Recent Reviews
Review (#2 of 2): A Bright New Boise by Samuel D. Hunter, Playhouse San Antonio Cellar, December 29, 2017 - January 21, 2018
by Kurt Gardner
Published on January 06, 2018
Well-performed by a solid cast, A BRIGHT NEW BOISE in the Cellar Theatre at Playhouse San Antonio effectively blends comedy with darker themes.
** Note: contains spoilers ** Winner of the 2011 Obie Award for Playwriting, Samuel D. Hunter’s ironically-titled A Bright New Boise centers on the lives of a group of employees working dead-end jobs at a nondescript Idaho craft store. Well-performed by a solid cast, it effectively blends comedy with darker themes. The piece opens with Pauline (Meredith Bell Alvarez), the store’s foul-mouthed and volatile manager, interviewing new arrival Will (George Green) for a …
Review: A Bright New Boise by Playhouse San Antonio
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 04, 2018
George Green's finely tuned, deeply felt performance as the lonely, vulnerable Will demonstrates his concentration in a self-effacing portrayal of deep emotion. Those of us who knew the artistic director only from news reports and Playhouse communications can now feel that we've seen the man.
This is the break room at the Hobby Lobby in Boise, Idaho. Never mind that it doesn't exist -- there's a Hobby Lobby seven miles away in Meridian and another twenty miles away in Nampay -- but in A Bright New Boise you're not in Idaho at all. You're in the vast loneliness of America's small towns. Playwright Samuel D. Hunter uses the emptiness of franchised America as a metaphor for the connections that …
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Review: A Charlie Brown Christmas by Magik Theatre
by Kurt Gardner
Published on December 26, 2017
Directed with flair by Magik Theatre artistic director Frances Limoncelli, this production is entertaining for nostalgia-seeking adults as well as their young children.
“Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you’re the Charlie Browniest.” So proclaims Linus to the downtrodden title character in the opening scene of A Charlie Brown Christmas, produced by the Magik Theatre and playing at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre. To have such well-known animated characters portrayed by actual human actors requires some cunning, and this delightful production manages to pull it off with a high degree of ingenuity. For example, to indicate the size differential …
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: Pocatello by Street Corner Arts
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 14, 2017
Carlo Lorenzo Garcia's performance as Eddie is nuanced and riveting, an ache of tightly controlled emotion. It belongs on any of the "best of" lists drawn up for 2017-2018.
From Street Corner Arts' publicity photos for Pocatello you might think that this was going to be a story of a big Italilan family dinner. Lots of discussion, acrimony, anger, maybe even flying plates -- a nightmare over turkey and dressing. A sort of modern-day Sopranos translated to the barren plains of Idaho. You'd be wrong. Way wrong. Samuel D. Hunter's work concerns not a single quarreling family but three. Yes, the stories overlap and …
Review: The Brutes by Theatre Synesthesia
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 06, 2017
Playwright Casey Wimpee has a lot of exposition and an armload of characters to present, and his meta- approach to the material doesn't make it any easier. This confident and capable cast included faces new to me.
Playwright Casey Wimpee found an extravagant gang whose story begged to be told: the Booth family of mid-19th-century Maryland, which included the three illegitimate sons and a daughter of the august Shakespearian William Junius Booth, Sr. After you see the staging by Austin's Theatre Synesthesia in the cramped but welcoming locale of the Back Pack on east Cesar Chavez, you may well be tempted to spend some time on Wikipedia, verifying details and anecdotes. …