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!). If the first act's a touch long and Coward's "Why Do All the Wrong People Travel" isn't quite as droll as the audience wants it to be, the rest is pure gold, right down to the touching encore of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Something Good."

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Full Monty, The
Eugene O'Neill Theater

If you've seen the 1997 British film of The Full Monty, there's really no need to spend the time and money to see this live version. Essentially, the stories are identical: a group of out-of-work factory employees need to come up with some quick cash. The most desperate of these blue-collar boyos is Jerry Lukowski, who is several payments behind in his child support and therefore could lose custody of his son to his ex-wife. Incredibly, the guys decide to become strippers, a la Chippendale's.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Erotic Adventures in Venice
La MaMa ETC - First Floor

If the prolific and lauded playwright Mario Fratti (adapter of Fellini's film "81/2" that became Nine, the Broadway musical) has secured a solid international standing for his satiric considerations of serious subjects (Cage, Suicide, Victim, Che Guevara), the plays of his that I have seen suggest to me that Americans may not be tuned in to the specific and possibly too-subtle ironies that propel Fratti's largely political and socially-conscious work.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
I Did! I Did!
Theatrx

First there was The Fourposter, then along came I Do! I Do!, and now it's I Did! I Did! In the last year the singing/acting couple, Cheryl and Sam Warner, have performed the last two shows -- earlier, the always-popular I Do! I Do! at Patio Playhouse and currently, I Did! I Did! at Theatrx.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
I Ought To Be In Pictures
Scripps Ranch - Legler Benbough Theater

Neil Simon usually reveals our foibles, while making us laugh. I Ought To Be In Pictures explores the relationship between a father and his daughter, whom he hadn't seen in 16 years. Herb (David Gallagher) left his family in Brooklyn for the fast lane of motion pictures in Hollywood. Unannounced daughter Libby (Michelle DeFrancesco) enters his life. Herb, a writer with massive writer's block, is facing problems in his relationship with Steffy (Connie Terwilliger).

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Four
Manhattan Theater Club - Stage II

One of the choice bits in David Lynch's delectable Hollywood mindwarp, "Mulholland Drive" is where a director remarks upon the completion of audition scene between a young, would-be starlet (Naomi Watts) and an older, grayed once-lothario (Chad Everett): "Very good. It was forced, maybe, but still...humanistic." Christopher Shinn's remarkable 1998 play Four succeeds in being the very opposite. It is humanistic simply in how un-forced it is.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Mamma Mia!
Winter Garden Theater

This is a feel-good evening whose time has definitely come. A scant two years after its London opening, the show has a string of successful productions which spread like lightning all over the English speaking world. When primary producer, Judy Craymer, approached relatively unknown TV/theater writer Catherine Johnson to do the book, she was somewhat incredulous but, a big fan of ABBA, she was eager to comply and is still surprised by its success.

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Urinetown
Henry Miller Theater

Despite its off-putting title and unrelenting silliness, there are things an audience can find appealing in Urinetown. Certainly, this does not include the plot, which is about a fictional town afflicted by such a severe drought, people are forced to pay to pee. This fact is reiterated again and again (ad nauseum, actually), to the point where the words "urine" or "pee" are uttered at least 100 times in the first act alone. (If you don't believe this reviewer, just check out the women's restroom line at intermission.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Almost Holy Picture, An
American Airlines Theater

Kevin Bacon is an extremely popular movie star (36 films are credited in the playbill). He is also half of the much publicized musical group, The Bacon Brothers, and is currently all over the tube in at least two highly-visible commercials, one promoting New York, another Visa. This is also his eighth listed appearance onstage. Those credits alone are enough of a draw to fill a large Broadway theater, and the Roundabout Theater Company must be very aware of all this.

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Almost Holy Picture, An
American Airlines Theater

I happened to catch an A&E "Biography" special last month on actor Kevin Bacon, and while watching, I was taken aback by how much work he had done that almost nobody gives him any credit for. Now in his early forties (and still looking as youthful as in his "Diner" days), Bacon has become synonymous with ubiquitous celebrity, having a Six Degrees-type game named after him and generally appearing as a supporting player in various Hollywood pictures. But what the actor may not realize is that placing him in this "he's everywhere" state is no insult.

Jason Clark
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Almost Holy Picture, An
American Airlines Theater

After 9/11, a little spirituality on a Broadway stage isn't a bad thing, but Heather McDonald's static solo play isn't likely to give anyone religion. Kevin Bacon plays a man saddled with Job-like troubles, including witnessing a school bus crash, enduring three miscarriages, and raising a child with lanugo, a rare disease that causes hair to grow all over her body.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Afghan Woman
Theater for the New City

Bina Sharif has presence -- even under a burqa. (And this one is not the Afghan light blue but a dramatic combination of aqua, purple and orange silk with iridescent eye slot.) In her new solo show, Afghan Woman, Sharif gives voice to what unfortunately must be an average mother's plight in Afghanistan. Hemmed in by war, poverty and a medieval regime, her character, Narges Hazrat, can moan over her dead children with the security that no person can change this fate of hers.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Anything Goes
Golden Apple Dinner Theater

As an excuse for a lot of fun songs, variations on the Charleston danced with gusto, burlesque jokes and skits tying together shipboard romances, this production of Cole Porter's old standby needs no excuses.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Art
Walnut Street Theater

Art, the play, is like the piece of art at the heart of the plot. Each beholderÆs reaction will be different, and you can see in it whatever you want to. Some theatergoers will find a serious examination of male friendship, others will find a well-calculated piece of entertainment. Three 40-something men have been close friends for years. When one of them, Serge, brings home an expensive white-on-white abstract painting, one of his pals is horrified and even personally offended that his friend would waste money on something so vacuous.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
As You Like It
Navy Pier

It's obvious early on that director David H. Bell wants to draw out the differences between the court and the forest of Arden. Life is dark in civilization -- it always seems to be night, and the dress code includes lots of black. By the time the mismatched heroes make their way to Arden, they have  discovered the pastoral life, complete with earth tones and streams of natural sunlight. It is here, amid the delights of the forest, that loves enters its full blossom.

Ed Huyck
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Brutal Imagination
Vineyard Theater

Here's the concept: the black guy that South Carolina mom Susan Smith conjured up as a scapegoat when she drove her two kids into a lake takes on a life of his own and becomes various metaphorical representations of how America treated black people in the past century. Apart from an impressive lighting design and a host of familiar agit-prop gimmicks, that's the most imaginative idea to be found in Cornelius Eady, Diedre Murray and Diane Paulus's poetic satire. There's no drama here, only lots of narration, free-verse blather, emoting and oh-so-familiar liberal guilt.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Brutal Imagination
Vineyard Theater

The horrifying details of the crime of Union County South Carolina resident Susan Smith are given a pretentiously lyrical but also compelling resonance in Brutal Imagination. Smith was charged and convicted in 1994 of the death of her two young sons, Michael, age 3, and Alexander, age 14 months. Smith had strapped them securely in the back seat of her car that she then pushed into a lake. The incidents surrounding the case are shown through an abstracted fiction laced with factual reportage. That particularized fiction is called Mr.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Cabaret
Studio 54

One of the great directorial achievements of recent times, Sam Mendes's complete reimagining of Kander & Ebb's Cabaret retains its awesome punch, even if individual performances prove less galvanizing than those of the original cast. As Sally, Molly Ringwald's a decent singer and stage presence, her surprising lack of sex appeal a fault until the final scenes, where, so shockingly wan and unsightly she almost looks disfigured, she becomes deeply touching.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Cherry Orchard
Ortaoyuncular

Purists be warned that unless they are ready for a good laugh, Ferhan Sensoy's romp through Chekhov's Cherry Orchard will leave them cringing.  Sensoy transplants the familiar story to Turkey's Black Sea coast and has the cast sport the lilting accent characteristic of that region.  Actually it's not so outlandish a choice, since Turkey has seen a large Russian influx there.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Cymbeline
Lucille Lortel Theater

Well-intentioned, occasionally lively mounting ultimately thwarted by an uneven cast and the schematic nature of the play itself. After 3 ½ hours that feel like four, we need the poignance of Winter's Tale or the burlesque joy of Midsummer Night's Dream and not just a pleasantly happy ending.

Best touch: the comic villain's fabricated horse, which rides up and down the aisles and even swishes its tail.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Da
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

Autobiographical "memory plays" weren't all that common when Hugh Leonard wrote his about his father and their relationship. Neither was the device of a mature person interacting with a remembered younger self. Now, however, Da's use of these dramatic devices seems less fresh, more contrived. Not that V Craig Heidenreich lacks conviction as successful Irish playwright Charlie, back from his English home to his childhood one, where he's just buried his Da but can't shake his presence.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Death and the Maiden
La Jolla Stage

What is it like to live under a repressive government? What are the long term effects of torture and rape? What would you do when face-to-face with your persecutor? Would you call for justice or vengeance or . . .?

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Death Defying Acts
Martin Experimental Theater at Kentucky Center for the Arts

This triptych of comedies by Elaine May, David Mamet, and Woody Allen while enjoyable throughout saves the best for last: Allen's wildly funny Central Park West. Under Dennis Stilger's smartly-paced direction, Allen's neurotic, angst-ridden Manhattanites are hilariously observed as they navigate through their adulterous affairs that come to light. Allen's witty one-liners and put-downs keep an audience howling. Allen himself, in the guise of nerdy Howard (Tom Schulz), almost seems to be up there on stage.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Dinner Party, The
Paper Mill Playhouse

Why is Neil Simon's The Dinner Party so improved and more likeable at the Paper Mill Playhouse than it was on Broadway? The answer is the cast. Although the ensemble for the Broadway production included such high-profile performers as Henry Winkler and John Ritter, they were not only poorly cast as Parisians but displayed a reckless disregard for anything that could be considered a competent characterization. With the help of a more carefully conscripted cast, Simon's play can be looked at with new eyes.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Fosse
Eihlein Hall at Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

Milwaukee gave a polite welcome to Fosse, the razzle-dazzle musical featuring Bob Fosse's choreography. This isn't surprising, given the fact that the current tour is only a pale imitation of the musical that played at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. The edginess and sexuality that makes temperatures rise among Broadway audiences is in short supply here; there's energy in the touring show, but not the polished talent that could take Fosse to its heights. Part of the reason is that the touring company employs a younger, less experienced cast.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Fuddy Meers
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

Despite the often-hilarious twists and behaviors of its characters, there is as much sinister as there is comic about Fuddy Meers. What makes it also mysterious is that we find out who is who and what is what just as does heroine Claire. (Nimble Jennifer Plants relives and relearns with catching enthusiasm.) A victim of psychogenic amnesia, she loses her memory in sleep and awakes each morning to husband Richard's explanations (including a photo album with captions).

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Hay Fever
Actors Theater of Louisville

There's always this to be said for the plays conceived and directed by Anne Bogart during her 10 consecutive years of displaying them at Actors Theater of Louisville: they grab your attention and hold on for dear life.

Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Hollow, The
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

This veddy British mystery gives Asolo's repertory of actors roles that match their talents, looks and ages. In the great green-brown-gold room, with garden porch, of a Tudor country manse, its lord, Henry Angkatell (comfy David S. Howard), is surrounded by textured furnishings holding artifacts from his old post in India. The Hollow, though, lacks the grandeur of Ayneswyck, Lady Lucy's childhood home pictured above their mantel. How much does she envy her cousin Edward (V Craig Heidenreich, correctly starchy), a self-deprecating man who inherited the estate?

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Flaming Idiots, The: What Goes Up
New Victory Theater

Belying the subtitle of their own show, The Flaming Idiots, a trio of Flying Karamazov-style comedians/jugglers/stupid-human-tricksters, keep an audience "up" for two hours, and we never come down. Juggling bowling pins and circular rings may be old hat, but the verbal jokes feel fresh and are delivered with gusto. The odder moments -- Gyro constructing a bologna sandwich with his feet; Pyro juggling fire atop a very large audience volunteer -- prove even more diverting. Sheer fun, and extra- welcome for that reason.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Hobson's Choice
Atlantic Theater

Every now and then, the delightful 1953 film version of Harold Brighouse's 1915 comedy, Hobson's Choice (an early gem from director David Lean starring Charles Laughton, Brenda de Banzie and John Mills), shows up on Channel 13. A rare opportunity is offered by Off-Broadway's The Atlantic Theater to see the even-more-infrequently revived play in an exceptionally fine production.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Hobson's Choice
Atlantic Theater

Hobson's Choice, Harold Brighouse's 1915 play about a bootmaker and his three unmarried daughters, is an enjoyable peek into the marriage customs of the time and seems to be an early voice for the value of a person for himself rather than for his position. And it can be viewed as an early feminist statement as Martha Plimpton runs the family and makes a man out of a mouse (David Aaron Baker) -- two fine performances.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Homecoming
ArcLight Theater

An adoptee searching for her birth-mother is far from a new topic, but Lauren Weedman's solo, Homecoming, is a cut above typical fare because she tackles the quest for identity not just from her own perspective but from those of her eccentric mom and loving but snotty sister. Painted, too, with a mildy caricaturing but still-believable brush, are her African-American boyfriend, a bearlike counselor and a courteous, control-freak adoption agency clerk.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Noises Off
Brooks Atkinson Theater

Michael Frayn's Noises Off is the funniest play ever written, especially for those in the theatrical trade, and the current production is hilarious. The star-studded cast, including Patti LuPone, Peter Gallagher, Faith Prince, and the incredible Katie Finneran, whose quadruple-take alone is worth the price of admission, keep us laughing throughout this play about an English theater company on the road. Director Jeremy Sams has invented intricate schtick that constantly dazzles and amazes, and Robert Jones' set and costumes totally fulfill the script.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2002
Aida
Palace Theater

The very qualities which make this production of the Verdi classic objectionable to adults make it perfect for young people. Disney's traditional cartoonization of the classics has added a happy ending to the poignantly tragic opera about an Egyptian princess, Amneris, hopelessly in love with her country's military hero, Radames, who falls in love with his captured slave, the Nubian princess Aida, whom the jealous Amneris has condemned to death, only to discover that Radames has chosen to die with her (not to worry, they meet again at a museum)!

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
Arms and the Man
Bouwerie Lane Theater

Jean Cocteau Rep's production of George Bernard Shaw's always-relevant Arms and the Man is a delightful evening. Director Ernest Johns and his fine cast enliven Shaw's basic view of the ridiculousness of war, giving it a proper romantic/satirical edge that keeps us engaged and smiling.

Outstanding in the cast is Jason Crowl, as the soldier who crawls in the window and into the heart of a young enemy noblewoman. He has the charisma, the edge, to go far in all media of show business. The excellent set by Robert J.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
42nd Street
Theater at the Center

It's all in the feet -- ten pair of those dancing feet striking the floor at precisely the same instant in patterns complex enough to make Michael Flatley's kids look like toddlers. And in the costumes that make you want to forget your arthritic knees and two left feet and become a dancer, just so you can wear dresses like the "beautiful dames" in the song of that title. Of course, it's also the sturdy score reflecting a universe where boy gets girl -- even if the boy is old enough to be the girl's father -- means happy ever after.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
Arsenic and Old Lace
Milwaukee Repertory - Quadracci Powerhouse Theater in Baker Theater Complex

The holidays are a great time for chestnuts, roasted and otherwise, as evidenced in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's production of Arsenic and Old Lace. As the name so aptly implies, this subversive comedy of the 1940s can still offer plenty of crackle and pop for modern audiences. Director James Pickering has chosen to set the play firmly in its original 1941 time period. There's an early conversation about the war, of course, as well as some of the hardships it has brought to the lives of those who reside in an idyllically peaceful Brooklyn neighborhood.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
Carol: A Christmas Story
Actor's Asylum

Carol, A Christmas Story has been created out of the fertile minds of Gayle Feldman and Todd Blakesley, who are also principals in this newly-formed theater and production company along with Lee Lampard. Parodying Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Scrooge has had a gender change.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
Criss Angel MINDFREAK
World Underground Theater at WWF New York

Mindfreak? More like a hunky guy who wears Marilyn Manson-style leather and mascara, plays Squonk-meets-Moby-like techno music, and offers a bunch of big and small magic tricks. Though in interviews Angel has pooh-poohed the "cheesy" nature of standard magic shows, his disappearances, quick changes and levitations are really standard Blackstone-Copperfield stuff -- a bit of a letdown considering the impressive costumes and post-modern flashiness.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 2001
Christmas Revels, The
Cahn Auditorium

Revelers expecting a repeat of last year's Medieval Solstice-themed show were in for a surprise -- the program for 2001 was still rooted in Anglo-Celtic heritage, but the setting this time was a pub in Ireland finding itself playing host to a band of Welsh wayfarers. The entertainments engendered by this meeting likewise reflected major improvements over the ingenuousness of the Revel's debut in 2000.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
December 2001

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