The program of Italian Funerals & Other Festive Occasions tells us that the author, John Miranda, is an actor. The discerning audience member could have guessed that because plays written by actors usually share certain characteristics. When actors take up the pen, the play tends to be sentimental. You can…
The African maxim that it takes a village to raise a child is the theme of Once Upon a Time . . . When We Were Colored. Clifton L. Taulbert’s slim book about his boyhood in the black section of a small Mississippi town in the 1950s is childhood memoir…
Barb Wire is the feature-film debut of Pamela Anderson Lee, that Jungian archetype of the buxom-blond bombshell who’s said to have been discovered at some public event on a Sony big screen–an electronic-age version of Lana Turner at the Schwab’s counter. The Baywatch star plays the title role in this…
rock ‘n’ roll call Youthapalooza: Eight bands featuring Scottsdale high school students–Square Meal, Blonder Tongue, Stamens, Ray-Gun Assassin, We Drink Rain, Might Spawn a Blizzard in Connecticut, Regret, and Big Caddie Conversion–team up for this Scottsdale Mayor’s Youth Council-sponsored outdoor concert and antidrug and -alcohol festival on Saturday, May 18…
thursday may 16 Evita: Theater League hosts the touring production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical about the late Argentinean strongwoman Maria Eva Duarte de Peron. Final performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 16; 8 p.m. Friday, May 17; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, May 18; and 2…
Can an actor’s performance be too good for a play? Apparently it can, if one performance so overwhelms the script that the depth and subtlety of the drama are eclipsed by the charisma of its star. Such seemed to be the case when I saw the touring production of Herb…
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: “When the gods wish to punish us, they grant our prayers.” For the past two seasons, I have been thumping a drum, decrying the decreased relevance of theatre to contemporary culture. Now, In Mixed Company has taken me at my word and is presenting a play…
It may give some indication of the glamorous life of a movie reviewer if I tell you that one of my favorite pastimes is, and has been since high school, watching Z-grade sci-fi, horror and other sorts of exploitation movies. Watching them by oneself is fun; watching them with like-minded…
thursday may 9 Phoenix Symphony: Outgoing maestro James Sedares takes his final bows with the orchestra on Thursday, May 9; Friday, May 10; and Saturday, May 11, at Symphony Hall, 225 East Adams. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday, guest violinist Corey Cerovsek joins the ensemble for a…
strings attached “Musical Marionettes”: Clotilde Otranto conducts Phoenix Symphony in this meshing of orchestral works and puppetry, the final entry in the ensemble’s Family Concert Series. Puppeteers Bob and Judy Brown put string beings through their paces in sequences titled “Clown Alley,” “Petting Zoo,” “Fright Night” and “Future Tense,” which…
Jose Benavides spent almost a year begging or buying the 500 license plates that he has since pounded into a gigantic depiction of the Virgin Mary attached to the chassis of a 1979 Datsun pickup truck. Benavides’ “Madonna” is a 17-foot-tall, fully drivable shrine to Our Lady of Grace–a sort…
If Peter Quince were alive today and living in Arizona, he might well be the artistic director of Southwest Shakespeare Company. Quince is, of course, that amateur entrepreneur of ancient Athens who organized a group of tradesmen to perform “the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and…
Although Phoenix-area bigwigs frequently claim that they’d like the Valley to become more of a player in the entertainment industry, the soil here has proved harsh and infertile when it comes to efforts to grow a serious film festival–the mark of most major show-biz towns. Funding here is sparse, sponsors…
Like Dead Man Walking, Last Dance is about a bond that forms between a death-row inmate and a concerned outsider. This time around, however, the genders are switched: The prisoner (Sharon Stone) is a woman and her visitor is a man (Rob Morrow). Proximity to the release of Dead Man…
at the fair Kid Stuff at Maricopa County Fair: The fair continues through Sunday, May 5, and includes daily fun like midway rides and games, livestock and agriculture competitions and exhibitions, farm tours featuring a “maternity ward” of animal newborns, and vegetable-bowling and pickle-eating contests. For general information, see Pic…
thursday may 2 Saguaro Film Festival 3: Arizona Film Society’s annual showcase of independent works opens with a reception for the filmmakers at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2, at Planet Hollywood, located at Biltmore Fashion Park, 24th Street and Camelback. A screening of director Carmen Santa Maria’s farce I Crave…
Delicate rectangles of light dapple a translucent scrim that masks the proscenium at Herberger Theater’s Center Stage. The tinkle of tiny cymbals begins to twang; our eyes penetrate the veil to behold a jewel-encrusted creature enthroned. With tawny skin spangled with golden dust, an ample human body is crowned with…
The Comedy of Errors and The Boys From Syracuse are twins, but they’re fraternal–not identical. The former is Shakespeare’s shortest play–and possibly his first. It is a tale of twins, separated at birth, who are driven to distraction when their respective acquaintances mistake them for each other. The latter is…
The Hat Squad, a legendary quartet of LAPD robbery detectives during the ’50s, was the inspiration for Mulholland Falls, a period mystery vaguely in the Chinatown/Devil in a Blue Dress vein. In the first scene, the boys (Nick Nolte, Chazz Palminteri, Chris Penn and Michael Madsen) throw a new-in-town gangster…
The Last Supper is about liberal rage, so, by nature, it’s a comedy. Directed by Stacy Title, the film takes off from a classic hypothetical parlor-game question: What if, as a time traveler, you met Hitler as a young man, innocent of his future crimes–do you murder him to prevent…
thursday april 25 Maricopa County Fair: The 21st annual event–a cozier, countrier version of Arizona State Fair–opens Thursday, April 25, and continues daily, through Sunday, May 5, at the fairgrounds, 19th Avenue and McDowell. Highlights include carnival rides and games on the midway; a musical tribute to the Beatles and…
at the fair Kid Stuff at Maricopa County Fair: On Monday, April 29; Tuesday, April 30; and Wednesday, May 1, kids can buy magic tickets to this year’s fair, which starts Thursday, April 25, and continues through Sunday, May 5. Called “Pay-One-Price” passes and priced at $19.95, they’re good for…
