Boy Gets Girl
Poway Performing Arts Company

They really made an attractive couple on their blind date. However, by the second date, it was obvious to her there were definitely no sparks. Yet he was persistent, and at some point he went over the line in Rebecca Gilman's demanding drama, Boy Gets Girl. Tony's determination started with phone calls, then flowers, and, finally, a way over-the-line threat, as Boy Gets Girl moves from bad date to stalking. For example, Theresa Bedell (Kelly Lapczynski) took the usual precautions, but slick-talking Tony (Christopher T.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Dancing at Lughnasa
OnStage Playhouse

Last night I was fortunate to observe the Mundy sisters and their older missionary brother Jack, recently returned from 25 years in Uganda. Their small house and garden in Northern Ireland is a typical example of homes I've visited in that country. This magic of transforming OnStage's stage into a wee bit of the ole sod is the result of the deft hand and eye of designer Brenda Leake. It is so authentic; I knew it would take a tremendous cast to shine as brightly.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Pajama Game, The
American Airlines Theater

How often in a modern musical do we get song after unforgettable song, production numbers that tickle all of our sensibilities, and from which we walk out humming memorable tunes that make us smile? I'd say just about never.

The Pajama Game, from out of Musical Theater's past, concerns a management-labor dispute over a raise of seven and a half cents. The show has it all in terms of material, and with its splendid cast of terrific singer-dancers, it is one of the most enjoyable times you can spend on Broadway.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Ring of Fire
Ethel Barrymore Theater

Ring of Fire: The Johnny Cash Musical Show is a well-produced, well-sung depiction of country life through song. It's a good Country Music concert performed by first-rate Broadway singers who all have the range, emotion and proper twang for their roles. It's not a biography, and without a story through-line, its duration, like any concert, is arbitrary.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Bridge & Tunnel
Helen Hayes Theater

Bridge & Tunnel is a stunning achievement. I saw it off Broadway, and wrote a glowing review. Now on Broadway, enhanced by David Korins' set and Howell Binkley's lighting, it's even better.  It is an extraordinary one woman show written and performed by Sarah Jones. She gives us a succession of immigrant characters, mostly living in Queens, whose lives and personae are explored with amazing sensitivity and skill as she, with minimal costume changes, switches from male to female, old to young, and to accents from all over the world.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2006
Bad Date Theater III
North Park Vaudeville

Now in its third iteration, Bad Date Theater 3, offers up Bob Korbett's twisted sense of humor in selecting six short pieces for a Valentine's Day celebration. Korbett Kompany Productions brings these strange bits of humor to North Park Vaudeville and Candy Shop stage for a three-weekend run.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2006
Bird Sanctuary, The
Alabama Shakespeare Festival - Carolyn Blount Theater

You wouldn't know it from the way Eleanor Henryson has strewn flowers, paints, papers, table, chairs around the dingy room. Nor from the colored-photo-like portraits of a man against one side of the worn, flowery-papered back wall or the mother with her young children on the other. Eleanor has to tell you that this room overlooks a wonderful Dublin Bird Sanctuary. She's made herself a recluse, painting to memorialize it. So, too, she wants to preserve the house, once so handsome that Queen Victoria stopped to look in.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2006
Brothers All
Sixth at Penn Theater

6th @ Penn Theater is known for bringing audiences new and challenging plays, well scripted, directed, and performed. The current Sunday-through-Wednesday offering, Brothers All, penned by Howard Rubenstein and directed by Barry Bosworth, does not come close to the degree of excellence one expects from this small theater.

Rubenstein's script, with a run time of over two and a half hours, is as dense, in many ways, as Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov," on which it was based.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2006
Dining Room, The
Broadway Theater

Saturday I traveled to Vista for two shows: a matinee at the Avo and an evening performance at the Broadway, to which I am new. The theaters' stage entrances are within a few feet of each other on the alley between Main and Broadway. The Broadway Theater, owned and operated by Randall Hickman and Douglas Davis, is charming. The entry is off a small, quiet courtyard. The lobby, as is the auditorium, is filled with Broadway memorabilia. The square auditorium offers flexibility in staging. A. R.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2006
Barefoot in the Park
Cort Theater

For some good old theatrical fun, check out the current production of Neil Simon's early play,  Barefoot in the Park, now on Broadway. Directed with clever action, business, and timing by Scott Elliott, chock full of good jokes by Simon, the story of a newlywed couple's first New York apartment, the bride's mother and an adventurous neighbor, will hold you, tickle you, totally engage you.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2006
Almost, Maine
Daryl Roth Theater

John Cariani, the quirky actor who played Motel in the recent Fiddler on the Roof, has written a quirky bunch of short plays taking place in snowy Almost, Maine. Much of it is gentle theater—a very sweet look at shy people in rural America as they mate and mismate. Jumping from the surreal to the sweetly sentimental, the first-class cast of four wonderfully versatile actors, Finnerty Steeves, Todd Cerveris, Justin Hagan and Miriam Shor, all in multiple roles, give us a pleasant, amusing evening of romance in rustic America.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Apartment 3A
Arc Light Theater

Jeff Daniels's engrossing romantic comedy Apartment 3A has some of the best acting in town. Amy Landecker, as a betrayed woman who moves into a new shabby apartment, is a mesmerizing stage presence who plays pain, joy, sexuality, feistyness, and even complacence with a believability that is rare anywhere. As she encounters two suitors, a co-worker at a TV station (Arian Moayed) and a stranger who appears at her door Joseph Collins), both quite convincingly acted, her life turns and twists into a guessed solution that works fine.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Ajax
Sixth at Penn Theater

When you are fortunate enough to be a member of the audience (49 people) at the 6th @ Penn Theater, you usually become a part of the production. This is true, in part, because many entrances are made from, and some of the action takes place in, the audience area. This happens in Ajax, under the direction of Forrest Aylsworth.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Anything to Declare
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

No wonder Veber and Hennequin's stage farces were so popular they were turned into early films, now considered classics of their time and place. In Greg Leaming's new adaptation, Anything to Declare takes place in Paris in 1912 rather than six years earlier. There's little reason for the change: This is a farce that thrives mostly on sex, and there was plenty to go around in Paris and on its boulevard stages from the fin de siecle onward. And go around it sure does in the hilarious performances by Asolo actors.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Bad Dates
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stiemke Theater

There's much to like in the contemporary comedy Bad Dates, an Off-Broadway hit that's currently sweeping the country's regional theaters. It's got a clever plot, revolving around the life of a divorced restaurant manager who, now that her daughter has reached adolescence, decides it's time for her to try dating again.

The title, Bad Dates, perfectly captures the essence of the play. Essentially, this chick comedy blasts the crazy men in one woman's life. For every gal who has been on a bad date -- and who hasn't? -- there's something identifiable here.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Beautiful Thing
Diversionary Theater

In a southeast London housing project, 15-year-old Jamie and his bartender mother, Sandra, live next to expelled high-schooler Leah. Across the courtyard lives his friend, Ste, a high-school athlete.

Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing is a tender love story between these two teenage boys set against a backdrop of conflict. Ste, played by Joseph Panwitz, lives with his abusive father and older brother. While a good soccer player, he cannot please his alcoholic father.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Biedermann and the Firebugs
Cygnet Theater

Biedermann's physical world is a cartoon house replete with an asymmetrical dining table, a canted second floor, and unparallel everything. Near his house is a hilled, crystalline city rising several feet from the stage. Biedermann also lives in a world of denial, but he is about to be visited by two strangers. The city has been plagued with arsonists. Their MO is to plead homelessness, stay with their victim, and then burn the house to the ground, often causing collateral damage.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Imperial Theater

A failure to recall details of the movie enhanced my enjoyment of this musical about con men enjoying the Riviera courtesy of rich women. Lawrence (smooth John Lithgow), aided by local official Andre (cosmopolitan, handsome Gregory Jbara), fleece the bored rich, like romance-starved Muriel (smart-talking Joanna Gleason). On a train where small-time hustler Freddy (dizzying, quick-quipping Norbert Leo Butz) meets Lawrence, they make a huge bet that whoever clips the next rich pigeon also gets the territory.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Rabbit Hole
Biltmore Theater

David Lindsay-Abaire's Rabbit Hole, Manhattan Theater Club's new show now on Broadway, is a domestic drama about a couple's obsession with the death of their child, and the aberrations that can grow out of grief. The entire cast, including Tyne Daly, Mary Catherine Garrison and John Slattery, is excellent, and Cynthia Nixon in the central role is powerful, real, and riveting.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Woman In White, The
Marquis Theater

Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical, The Woman in White has the most amazing visuals I have ever seen on a stage. Designed by William Dudley (who also did the gorgeous costumes), all projected on a huge cyclorama and smaller moving cycs, it's reminiscent of the swoops of perspective in "Lord of the Rings." It's breathtaking. Paul Pyant's lighting design augments the video visuals with the (mostly dark) moods of the piece.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Abigail's Party
Acorn Theater

Jennifer Jason Leigh is a great actress. In Mike Leigh's 1977 play, Abigail's Party, now on Theater Row, she is amazing as she turns artifice into reality, broad caricature in movement, voice, accent, physicality, and attitude into a totally believable human character. She plays a narcissistic pretentious working class woman who believes she is some kind of princess, and Max Baker as her cringing husband brings a matching piece of work to the stage.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life
Gerald Schoenfeld Theater

Chita Rivera, The Dancer's Life, written by Terrence McNally, is not only a survey of the great singer/dancer's life and adventures, it's a great story of fifty years of American Musical Theater, and a fabulous performance by one of the most talented, liveliest stars ever to appear on Broadway. Okay, at 73 her leg doesn't kick as high. So what? Her persona is here, her charm, her radiance, even most of her voice. It's a privilege to spend a couple of hours with a star of this magnitude as she shows and tells us her fascinating life.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2006
Black Nativity
Backlot Theater

For its fifth, amplified presentation of Langston Hughes' "lyrical poem" recounting and celebrating The Nativity of Christ, WBTT garbs its gospel figures in shimmering African-inspired attire. Though it contrasts with less-polished aspects of the performance, the latter constitute part of Black Nativity's charming "folk" quality.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Brooklyn Boy
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

Like his hero, novelist Eric Weiss, playwright Donald Margulies returns to the Jewish neighborhood of his youth and a father-son relationship pivotal to his art and life. After two critical but not popular successes, Eric's new autobiographical novel has hit the best-seller list. His father Manny's hospitalization makes Eric leave his promotional tour for a visit that renews familiar antagonisms. A chance meeting with old friend Ira sharpens Eric's view of the life he escaped.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Color Purple, The
West 53rd Street

After a rousing opening ("Mysterious Ways"), The Color Purple moves along capably enough, telling its now-famous Cinderella story via gospelly pop and showtuney jazz-blues. Everybody sings just great (and Renee Elise Goldsberry, as Celie's exiled sister, is a find), and there are times when the musical perks up with real Broadway gusto (e.g., Harpo and Sophie's duet, "Any Little Thing," which surprises with each new verse). But truth be told, most of Purple is a bland bore.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Color Purple, The
West 53rd Street

The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker's novel, book by Marsha Norman, music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Alii Willis and Staphen Bray, is a musical about transformation: from the pits to the heights, from slave to success, from ogre to kind man -- it's like a hundred-year- old melodrama mixed with the contrast to the central drama of old ladies twittering. It's two shows: cute, funny rural characters and a young girl's tragic story. LaChanze, who plays the lead, is an amazing performer, and gives a transcendent performance.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Christmas Carol, A
Lyceum

This is San Diego Rep's 30th production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Each production has been unique. Bringing in the directing talent of Kristen Brandt and the design talent of David Lee Cuthbert has guaranteed that this version would follow the tradition. Set in a period of American history from 1885 to 1945, adaptor D. W. Jacobs maintains the spirit of the original. We are quickly moved from the Industrial Revolution through two world wars and the Great Depression, following the life of rundown nightclub owner, Scrooge.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Seascape
Booth Theater

In Edward Albee's Seascape, an old couple played by Frances Sternhagen and George Grizzard chit chat on the beach (a magnificent set by Michael Yeargan), about what is more important at this stage of life: to live or to rest. She's lively, he's depressed. Both are totally convincing, engaging actors.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Seascape
Booth Theater

Spoiler alert: a mini-synopsis follows: A vacationing older couple bicker, mostly genially, about how to live the rest of their lives when two giant lizards appear on the beach (virtuosically rendered in highly realistic costumes). The young lizard couple -- who have never before seen humans -- speak English and engage the human in a discussion of life, death and meaning. The concluding line, "All right, let's begin," indicates that the lizards are ready to be formally tutored by the humans.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Seascape
Booth Theater

Edward Albee's Seascape is currently at Lincoln Center Theater in a charming and poignant revival. The original production ran in New York in 1974, starred Deborah Kerr and Barry Nelson, and won The Pulitzer Prize.

Richard S. Horowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Touch of the Poet, A
Studio 54

Eugene O'Neill was America's greatest playwright even before he wrote his four last masterpieces, beginning with The Iceman Cometh. A Touch of the Poet, now on Broadway starring Gabriel Byrne, is one of those profound, brilliant explorations of the human soul, and what a pleasure it is to hear his words.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2005
Ashley Montana Goes Ashore in the Caicos
Flea Theater

Ashley Montana Goes Ashore in the Caicos, or, What Am I Doing Here? is the name of a show by Roger Rosenblatt directed by Jim Simpson. By it's end, I, too, felt the way of the "or."

I went because that great star and Tony winner, Bebe Neuwirth, is in it. Essentially, Ashley Montana features a four-person sketch-comedy troupe with competent performers, some cute, lightly political bits, clever plays on words and fun non sequiturs, but only some jokes work, and lots of the material doesn't. When one hits, we keep wishing more would.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Animal Crackers
Broadway Theater Center - Cabot Theater

If you think about where animal crackers fit on the nutritional food scale, you've got some idea where the Marx Brothers musical, Animal Crackers, fits in the theatrical food chain. Well, almost. Although it's not intellectually taxing nor filled with bold insights about the human condition, Animal Crackers is the perfect distraction from life's daily cares -- much as the original film was for audiences in 1930.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Bach at Leipzig
New York Theater Workshop

Bach at Leipzig is an intriguing title. It stirs hopes of an Amadeus, perhaps a Souvenir or a Travesties. Alas and alack. Itamar Moses has a splendid idea -- let six musicians (the requisite number of voices in a fugue) in 1722 compete for the job of music master, let them discuss fugues and end with a verbal fugue. Unfortunately, director Pam MacKinnon, who is excellent at moving people around on the stage, doesn't control their hysterics and declamations when they speak.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Birthday Suite
OnStage Playhouse

Not only does Birthday Suite fit the classical definition of farce, but Robin Hawdon's newest play, direct from the UK and under the talented direction of Bob Christensen, is hilarious. (Hawdon's Don't Dress for Dinner was well received a few years back.)

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Captain Louie
Little Shubert Theater

Captain Louie is an inept kids show performed by kids who sing well but leave a lot to be desired in the acting department. But the play's the thing that sinks the project. Based on "The Trip" by Ezra Jack Keats, the book for the show, by Anthony Stein, is condescending, trite, saccharine, and basically at such a low level that my grandnephew, Mathew Sprague, who is nine, said, "It was kinda young for me." Scenes where Louis goes back to his old neighborhood are based on rejection without motivation and throw the whole mess further out of whack.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
Bath House Cultural Center

WingSpan Theater Company opened Danny and the Deep Blue Sea on October 27, 2005 at the Bath House Cultural Center. It is a mediocre early effort by John Patrick Shanley who went on five years later to win the Oscar in 1988 for his original screenplay of "Moonstruck."

First performed as a staged reading in 1983 at the National Playwrights Conference at the O'Neill Center, the play received its professional debut in February 1984 at Actors Theater of Louisville and moved to Circle in the Square in New York on June 6, 1984.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Jersey Boys
August Wilson Theater

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons are alive and well at the August Wilson Theater on 52nd Street in Jersey Boys -- book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crew (except for the Golden Oldies the boys sing before Gaudio).

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Sweeney Todd
Eugene O'Neill Theater

John Doyle has taken Sweeney Todd, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler, as adapted by Christopher Bond, and transformed it into a fully expressionistic, awe-inspiring production that may be the most exciting show now on Broadway. Doyle, who directed and designed the event, takes us, with marvelous stylization and amazing musical arrangements by Sarah Travis, into another dimension of theater.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2005
Crowns
Dallas Theater Center

Crowns by Regina Taylor and directed by her at Dallas Theater Center is one of the most poorly crafted plays I've seen in a long time - a good premise gone awry. It tells of the importance of hats to African-American women and dates back to the time when the only place slaves could gather was at church; so that's where they went all out to dress in style, and hats were all important. The Bible says a woman's head must be covered; so they wore their finest hats to church.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
October 2005

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