This is accomplished when two of the play's characters, a mother and her tweenage son, resort to cannabalism after they survive a plane wreck.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2004

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