Reviews for touring company Performances
Review: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on March 22, 2018
Frankly, A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER takes its cues from the likes of THE BOOK OF MORMON and AVENUE Q, for a fun-filled night out -- and a family-friendly one aat that.
“Why are all the D’Ysquith’s dying?” The mourners sing in chorus during the opening of Act Two in the Tony-Award-winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. And it’s true more than a half of a dozen family members have already been dispatched in the first act alone. But this query can be little more than a rhetorical over-simplification of the play’s classic Shakespearean plot. When young Monty Navarro learns he is no mere Navarro …
Review: School of Rock by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on February 17, 2018
School of Rock is cast pitch perfect, and it's a refreshing break to see a show that is all about having fun and sticking it to the man.
“It’s called growing up, you should try it.” So, says Patty to Dewey Finn, an out of work rock and roll singer and guitarist. Dewey’s just been fired from his last band and has been sponging of Patty’s boyfriend Ned Schneebly, his old, loyal friend and former bandmate. Dewey is at rock bottom, so he does what’s only natural for him: he tries to find a way to sink lower. This he does by stealing …
Review: The King and I by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on December 16, 2017
The stage is set, the fog rolls in, the lights fade up from murky to dim to sensual and then the music explodes, cinematic and powerful. The audience is whisked not only across the globe but deep into the past.
The stage is set, the fog rolls in, the lights fade up from murky to dim to sensual and then the music explodes. Music that can be best described as cinematic and powerful. The mood has been crystalized: it’s like a black and white film come to life. A lone ship crosses the sea, seemingly sneaking into the harbor like a cat owning a midnight alley. We can feel the passengers' tension almost as …
Review: Phantom of the Opera by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on April 28, 2017
By bringing each scene to a towering set in the middle of the stage, the director and designers show characters essentially trapped like mice by a prowling Phantom who may appear any place at any time. Yet this setting is intimate and realistic, even gritty.
The play begins with a count-down. An auctioneer’s resonant bellow calls out various lot numbers. The numbers eerily foreshadow as we approach the dreaded lot 666: a once shattered chandelier from what “some of you may recall the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained.” The chandelier has been fully restored for the auction and before the people’s eyes it bursts into life, rising phoenix-like to the ceiling and …
Review: The Illusionists - Live from Broadway by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on November 02, 2016
I want to gush about it and tell the reader everything I saw but I don’t want to give away any spoilers. And let’s face it, when you are talking about illusions with stunning conclusions everything is a spoiler. The show is amazing from start to finish
This exhilarating, dynamic and nearly flawless magical variety show from Broadway is both very easy and difficult to review. The difficult part is simple to explain: I want to gush about it and tell the reader everything I saw but I don’t want to give away any spoilers. And let’s face it, when you are talking about illusions with stunning conclusions everything is a spoiler. The easy part, as you would expect from a professional …
Review: Chicago
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 21, 2014
An enthusiastic voice behind us as we exited Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas last night: "That was nothing like the movie!" Live performance, even in the cavernous space of the Bass, can seize your attention and send your heart racing in ways that no flat screen image ever can. And that's what happens in the 15th (annual?) tour of Chicago, playing in Austin through this coming Sunday. The story is familiar and, frankly, banal, a …