Flying Over Sunset
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

“What am I doing here?,” asks the magnificent dancer Tony Yazbeck portraying legendary movie star Cary Grant as he is about to experiment with LSD with two other luminaries—controversial novelist Aldous Huxley and playwright-diplomat Clare Boothe Luce—in the physically ravishing but emotionally numb new musical Flying Over Sunset (at Lincoln Center’s cavernous Vivian Beaumont Theater). I felt a similar unease and uncertainty at this lush concoction from an impressive creative team.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
January 2022
Company
Bernard B. Jacobs Theater

Bobbi, the protagonist of a gender-reversed revival of Company, Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s innovative 1970 musical about marriage, friendship and the chasm between the two, is facing a dreaded 35th natal anniversary while still unattached. How she deals with the challenges presented makes for one of the most exciting evenings in the New York theater season so far.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Flying Over Sunset
Vivian Beaumont Theater

Several audience members left Flying Over Sunset at intermission. They were the wise ones.

The first act crackles; the second drags. Both, of course, are directed by the great James Lapine, so I must presume that the playwright (also James Lapine) thought that bringing down the energy would give the work gravitas. Instead, it just drags.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
This Wonderful Life
Matrix Theater

Rogue Machine celebrates its new home, The Matrix, by mounting the L.A. premiere of This Wonderful Life, a one-man play adapted from the ever-popular film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Leo Marks is the remarkable actor who not only narrates the film’s story but impersonates most of its important characters, beginning with George Bailey, the angst-ridden small-town banker who contemplates suicide (“I wish I had never been born!”) and is saved by his guardian angel, who grants his wish, making him see what a difference he has made to his family and townspeople.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
8-Track: The Sounds of the 70s

See Review under "Eight-Track" (http://totaltheater.com/?q=node/8784)

Eight Track: The Sounds of the Seventies
Theo Ubique Cabaret Theater

How you remember the 1970s depends chiefly on where you spent it—San Francisco, Philadelphia, Nashville, or Ann Arbor made for very different experiences, never mind the myriad economic, ethnic, chronological, and gender-linked factors.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Kimberly Akimbo
Atlantic Theater - Linda Gross Theater

The leading women of two new musical productions are facing momentous birthdays. Bobbi, the protagonist of a gender-reversed revival of Company, is facing a dreaded 35th natal anniversary while still unattached. The title character of Kimberly Akimbo, a musical adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire’s 2000 dark comedy, is just turning 16, but the consequences of aging are much graver for her. Kimberly is suffering from a rare disease which causes her to age four times faster than normal and her approaching date could be a death sentence.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
When Harry Met Rehab
Greenhouse Theater Center

Comedies throughout most of our culture's 20th century habitually boasted a "drunk scene” — the pivotal moment in the plot when all is revealed/resolved by an overserved raisonneur (character acting as the voice of the author or dramatist) reveling in the candor afforded the inebriated. Even today, T-shirts, tankards and TV sitcoms continue to smile indulgently on moms swilling wine during their busy days and dads guzzling beer in their off-duty hours. The message conveyed by these images is that alcohol is a harmless substance.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Clyde's
Helen Hayes Theater

Though it’s called “Clyde’s” and a photo of a devilishly grinning Uzo Aduba (Emmy winner for “Orange Is the New Black”) in the title role is on the Playbill cover, she is not the focus of Lynn Nottage’s funny and moving new play. Clyde is the tyrannical proprietor of a truck-stop sandwich shop in rural Pennsylvania, and though she sizzles and scalds the stage whenever Aduba explodes into Takeshi Kata’s superbly detailed kitchen set, costumed by Jennifer Moeller in an outrageously flashy wardrobe, the center of the play is Clyde’s staff of four ex-cons.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
America in One Room
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

In September, 2019, an upscale Texas resort held a conference of a group of voters widely representing Americans of every stripe, particularly political, racial, and social.  They would consider many important national issues and opine on them from their diverse experience and points of view. A final compendium of their discussions would go to Representatives in D.C. and the press. Learning about and contemplating all this inspired Jason Odell Williams’s America in One Room, now at Florida Studio Theater.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Company
Bernard B. Jacobs

The question is: Can a female "Bobbie" work just as well as a male "Bobby" in  Company? The answer is a resounding Yes!, especially in the capable hands of the luminescent Katrina Lenk. Once you experience this production, it will be hard to accept the male "Bobby" again. Men aren't hounded about being unmarried at 35; women are.

Lenk has a strong, pure voice and also brings a real sensitivity to the role.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Laramie Project, The
First Stage Milwaukee

Milwaukee’s nationally acclaimed children’s theater company takes a big, dramatic leap forward with its production of The Laramie Project. The First Stage cast comprises members of the company’s training program for advanced high school actors, and the show is recommended for those age 13 and older.

Despite its generic-sounding title, The Laramie Project is a documentary play that details the true life-and-death story of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, an openly gay college student who was brutally beaten and left to die on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Mr. Dickens' Hat
North Shore Center for the Arts

Dickens was not dead, to begin with. While history attests to his riding the train that derailed midway across the Kent river just outside Staplehurst on that fateful day in 1865, the famous English author not only escaped serious injury but ministered to the wounded passengers by fetching them water, using his fashionable high-crowned hat as a canteen — that same hat enshrined later in the London haberdashery of one Mr. Garbleton, coincidentally located next door to a millinery shop owned by a Mrs. Prattle.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Christmas Carol, A
Milwaukee Repertory Theater

Christmas is a time of celebration, and this year’s Christmas also marks the return of the Milwaukee Repertory Theater classic, A Christmas Carol. It has been two years since the residents of Charles Dickens’s Victorian London have trod upon the stage of the historic Pabst Theater, which is trimmed to holiday perfection year-round. With its swathes of rich red curtains and carpeting, intricate staircases and sparkle of myriad crystal chandeliers, the Pabst is undeniably the perfect spot to host this timeless English tale.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Girl from the North Country
Belasco Theater

What a lofty pedigree: written and directed by Conor McPherson, music and lyrics by Bob Dylan. To top things off, the cast is brilliant. Every performer has an abundance of talent, and the singing soars. So why doesn’t Girl from the North Country work?

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Morning Sun
City Center - Stage I

When you go to see Morning Sun, bring a lot of Kleenex. Unless you have a heart of stone, you will cry.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
December 2021
Jesus Christ Superstar
Marcus Performing Arts Center

It’s difficult to believe that more than half a century has passed since the world first heard Andrew Lloyd Webber’s/Tim Rice’s hard-rock musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. Initially released as a record album, it caused an international sensation. While the Brits were initially cool to this rock-n-roll treatment of the biblical story, which told of the final days of Christ’s life, Americans seemingly couldn’t get enough of it. The album was named 1971 Billboard Album of the Year.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Children, The
Fountain Theater

Skillful acting and directing help smooth over the dramaturgical fault-lines in The Children, a nuclear disaster play now in its L.A. premiere at the Fountain.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Trevor
Stage 42

Trevor isn't Dear Evan Hansen, but judging from the number of kids who were in the audience, parents feel it's close enough.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Little Shop of Horrors
Broadway Theater Center - Cabot Theater

Christmas comes early this year, as Skylight Music Theater presents a rousing production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s Little Shop of Horrors. It’s as adorable and clever as can be, and this revival is every bit as good as its first appearance in Skylight’s 2003-2004 season. This time, the show is directed by Artistic Director Michael Unger, making his directorial debut almost two years after joining the company. (No sooner was Unger hired than the pandemic hit; like all performing arts companies, Skylight had to “pivot” and switch to digital theater.)

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Morning Sun
City Center - Stage I

British playwright Simon Stephens’s three-generation memory play Morning Sun runs through Sunday, December 19, 2021 at New York City Center.

For discerning theatergoers who live and die theater and perhaps still remember the dazzling effectiveness of Stephens’s Tony winning play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night (2015) it is a must see.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Morning's at Seven
Theater at St. Clement's

Revivals and adaptations are proving startlingly relevant on and Off-Broadway. Some might consider Paul Osborn’s tender 1939  Morning’s at Seven totally dated and irrelevant for this moment of social upheaval and re-examination. The warmhearted comedy about four elderly sisters was rescued from obscurity by a smash-hit 1980 Broadway revival starring such beloved actresses as Teresa Wright, Elizabeth Wilson, Nancy Marchand, and Maureen O’Sullivan.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Assassins
Classic Stage Company - Angelson Theater

Revivals and adaptations are proving startlingly relevant on and Off-Broadway, including Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s  Assassins, which remains shockingly fresh. This bizarre cult item has become even more dangerously accurate in its view of the dark side of the American dream.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Cullud Wattah
Public Theater

Though it takes place five years ago on the brink of the incoming Trump administration, few plays are as of the present moment as Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s Cullud Wattah, now at the Public Theater. The poetic and political play depicts the devastating impact of the Flint, Michigan water crisis on a three-generation family of African-American women. The crisis continues right up until the final curtain when the actresses directly address the audience to inform us that as of the date of the performance attended, Flint has not had potable water for 2,769 days.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Friends in Low Places
Florida Studio Theater - Goldstein Cabaret

From the 70s to the 90s, country music made a definite turn, influenced by rock and such artists as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Juice Newton, Garth Brooks, and George Strait. It became more mainstream, finding “Friends in Low Places.” As shown in Florida Studio Theater’s Goldstein Cabaret, it became more intimately connected to its audiences, identifying with their experiences and feelings.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Sister Act
Mercury Theater

In the iconography of 2021, the language of spiritual and earthly concepts still often overlap, and despite increasing social secularism in America, one nun can still be terrifying, but two or more nuns are considered to be as unquestioningly adorable as a flock of penguins (this Women-of-Mystery trope can be applied to witches, lesbians and amazons in fiction as well). Put these two precepts together and what you get is a perfect formula for a comedy whose appeal easily transcends sectarian barriers.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Trouble in Mind
American Airlines Theater

To hear LaChanze sing is like receiving a heavenly gift. That she's also an incredible actress makes any production she's in a sheer delight. Trouble in Mind is not a flawless play. What exactly is the meaning here of the title, taken from an old blues song about suicide? The story seems to ricochet from comedy to heartbreaking tragedy. But the cast is so superb, every moment plays out beautifully.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Fairycakes
Greenwich House Theater

Douglas Carter Beane’s latest, Fairycakes, sounded fantastic on paper: the press release promised a mashing up of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with several traditional fairy tales.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Morning Sun
City Center - Stage 1

 The content of Simon Stephens’s Morning Sun is not extraordinary, earth-shaking, or even that unusual.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Pump Boys and Dinettes
Ruth Page Auditorium

Even in 2021, the auto mechanics are still uniformly male at the Phillips 76 gas depot along North Carolina's Highway 57 between Frog Level and Smyrna, and the proprietors of the adjacent Double Cupp eatery likewise female, but the faces of these roadside angels who cheerfully provide comfort and entertainment to a busload of tourists (that's us, by the way) waiting for their stalled-out vehicle to be repaired are considerably different from those of 1982, when this hymn to Southern hospitality premiered.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Last Pair of Earlies, The
Raven Theater

Is there any story beginning more romantic than lovers fleeing hostile authority figures? The fugitives, in this case, are Wayland Early—a shoemaker blessed with talent, ambition and a trade ensuring a means of livelihood—and his loyal wife, Della Rose, already pregnant with their first child.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer
Goodman Theater

The custom nowadays is for shows to finish their rehearsal periods with a series of pre-opening performances designed to fine-tune delicate actor-audience interactions. This joint Goodman Theater/Seattle Repertory Company's production of Cheryl L.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Visitor, The
Public Theater

While this powerful little musical was meant to be seen after 9/11, the theme is still particularly relevant today. While most of us are sympathetic to the Afghan refugees who were evacuated from their homes after having helped U.S. soldiers in our longest war, the question of where they should be resettled has raised the NIMBY (not in my backyard) response around our country.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Trevor
Stage 42

The new musical Trevor could easily have been an extended After School Special, an overly preachy message tuner with more PSA vibes than entertainment value. Set in 1981, the show follows the travails of a show-biz-loving adolescent discovering his gay sexuality and attempting suicide after a humiliating incident in middle school. He meets a sympathetic volunteer in the hospital with a shared interest in pop-music divas and learns to accept and value himself.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Late Nite Catechism
Greenhouse Arts Center

This replication of an adult class in Catholic doctrine was already an exercise in nostalgia when it premiered at Live Bait in 1993. Since then, Chicago theatergoers have looked to twenty actresses in a dozen theaters for insights into the guidance of three Popes, four presidents and three mayors — an experience shared with audiences of over four hundred cities, in six countries on four continents.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Visitor, The
Public Theater

The Visitor at the Public Theater, a new musical derived from Thomas McCarthy’s 2007, Oscar-nominated indie film, wants to be relevant, but turns out to be a half-hearted effort. Kwame Kwei Armah and Brian Yorkey’s book is like a watered-down, condensed version of McCarthy’s original screenplay about Walter, a recently widowed economics professor who finds an undocumented couple staying in his pied-à-terre apartment. The film focuses on Walter’s grief and his gradual, unlikely friendship with the couple who run into trouble with the authorities.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Trouble in Mind
American Airlines Theater

Revivals and adaptations are proving startlingly relevant on and Off-Broadway. Alice Childress’s Trouble in Mind premiered Off-Broadway in 1955. The play centering on an African-American actress’s confrontation with racial stereotypes in the theater was all set to transfer to Broadway, but the playwright refused to tone down the controversial subject matter and the production was cancelled. Now, 66 years later, Trouble has finally made it to the Main Stem, and Childress’s fiery words are just as pertinent as the day they were written.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story is as much a biography of rock-and-roll music as of its titular hero. At Florida Studio Theater the spectacular rise of both comes to vivid new life via an impressive cast of actors-musicians. Director Jason Cannon has wisely guided them not to imitate the characters they play but to interpret their artistic and emotional effects.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Autumn Royal
Irish Repertory Theater

If your idea of Irish people is leprechauns and “Top o’ the mornin’ to ya,” Autumn Royal may come as a bit of a culture shock. This Irish Repertory Theatre production flips the coin, and shows us the depression and squalor that can result from alcoholism, isolation, poverty, and despair. Tim (John Keating), and his sister, May (Maeve Higgins), live a dreary life in one hideous room, with a single thought predominant on their minds. Whatever shall we do with father?

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
November 2021
Everybody
Florida State University - Asolo Conservatory - Cook Theater

A contemporary take-off on Everyman, the most famous English medieval morality play, Everybody  still requires the title character to face death. But instead of emphasizing having to account for a life’s good and bad acts to God for placement in the afterlife.  Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins’s Everybody lead must reflect mainly on life’s meaning both to self and the society left behind.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2021

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