Little Shop of Horrors
Virginia Theater

If you don't want to have a lot of fun, if you don't want to laugh and smile for two hours and walk out humming, don't go to Little Shop of Horrors. The clever old lyrics by Howard Ashman and lively tunes by Alan Menken tickle more that ever, and the sterling performances by the beautiful Kerry Butler, the always vulnerable Hunter Foster, Rob Bartlett (as close as you can get to Zero) and the amazing, dazzling Douglas Sills, all make this the best Little Shop ever.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2004
Taboo
Plymouth Theater

Taboo is closing. But it's a really good, completely entertaining show with marvelous performances and some of the best songs in town. The latter are by Boy George -- the ones that made him a star and others. But I guess Rock Freaks are not the cup of tea for visitors from Iowa. Taboo's an unapologetically, unabashedly gay show, and it seems the tourists are not ready for it.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2004
Anna in the Tropics
Royale

Anna in the Tropics won a Pulitzer Prize based on its script, before it ever was staged, and it comes to Broadway with high expectations. The play provides good entertainment but has flaws that keep it from being fully satisfying. The faults include a cheap and contrived denouement and gaps in plot. For example, the eldest member of the cast, owner of a cigar factory, is shown to be a gambler and a drinker who has no money. But in Act Two, he is suddenly sober and sensible and pulls out a wad of bills saying that he got a loan.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Agnes of God
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

Having seen the original Broadway production, I must admit that Agnes of God lacked, on this viewing, the impact it once had. I'd like to think that's because the suspense wasn't there for me, whereas the play's mystery is gripping as a first experience. Many in the audience with me obviously had just that. I wish I'd been able to share it, but the answers to the mystery seemed just too obvious this time. I refer to how, in a contemplative order of nuns, young, unworldly Sister Agnes became pregnant -- and is she guilty of killing her baby?

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Arsenic and Old Lace
Theater Three

'Tis the season for candy canes, popcorn balls and chestnuts. But the tastiest chestnut of the season is Theater Three's production of Joseph Kesselring's 1941 classic, Arsenic and Old Lace. Originally produced at the Fulton Theater in New York on August 18, 1941 by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (Life With Father) and starring Josephine Hull as Abby Brewster and Boris Karloff as her evil nephew, Jonathon, Arsenic and Old Lace is a comic murder mystery and a delightful send-up of theater critics.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Chicago
Civic Theater

Chicago" the movie was based on Chicago, the Broadway musical created by Bob Fosse. Chicago the road show is a re-creation of the original musical, in which Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly separately dispose of problems in there lives, through murder. Billy Flynn, a glib lawyer, defends both. What goes on between murders and trials is the grist of Chicago, which has fun music though proves short on plot.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Henry IV
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

Jack O'Brien, whose fluid, almost dreamlike direction of Stoppard's The Invention of Love nearly shook that drama out of its ivory-tower lethargy brings the same sense of style to Shakespeare - and here he even gets to have battle scenes, hold-ups, tavern carousing and a coronation. For all the legitimate excitement of the production, it should be noted that not much really happens in the first two hours(!), and that fine as the work by adapter Dakin Matthews is (he cobbled the two Henry plays into one), the piece does feel every bit of its 230 minutes.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
I Am My Own Wife
Lyceum Theater

I Am My Own Wife, by Doug Wright, is an amazing show. Based on 1992-93 interviews with a German transvestite who built, kept and guarded a collection of phonographs, clocks, and furniture through the Nazi and the Communist regimes, the piece is gripping, fascinating, vastly entertaining, and reaches down into the human spirit more that anything I have seen recently.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
I Am My Own Wife
Lyceum Theater

If I Am My Own Wife were merely a fascinating story, compellingly told, it would be worth attending and strongly applauding. But this tale of a man, living as a woman and curating a veritable museum of Weimar era-history, not only during the Nazi period but throughout the Communist years in East Berlin, has a second-act twist that keeps us guessing long after the show's over. Think of it as the equivalent of Golda's Balcony, only here we're not sure if Golda might really be Yasser Arafat.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Jackie Mason: Laughing Room Only
Brooks Atkinson Theater

One can't blame Jackie Mason for trying something different after six one-man shows since his 1986, career-resuscitating classic, The World According to Me. His schtick was getting a little too familiar, his new material sounding too much like the old material.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Jackie Mason: Laughing Room Only
Brooks Atkinson Theater

Jackie Mason's Laughing Room Only is two shows: one is Jackie doing his usual conversational schtick with the audience, in his subdued tone with physical absurdities sprinkled in; the second is bright, entertaining musical numbers by the sparkling Doug Katsaros, performed by a first-rate Broadway quintet of singer-dancers. Only one number integrates the two, and that is the high point of the show: "Tea Time," wherein Jackie plays a waiter overhearing and misunderstanding a conversation between two women in a tea room. That's the show.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
How To Turn Distress Into Success: A Parable of War and Its Making
Theater For The New City

December wouldn't be complete without Bread & Puppet Theater's annual show at Theater for the New City. Inevitably this year's themes are war and global capitalism. How To Turn Distress Into Success also highlights the role of spin in transforming the worst of man-made disasters, like the war on Iraq, into triumphs of human intellect.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Never Gonna Dance
Broadhurst Theater

Of course he's gonna dance. He's gonna dance from the minute he steps onstage to the moment the curtain falls. And that's as it should be with a nutty, old-fashioned show like Never Gonna Dance, which yearns to be a screwball confection the way they used to make `em, and, more often than not, succeeds. Lead Noah Racey doesn't have Astaire's height and sings just passably, but when he moves, so does the show. Peter Hatcher's book, adapted from the MGM film "Swing Time," has enough contrivances to raise even the long-shut eyebrows of Louis B.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Never Gonna Dance
Broadhurst Theater

Based on the film "Swing Time," with marvelous songs by some of the best old timers, Never Gonna Dance is a show about tap dancing, and some of the numbers are breathtaking as choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. The rest are merely superb. The leading man, Noah Racey, charming and tasteful, is almost an Astaire, and there are fine comic turns by Peter Bartlett and Peter Gerety. David Pittu delights as an absurd Latin Lover, and the real charisma is Karen Ziemba, who lights up the theater whenever she's on stage.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Nine
Eugene O'Neill Theater

Although its plot revolves around the character of Guido, a Fellini-like Italian film director, Nine is most impressive as a vehicle for the women in Guido's life. John Stamos has taken over from Antonio Banderas as the male lead, and he sings and acts well. His words are more clearly understood, and he exudes his own star quality, though he seems a bit young for the part. The director is supposed to be just 40, and Stamos is approaching that age, but one expects the character to be older.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Retreat From Moscow, The
Booth Theater

Behind the British accents and literary allusions (which are underlined, italicized and bolded, just in case you couldn't figure them out for yourself) lies a very middlebrow drama about a couple nearing their sunset years and reaching a crossroad in their relationship.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Taboo
Plymouth Theater

The progression of a naive but talented waif who, through good people skills and sheer lucky breaks, becomes a star, is a time-honored one for Broadway musicals, but rarely has that scenario been more oddly put forth than in Taboo, a show by, about and starring Boy George (nee George O'Dowd) -- only he doesn't play Boy George. Instead he plays Divine-like downtown muse Leigh Bowery, who, with his outre garb and makeup, made himself a kind of living art, and thus inspired George's own star-making makeover.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Wicked
Gershwin Theater

Say what you will about songwriter Stephen Schwartz, when he puts on a show, it's a show. You get a production, in the David Merrick sense of the word - but in a pop/modern way. With Wicked, not only does Schwartz get an impressive set and special effects to match his breezy music and deft, if sometimes overreaching lyrics, he gets a brilliant, layered book by Winnie Holzman and two (count `em, two!) star turns.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Wonderful Town
Al Hirschfeld Theater

The great accomplishment of the new production of Wonderful Town is that it transcends the show's limitations. The music is the least distinguished of Leonard Bernstein's Broadway career: not as poignant as On the Town, not as dramatic as West Side Story, not as dazzling as Candide. But it's not meant to be distinguished; it's funny. The young Lenny, with his cabaret buddies Betty Comden and Adolph Green, wrote the score in a hurry -- starting just five weeks before rehearsals began. They did it with an exuberance they never again equaled.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Wonderful Town
Al Hirschfeld Theater

Just when recent revivals made Comden & Green appear too quaint for modern Broadway, along came Encores!' long-delayed Wonderful Town to give us a wonderful time. Donna Murphy's the franchise, giving even the mildest zingers a kick like tabasco.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Wonderful Town
Al Hirschfeld Theater

Wonderful Murphy in Wonderful Town! I guarantee, Donna Murphy will win the Tony for Best Female Performance in a Musical. She lights up the stage with a comic flair seldom seen anywhere, her body is a rubber band, and her magnificent voice fills the theater with warmth and beauty. The play, with book by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, from stories by Ruth McKenney, is just a bit of delightful fluff about sisters coming from Ohio to live in Greenwich Village.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Bravo, Caruso!
Off-Broadway Theater

Next Act Theater can indeed take a bow for its production of Bravo, Caruso!. It is one of the end-of-year highlights of the Milwaukee theater season. While the play may seem to be an odd choice for this time of year, the events of Bravo, Caruso! occur on Christmas Eve, 1920.

The setting is Enrico Caruso's dressing room at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Caruso is tackling his latest (and, the audience knows, his final) role.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Caroline, Or Change
Public Theater

Caroline, or Change is a departure for playwright Tony Kushner, and he pulls it off very well. Instead of writing about cosmic catastrophes like the AIDS epidemic and war in Afghanistan, he narrows his focus to one household in Louisiana in 1963. Even more importantly, he restrains his dialogue and focuses on writing lyrics that reveal their essence within 32 bars.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Music Box Theater

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, which explores family relationships, sexuality, and even life and death, is one of Tennessee Williams's best plays. Broadway now has, except for a few performances, an inept production of the play running. Poor Ashley Judd gives it her all but is basically betrayed by her director, Anthony Page, as she, in Act One, recites all her lines with verve and energy and no subtext. How could he allow that? Saying all the words is not enough on Broadway. Her performance passes boredom into pain -- she stirs no empathy and no passion; it's only noise.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
November 2003
Crashing
Chashama

A woman's work is never done -- especially when the sheer annoyances and expectations involved in being a female involve as much toil as any paid employment. The rituals and pains of dieting, dressing, exercising, dating, waxing, and even relaxing are enough to send perfectly functional and sane women to the edge of a nervous breakdown.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
November 2003
Christmas Carol, A
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Pabst Theater

As a holiday gift to its hometown, the Milwaukee Repertory Theater has invested more than $1 million in revamping its traditional holiday classic, A Christmas Carol. Much of the cash went into hiring a set designer and costumer with Broadway credits, and in the process of translating their vision to the stage. The money was well spent. The New Yorkers (in conjunction with dozens of local and regional theater artisans) have created an enchanting and authentic look for this production.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
November 2003
Competition, The
Cook Theater at Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts

When all you hear at intermission is people wondering what the original play is like, you can be pretty sure the translation isn't going over. Then, too, when a play and its author have been hyped as much as these have been, people may be forgiven for wondering why it's so disappointing. My theory: the characters are not involving because they relate poorly to each other and are often unbelievable or stereotypes. Moreover, they begin more like tragic figures, even as their foolishness makes us laugh at them, since the comedy plays down its serious socio-economic elements.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2003
Crucible, The
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

Arthur Miller's play about Salem women accused of casting spells on young girls and its consequent hysteria and injustice still has the power that marked its debut during the McCarthy era. Today's major parallels concern 9/11 and the Justice Department and Patriot Act in a society vigilant against terrorism. The story begins after Reverend Parris (ever sterner David Breitbarth) has found his niece dancing naked, led by pretty young Abigail (Merideth Maddox, duly controlling) and abetted by Tituba, a servant from Barbados (Gale Fulton Ross, scary even when acting scared).

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2003
Butley
Huntington Theater

A bit of Broadway buzz comes to Boston’s Huntington Theater as Nathan Lane assays the title role in Simon Gray’s seminal dark comedy, Butley. In retrospect, the play feels like the bridge between Harold Pinter’s grim view of male relationships in the 60s and the explosion of gay theater in the late 1970s.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
November 2003
Addicted: A Comedy of Substance
Zipper Theater

By all rights, fifteen years ago, Mark Lundholm should have been lying dead somewhere - and he would have deserved it. An addictive personality raised in a violent home, Lundholm moved from alcohol to drugs, eventually ditching his wife and kid for a life of crime to support his habits. But just when he was ready to pull the trigger on the gun to his head - literally - he decided to give rehab one more shot.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2003
Cookin'
New Victory Theater

It's Stomp with a hint of Blast! and a dash of "Yan Can Cook." Sounds appetizing? For awhile, this Korean import, conceived by Seung Whan Song and now a world-wide touring phenomenon, promises to be both light on the funny bone and tempting to the salivary glands, as Cookin' shows a group of young "chefs" ordered to prepare a multi-course meal in exactly one hour.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Artificial Jungle, The
Bath House Cultural Center

On October 2, 2003, Our Endeavors Theater Collective opened a near-perfect production of Charles Ludlam's mid-1980s comedic suspense thriller, The Artificial Jungle. It is set in a family owned-and-operated pet shop on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the kind where the owners live behind the shop, a hodge-podge of paraphernalia featuring a prominent screen which doubles as an aquarium when it is backlit.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Bold Girls
29th Street Repertory

Bold Girls by Rona Munro, now at the 29th St. Rep, is deceiving.  Basically it is a "kitchen sink" drama set in Belfast, Ireland, in 1990, with four women whose men are either dead or in jail (we never find out what they did, but insurrection is implied). While the talk and concerns of these working-class women are quite ordinary, an explosion and shots in the background give the atmosphere some tension. "The Troubles" are rumbling nearby and might spill onto the stage (they don't).

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Boobs! The Musical: The World According to Ruth Wallis
Triad Theater (moved to Dillon's)

Well, Tom Lehrer she wasn't. Nor Allan Sherman nor Randy Newman, all of whom have written satirical (and some serious) songs that enjoyed successful off-Broadway tributes in years past. But the largely forgotten Ruth Wallis did carve out a niche for herself with moderately raunchy, double-entendre-packed ditties throughout the 50s and 60s, the most famous of which gives Steve Mackes and Michael Whaley's new revue its title. Boobs!

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Bat Boy: The Musical
Actors' Guild of Lexington

Bat Child Found in Cave was the jaw-dropping headline on June 22, 1992, in the gaudy "Weekly World News" tabloid, where fiction disguised as fact becomes eerily stranger than truth. But let us give thanks to that trashy rag for inspiring Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming, and Laurence O'Keefe to transform the Bat Boy concoction into a marvelously entertaining and touching musical.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Blithe Spirit
Theater Charlotte

It's been awhile since we've seen Lon Bumgarner directing an utterly carefree comedy -- so long, you may have forgotten how good he is at it. When he was dominating the Loaf's directing awards from 1987-90, Bumgarner certainly garnered accolades for his Hamlet, Macbeth, and Three Sisters with Charlotte Shakespeare Company. Yet his work was sometimes even more revelatory in frothier fare such as Scapino!, House of Blue Leaves, You Can't Take It With You and What the Butler Saw.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Breath of Spring
Poway Performing Arts Company

Ah, the joys of a cast totally into their assigned dialects! Lee Donnelly, as maid Lilly Thompson, has a cockney accent that almost needs translation. Shari Lyon, as Miss Nanette Parry, has a proper educated way of speaking, Jeff Laurence's (Brigadier Albert Rayne) speech is peppered with a military flavor. Dialect coach Helen McGuinness brings this authenticity to Breath of Spring, which adds so much to the piece's humor. Each actor not only speaks properly, but with just the right dialect for the character. No easy task!

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Bridge to Terabithia
Children's Theater of Charlotte

Children's Theater is pioneering beyond their comfort zone with Bridge to Terabithia. We've seen CT musicals before, and we've certainly had brave confrontations with dark, disturbing themes. But we've never had an intermission during a CT production—or a Newberry Award medalist fielding audience questions on opening night. Regardless of author Katherine Paterson's appearance, signaling an auspicious hook-up with the Library's Novello Festival, there's no precedent in Charlotte for the rich package that Terabithia can deliver to children and families.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Carnival Knowledge
Soho Playhouse

Step right up to the Soho Playhouse and see, "alive on stage" such wonders as a man walking barefoot on broken glass, chewing up a lightbulb, and hammering a nail in his nasal cavity.  It's all the same man -- Todd Robbins -- in Carnival Knowledge, helped by his lady assistant, Twistina, and joined by the dwarf Little Jimmy (one of the Oompah-Loompahs in the original "Willy Wonka").  It's a diverting mix of standard magic act, dangerous stunts (the most interesting part of the evening, since they're "real"), and flim-flam (one bit really IS done with mirrors).

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Comedy of Errors, The
La Jolla Playhouse - Mandell Weiss Forum

Everybody is right! No, everybody is wrong!

Confusion reigns in William Shakespeare's first comedy, A Comedy of Errors. The New York-based Aquila Theater Company's version, created by Peter Meineck and Robert Richmond, gives new meaning to this hilarious amusement. Producer Meineck also created the effective and moody lighting, with director Richmond designing the production.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
October 2003

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