Crucible, The
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater

Arthur Miller's The Crucible chronicles the events that led to the real-life Salem witch trials of 1692. The play, written in the 1950s, is generally considered to be a commentary on the McCarthy era and the country's anti-communist atmosphere. Although this production remains faithful to the original text (without direct references to the current political climate), one can easily make associations to today's election-year backbiting.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2004
Cyrano
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stiemke Theater

The Milwaukee Repertory Theater opens its 51st season with an ambitious but flawed interpretation of the classic French play, Cyrano de Bergerac. Joe Roets, renowned for his work with children's theater, creates this version, called Cyrano. Three actors (two men and a woman) portray all the characters. They switch from modern dress to partial and full costumes at various times during the course of the production. The quick costume changes -- often in full view of the audience -- do not detract from the proceedings.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2004
Dear Esther
Off-Broadway Theater

A young girl's long and torturous journey toward freedom is outlined in chilling detail in Dear Esther. The play opens Next Act Theater's 15th anniversary season, and it showcases how far this company has come over the years. The sensitive retelling of this true-life story is due mainly to artistic director David Cecsarini, who captures the main character's spitfire determination as well as her compassion. As the audience soon learns, both qualities are needed for a young Jewish girl to survive a Polish death camp called Sobibor.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2004
As You Like It
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

The joy of Shakespeare's comedies, such as As You Like It at La Jolla Stage Company, is just how much fun they can be. Here we have wedding and bedding of numerous lovely ladies, be they a Duke's daughter or a Shepardess. The stories can easily be related to, even with the passing of hundreds of years. James Dublino's direction allows the 16 cast members t to enjoy and broadly interpret their roles. They range from recent community college grads to seasoned pros.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Blackbird
Profiles Theater

During a scene late in Blackbird, Froggy, who shares an apartment with Baylis, finds one of Baylis' short stories. Froggy, in her sweet, always amazed, slangy voice says it's pornographic, and Baylis, in his experienced, gruff tone, replies that it's also an intimate love story. Such a description is apt for writer Adam Rapp's own play as well.

Blackbird can be startling in an explicit way, with its display of swearing, defecating, drug use, nudity, and especially in its harsh depiction of its all-around troubled characters.

Kevin Henely
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Cymbeline
Tom Patterson Theater

Though it's about an early real British king and Roman invaders, Shakespeare's Cymbeline isn't really a history, and -- since every plot complication is explained and worked out in the end -- it's no tragedy. The director, David Latham, writes that it is a romance, but he also says it's such a wonderful play, he can't understand why it is so rarely performed. Latham's new version is interestingly staged and superbly performed, but it's no wonderful play.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Cane's Bayou
Schaeberle Studio

Matthew Holtzclaw, a young writer from Florida, has written a gripping Southern play, mostly about people who are psychologically heavily damaged or deteriorated in some way -- survivors of the garbage heap of working class life, including "special" ones: retarded, palsied, autistic, alcoholic. It's a very special piece of theater, and Holtzclaw has a keen ear for the idiosyncrasies of Southern working-class speech. A repressed young man who cares for his handicapped twin brother meets a lost young woman who is sinking into alcohol.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Chicago
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

Milwaukee theater audiences may recall a stunning local production of Chicago staged a couple of years ago. However, that hasn't prevented patrons from lining up to buy tickets to Chicago's national tour, starring Bianca Marroquin (Roxie Hart), Brenda Braxton (Velma Kelly) and Gregory Harrison (Billy Flynn). No doubt the successful film version has fueled a whole new fervor for this dark and cynical show.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Dracula: The Musical
Belasco Theater

The Dracula story is already a satire because of its familiarity, and in Dracula, The Musical, with book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton and music by Frank Wildhorn, they do start off with familiar references and jokes like, "She is of good blood," which get laughs. But that's about it. The rest of the show is stiff and clunky, with derivative songs that mostly hold up the action. However, the design team gives us amazing visuals that never quit.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Day Emily Married, The
59E59 Theater

Horton Foote is unique. Nobody today writes like him in the soft Southern tone that quietly places you in the house with friends to become part of their lives. In The Day Emily Married, now at 59E59 Theater, exposition is gently slipped into the seemingly mundane conversation of this Texas family in 1925, and there is not a dull moment in the ordinariness of these peoples' dialogues in this moment of possibility, frustration, pain, and insight into the human heart.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Forever Tango
Shubert Theater

The dance is spectacular - smoldering sexuality, clean, elegant, amazingly intricate movements as the couples glide, smooth as silk, into effortless lifts and daring endings to the numbers. There is a beautiful, slow, adagio number with the woman in tights instead of the flashy slit skirts of the rest of the show, and there are two comic dances, one in each half. A great, thrilling dance show, in full Tango mystique, with emotionless faces and smoldering eyes, where men are men and women are women - and don't they know it.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
King John
Tom Patterson Theater

Shakespeare's King John is no great play, but, perhaps because it realistically explores power politics and is a partly accurate history, it can be fascinating. And much of this production is what theater is all about.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Haole
Next Stage

Haole, written and performed by Cindy Keiter, the daughter of Hall of Fame sportscaster Les Keiter, and directed by Padraic Lillis, gives us stories from her and her father's lives, about living and surfing in Hawaii, and about sportscasting. She is a good-looking, engaging athlete and actress, and her personal charm and good nature infuse the piece as her stories, including a demonstration of surfing, unfold. I enjoyed my visit to her life -- full of humor and some quite touching moments -- very much, but I don't think I'll start surfing just yet.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Here Lies Jenny
Zipper Theater

Bebe Neuwirth is breathtaking in her Kurt Weill musical cabaret show, Here Lies Jenny, now at The Zipper Theater on West 37th Street. It's set in a deteriorated basement, and somehow the strung-together Weill songs, with lyrics by several writers (mostly Bertolt Brecht), as directed by Roger Rees, seems to make coherent dramatic sense.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Frogs, The
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

The Frogs, now at Lincoln Center, billed as "A New Musical," is only about 2400 years old. Based on the play by Aristophanes, adapted by Burt Shevelove, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and re-adapted by Nathan Lane, the show is the broadest of farces, dripping with imagination, sparkle and laughs. It's not a great work, but Susan Stroman has directed and choreographed this mixture of Greek myth, contemporary political commentary, and absurdity with brilliance, imagination and flair.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
August 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 7
Lyceum Space

Program #7 of the Actors Alliance Festival 2004 brings to an end the orgy of one-act plays. It was fun, well representing local playwrights, local directors, and local talent. Tonight's program opened not with a play, but Fredi Towbin's amusing stand-up "Molly, With a `Y.'" While charming, with plenty of laughs, I felt like I was at the Comedy Club and not a festival of one-act plays. Towbin entered from the audience with her walker and regaled us with the observations of a New Yorker transplanted to California.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 5
Lyceum Space

For Program Five of this year's Actors Alliance Festival, the themes are love and marriage. In The "M" Word: Part I, it's wedding time for two couples, one gay and the other lesbian. Throughout this intense drama, with comic turns, we see the reaction of various family and friends. Each actor adeptly takes on additional characters besides being in the wedding party.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Actors Alliance Festival 2004 - Program 3
Lyceum Space

The second annual Actors Alliance of San Diego Festival is a 12-day fest of over 30 short plays staged at the Lyceum Space in Horton Plaza. There are seven separate programs, each with two play dates. I only wish I could see all of the productions. Here's a sampling of Program 3 with five plays:

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Alligators
Riverfront Theater

Here again among the works of local writers is a novel posing as a play. If performed, it should be as chamber theater. A distinctive, poetic style proves both attraction and fooler.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Bee-Luther-Hatchee
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

When white Irish American Thomas Gibbons appropriated black African-American slang to title his play, Bee-Luther-Hatchee, was it presumptive and maybe an attempt to be deceptive? Or artistic and justified? His play poses similar questions as it presents "an absurd or ironic situation," as well as a "last stop after a train to a folkloric Biblical hell" - the title's meanings.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Cats
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

Calling itself "the only production in North America" (!), the musical Cats lives up to its motto of "now and forever" with yet another appearance in Milwaukee. Like Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, this production has seen better days. Sets and costumes have been so scaled back from earlier tours that they merely suggest the majesty of what Cats once was. The acting troupe, too, has changed for the worse. Performers have gotten younger (if that's possible).

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Wicked
Gershwin Theater

So much happened before Dorothy dropped in ... reads the poster for the musical, Wicked. Don't take those words lightly. Those familiar with "The Wizard of Oz" (and who isn't?) will never feel the same about the beloved Judy Garland film after seeing the revelatory "backstory" of Oz offered in Wicked. At the heart of this complex, multi-faceted story is the lifelong friendship between two women. One of them, a diminutive, dippy blonde called Glinda (Kristin Chenoweth), seems destined for future fame.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
July 2004
Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits
Second Stage Theater

Afterbirth: Kathy and Mo's Greatest Hits, now at the Second Stage Theater, gives us two extraordinary comedians, Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney, in a variety of sketches with top-level comedy writing and brilliant performance - the kind that can only be achieved by many years of working in comedy and performing together. They each play a wide array of characters, accents, attitudes, ages, ethnicities, all with complete conviction. Jokes come fast and furious-- and none of them miss.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Adult Entertainment
Broadway Theater Center - Studio Theater

Bialystock and Bloom theater company bills itself as "Milwaukee's Guilty-Pleasure Theater," and this production is right up its ... alley. Adult Entertainment is a lighthearted spoof about porn stars who long to do some REAL acting. However, their goal is not only to stretch their acting abilities, but also to show off their ... assets, as well.

Written by comedienne Elaine May, the show had a New York run at Variety Arts Theater in 2002. Perhaps a more seasoned cast than the one in Milwaukee could have succeeded in mining genuine laughs from the dialogue.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Boise
Rattlestick Theater

David Folwell may be the first playwright to use Boise, Idaho, as anyone's realization of Utopia. In his dark, humorous and kinky comedy, Boise becomes the ostensible paradise for two of the play's characters. For one, a notably dysfunctional, disenchanted and disillusioned New Yorker, it becomes an objective. Stewart (Christopher Burns) is clearly frustrated by the predictability his seven-year marriage to Val (Geneva Carr) and his dull middle-management job. At first, Stewart's itch is placated by internet porn and closeted fantasies of an affair.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Broadway By The Year: The Broadway Musicals of 1963
Town Hall

In just two seasons, Scott Siegel, the creator, writer and host of "The Broadway Musicals of..." series, has made these shows the talk of the town...with nary a Tony nomination in sight. This absolutely wonderful show happens only on Monday nights five times a season at Town Hall. Siegel's clever idea to present musical salutes to those songs from vintage shows produced during a selected calendar year, whether a hit or flop, and that deserve to be heard again, has caught on big with the public.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Barrymore
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stiemke Theater

As a finale to its 50th anniversary season, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater offers Barrymore, staged in the Rep's intimate, black-box performance space. Written by William Luce, the one-man play chronicles the rise and fall of John Barrymore, the famous younger brother of Lionel and Ethel. Today, John Barrymore is little more than a historical footnote, known best as someone related to actress Drew Barrymore. But long before a teenage Drew had her problems with drugs and alcohol, John was wrestling with his own demons.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Bed and Sofa
Cygnet Theater

Immediately dial 619-337-1525 for your reservations to Cygnet's production of Bed and Sofa, a theatrical event you must see.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Bruschetta: An Evening of Short New Plays
Act One Studios

If Bruschetta means a crusty bread topped with various flavors, then this group of six one-acts is represented by a misnomer: they are all too easy to take in and forget about to be hard to chew on.

In Stardust, Louanne and Arthur, two freshmen in college, share romantic moments in Arthur's bedroom.

Kevin Henely
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Continental Divide: Mothers Against and Daughters of the Revolution
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

If you like politics, you may like this two-play cycle about a Republican and a Democrat running for governor of California. Tthe acting is quite all right, if a bit preachy -- but then so is politics. Let's look at each play in Contental Divide.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
Sight Unseen
Biltmore Theater

What a pleasure it is to be in the presence of writing by a smart playwright. Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen, about love, ambition, and the twists and turns in the life of a popular artist, is clever, bright, incisive, with an excellent cast, all perfectly timed and tuned by director Daniel Sullivan. Laura Linney has blossomed into one of the finest actors on the New York stage -- she seems to be the character she plays, with the subtle changes in her emotions delicately shown with infinite depth, clarity, and power.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
June 2004
After Ashley
Actors Theater of Louisville

The 28th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, KY, generated a number of fine offerings. The most buzz surrounded After Ashley, a searing black comedy by Gina Gionfriddo.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Anything Goes
Broadway Theater Center

One of Milwaukee's top theater troupes, the venerable Skylight Opera Theater, closes its 45th season with a rousing production of Cole Porter's Anything Goes. Using the updated 1987 version of this musical evergreen, Skylight understands that it's the music that carries the evening. From "You're the Top," "I Get a Kick Out of You," "Friendship" and "It's De-Lovely," plus the title song, Anything Goes overflows with musical riches. The tunes are so wonderful that it helps to obscure the corny plot, which concerns a multitude of shipboard romances.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Arms and the Man
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

War certainly isn't what it's been trumped up to be in 1885-86 Bulgaria. Not in general, either. So learns romantic Raina when Swiss mercenary Bluntschli, a Serb captain seeking safety from would-be captors, hides in her bedroom. Though Raina's father is a Bulgarian army leader, and she is engaged to up-coming officer Sergius, she helps Bluntschli by giving him food (notably chocolates), shelter, and a needed rest. Before he rejoins his regiment, he tries to disabuse her of her idealism about war, especially as espoused and practiced by Sergius.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Aspects of Love
Blackfriars Theater

Once again a brave theater group is giving a surprisingly effective revival to a difficult cult musical which its admirers insist was never properly appreciated. And once again I've belatedly been introduced to a well-known old show and impressed by the performance. But again I've had to admit that I think the thing deserved to be a flop in the first place and still does.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
At The Vanishing Point
Actors Theater of Louisville

Another highlight of the 28th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays was At the Vanishing Point, a commissioned piece by noted playwright Naomi Iizuka. The playwright is a frequent presence at the Humana Festival, having had a number of her works produced here. This time, she was asked to create a community portrait of a working-class, meatpacking district in Louisville called Butchertown. Not surprisingly, she tells the story through the eyes of those who have lived in this district, both past and present.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Bombay Dreams
Broadway Theater

Bombay Dreams is a sort of "Cinderfella" --  a totally predictable, rather amusing, corny melodrama about a poor boy and his rise to Movie Star, with big splashes of color (set and costumes by Mark Thompson).  It has the feel of Las Vegas as seen thru the eyes of a bad dinner- theater choreographer with dance movements all synchronized and all right on the beat. In fact, choreographers this artless, without counterpoint or counter rhythm, should have their dance shoes removed and be drummed out of the movement business.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Boy From Oz, The
Imperial Theater

Hugh Jackman is a phenomenon: the very rare "Matinee Idol." He's a rocket, a flare, a slinky -- joy fills the theater. The women kvell, and the men grin broadly at everything he does. His voice is thrilling, with almost a Willie Nelson resonance and nasality; his lean, springy body flashes and bounces around the stage; he even twists like Jim Carrey. And he does standup interaction with the audience between his episodes in the life of cabaret performer/songwriter, Peter Allen, who knew Judy Garland and married her daughter, Liza.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Brando
Irish Arts Center

Imagine that someone has written a play entitled Brando, exploring the mystique of Marlon Brando, which features a character named Brando, who is actually supposed to be Marlon Brando, and that this character is rendered as a fat joke, nothing more.

You'd have an idea just how cluelessly awful this play is.

David Steinhardt
Date Reviewed:
May 2004
Cancell'd Destiny
Martin Experimental Theater at Kentucky Center for the Arts

Teacher/scholar Christine Burleson's shocking suicide in Johnson City, TN, took on the trappings of a real-life literary mystery for a transplanted husband and wife who learned about it when they moved into the house where she killed herself. No one in the town where the arthritic, wheelchair-bound 68-year-old woman was a well-known and much-admired teacher of Shakespeare at East Tennessee State University seemed to understand, crippling illness aside, why she put a plastic bag over her head and shot herself in November 1967.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
May 2004

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