Okay, seriously: I’m too old and too uncool and, frankly, too white to have enjoyed Black Theatre Troupe’s Revenge of a King. Herb Newsome’s freaked-out retelling of Hamlet was, in a word, annoying. Yo. The only thing I dislike more than Shakespeare is contemporized Shakespeare, and the only thing I…
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” would be a cool little fable even if it were only about exposing pretension and exploding the myths of class and taste. But it’s also about a ruler who’s so obsessed with style and glamor that his empire’s real needs are unattended to.Eric…
A theater experience always includes, at a minimum, you and a performer. Ideally, you both emerge transformed. It doesn’t get much more perfectly bare-bones than Dodging Bullets, a one-man show by ASU prof and local theater artist David Barker. In 65 minutes on a nearly empty stage, this apparently average…
When I got home from the theater the other night, I immediately updated my Facebook page. I typed a note to the virtual community that read, “Two things: 1. Go see columbinus at Stray Cat Theatre; 2. Ron May is a genius.” This is a theater review, not a trendy…
A friend of mine swears that she read somewhere that David Mamet is really a chick. More widespread and credible, but much less fascinating, is the rumor that reclusive, pseudonymous Pulitzer-nominated playwright Jane Martin is actually director Jon Jory. In any case, MartinJory have collaborated successfully many times, and ever…
I used to assume that there simply is no men’s dressing room at downtown Scottsdale’s Theater 4301 — it’s the stomping ground of such perennials as Menopause The Musical and Sister’s Christmas Catechism, as well as a cozy 2008 visit from Carrie Fisher and the upcoming Girls Night: The Musical. (So, not…
Since 2002, the Herberger’s Lunch Time Theater program has been a place for emerging companies and artists to stretch their wings and give downtowners a mental mini-break in the work week. Every season, several quite different troupes present a short play for two or three weeks each. Writers, in particular,…
Over the years, I’ve seen several excellent productions by Arizona Jewish Theatre Company. Their current show, a world première called Parted Waters, is not very good, and, sadly, it’s a bad time to hit audiences with a mediocre play. Like many other arts entities, AJTC is struggling with the effects…
I kept thinking about John Lennon as I watched Actors Theatre of Phoenix’s Rabbit Hole the other night. Specifically, about how Paul McCartney was widely quoted as having said simply, “What a drag!” upon learning that his friend and former collaborator had died. I was mindful of this because that…
It’s not an inherently bad thing to have a comfort zone. If every stimulus you took in, every day, were a novel and fascinating first-time experience, you’d probably keel over from exhaustion before lunch. But I feel for the artists who, originally, had to create a stage show just exactly like everyone’s favorite…
Tim Trumble, courtesy of ASU Herberger College School of Theatre and Film Lee Margaret Hanson plays the title role in Eurydice. In case you haven’t heard, playwright Sarah Ruhl is très hip, kind of the Albee/Wasserstein/Mamet mashup of this decade. When Paula Vogel was her teacher, Vogel claimed she learned things from Ruhl…
Lillie Richardson is not 11 years old. I had to keep reminding myself of this during her performance in Black Theatre Troupe’s production of The Bluest Eye. Richardson plays a child so winningly in this translation of Toni Morrison’s acclaimed novel about a poor black girl who wishes she were…
courtesy of GAPT Oh, wheel of fortune: The king and the miller’s daughter meet cute in Rumpelstiltskin. Something’s terribly wrong when some of our own local professionals, the puppeteers of Great Arizona Puppet Theater, get passed over every year at Oscar time. What’s that? They aren’t in films? Well, okay…
Tempe Little Theatre was founded nearly 40 years ago (full disclosure: I’ve worked with them in three of those four decades, as a performer, an elected officer, a director who was paid a small stipend, and one who wasn’t). Their bylaws-mandated preference to eschew a traditional community-based fundraising board of…
[jump] For a theater that seats you on folding chairs in a former clothing store, Starlight is doing a pretty good job. The acoustics are quite good (the actors’ vocal strength is a key part of that, too), everyone’s super-friendly, and you can buy a coffee or water in the…
I have finally seen a play that made me want to stand and applaud at the end. First time ever. I figure I’ve been to the theater on the average of once a week for 20 years, so that’s something like a thousand-plus plays and musicals I’ve seen. (I’m certainly…
Don Crosby and Eric Thompson are pretty darn sweet in Lend Me a Tenor. I thought I’d seen Lend Me a Tenor several years ago, but as the plot unfolded at Gilbert’s Hale Centre Theatre I realized what I’d seen back then was Moon Over Buffalo. Both are Ken Ludwig farces about touring entertainers, so perhaps my…
A House with No Walls is neither an enlightening history lesson nor a compelling entertainment. Thomas Gibbons’ play tells us nothing we didn’t already know about America’s unfortunate history of slavery, and its iTheatre Collaborative production, which commenced last weekend, provides little more than a handful of interesting performances. Flashbacks…
Say it out loud, hookers: “Dixie Longate.” Mmmm, they sure do. Photo by Bradford Rogne. Hey, it’s another one-person off-Broadway touring show that features a lot of audience interaction. This trend is probably a good thing, with all these big expensive new Valley venues to fill up with stuff. So the late Spalding…
Eduardo Montalvo, David Tinsley, and Jade Johnson in Revenge of a King. Photo by Laura Durant. Messing with Shakespeare can be a very good thing. It introduces audiences to a variety of genres and styles of theater that they might have overlooked or avoided in the past. The cross-pollination runs…
Before his death last month, Dale Wasserman was among a handful of Americans to whom the title “Broadway legend” applied — although it seems likely that the famous (and famously grumpy) playwright would have disdained that title. Yet it was true. Wasserman wrote more than a dozen plays and musicals,…
Matt DeAngelis, Kyle Harris (front), Lauren Lebowitz, and the company, in Hair. Photos © Tim Fuller. Arizona Theatre Company has announced an additional week of performances for their current production of Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, and that’s good news for Valley audiences, because this show is bumpin’. When you…
