Time was when you went to the theater to be entertained, not to be entertaining, and nuns were scary creatures whose sexual repression made them want to beat little kids senseless. Those days are mostly gone. Today, theater comedy often relies on audiences to augment the shtick of the actors…
The evening of March 14, 1885, was an auspicious one in the annals of musical theater. Less than four years had passed since the opening of London’s Savoy Theatre, built specifically for the productions of librettist William Schwenk Gilbert and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan. The partners’ first six works had…
In the past 30 years, Woody Allen has written and directed something like 28 movies — “something like” reflects the confusion of how to count his contribution to New York Stories — a remarkable productivity record for a major filmmaker, and one that’s even more impressive when you consider how…
Ignore her title. She’s no lady. It is the summer of 1988, at the Pavillion Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. Elvis Costello is playing a solo show to promote his latest album, Spike. As soon as he walks onstage, members of the audience begin yelling for “Tramp the Dirt Down,” a…
Angie Tidwell is a total loser. She’s 37 and lives with her mom. Her favorite singer is Helen Reddy. She collects vintage dollhouse furniture, works as a guest greeter at Wal-Mart, and is still a virgin. But what makes Angie a total washout is that she’s only seen The Phantom…
In Cradle Will Rock, his third directorial outing, Tim Robbins takes on an almost insurmountably ambitious project: a re-creation of an era into which characters imaginary, obscure and famous are woven into a tapestry that represents the texture of the time. It’s a tall order. E. L. Doctorow was able…
Boo hoo! Frank McCourt had a miserable childhood! Honestly, who can say their childhood wasn’t impoverished in some way… or in many ways? That Mr. McCourt survived and eventually published his inescapable memoir is nice, of course, and the book is indeed a poignant and crafty piece of work. Nonetheless,…
The world’s demand for minimally talented 30-year-old high school dropouts who believe they’re great poets or great musicians or great movie directors isn’t going to catch up with the supply anytime soon. That won’t keep the strivers from striving, of course, nor will it snuff out their dreams. Case in…
The first space opera of the year 2000, Supernova, turns out to be more nostalgic than futuristic. There isn’t an idea in this brief, handsomely produced actioner that isn’t a sci-fi chestnut. Event Horizon, Aliens, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, even The Fly all…
“Dave, it’s Arlo calling.” There was no need to ask “Arlo who?” The instantly recognizable voice on the other end of the phone has been a familiar one since 1967 when Arlo Guthrie’s first album was released. A goodly chunk of that classic work was the lengthy monologue within a…
Whatever happened to television sketch comedy? Nowadays you really only find it on late-night TV shows such as Saturday Night Live or Mad TV. But for years before the format was marginalized into the fringes of televised programming, you could enjoy examples any night of the week. From the earliest…
It’s likely that many of the readers who bought four million copies, in at least 30 languages, of David Guterson’s 1995 best-seller Snow Falling on Cedars have been looking forward to the movie version. Others have probably been dreading it. For better or worse, this multifarious story about nativist bigotry,…
Little Black Sambo, Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben — all that’s missing from this classic cast of racist stereotypes is a lawn jockey at the front door of Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. No, SMOCA is not hosting a Ku Klux Klan convention or a twisted Antiques Roadshow episode. It’s just…
Every so often, America coughs up a hairball like Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker to remind itself of how far it has traveled from its past. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the civil rights movement was still being called a “struggle,” a white fool calling a black man a…
John Henry Redwood’s people have unusual names like Lou Bessie and Bucket and Husband, and they hail from places with even stranger names, like Frogmore. In Redwood’s beautifully written The Old Settler, these people all end up in Harlem, where they change their names and attempt to alter their identities…
Some people really are crazy, but then, “crazy” is a relative term. Does it apply to someone who feels he might spin off into outer space and never be able to get back down to Earth? Or is it only crazy when you have to cling to the nearest table…
The 1995 film Friday is best remembered as the film that brought actor Chris Tucker to audiences’ attention. A modest hit, it would seem an odd choice for a sequel, but Ice Cube — who co-wrote the original with DJ Pooh, as well as produced and starred — is back…
This state came late to the national observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day — Monday, January 17, this year — but now that we participate, there’s no shortage of events. Here are a few of the Valley’s celebrations: In Phoenix: • ASU West hosts its annual MLK Celebration Week…
Have you ever stood on a street corner or maybe sat on a bus and “eavesdropped” on a signed conversation? It’s a remarkable sight, watching the flying hands and fingers combined with animated facial gestures that are the defining characteristics of this language. Properly known as American Sign Language but…
Bob Sorenson, left, and R. Hamilton Wright in The Mystery of Irma Vep.Those who have encountered playwright Charles Ludlam’s work know that it is juvenile and silly and displays a fond appreciation for theatrical classicism. Those who haven’t are in for a delightful baptism in farce at Arizona Theatre Company’s…
You hope for Dorothy Lamour, reclining against a palm tree in her sarong, when you hear the title The Hurricane. Instead, you get well more than two hours of Denzel Washington huddled in a cell. In the poster art, Washington glowers out, one bandaged fist cocked for a right to…
Sixty years after Walt Disney’s original plans to expand on the original Fantasia, Disney has finally gotten around to making new musical segments for a reprise of the film’s classical-music-cum-animation concept. Cleverly timed and titled to open on the first day of the new millennium — and, regardless of any…
