Recent Reviews
Review: Again - Family, Friends and Lovers by Exchange Artists
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 21, 2016
AGAIN shows the sustaining power of the narrative. Telling and enacting stories strikes deeply into the lives of attendees. Skip the self-therapy and proceed straight to self-knowledge.
Again…Family, Friends, and Lovers, Exchange Artists’ latest offering, promises to become another of their innovative series.Rachel Wiese, Katherine Craft, and Bridget Farr are the company's trio of producing artists. Singly or together they propose and produce a show or series for the company. Farr is the lead producer for the Again series and has brought to the stage a deeply thoughtful and original production full of artistry and talented actors, storytellers, and writers. The …
Review: Salomé by Gale Theatre Company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 19, 2016
Salomé is not some kind of cold calculating Disneyesque villain out for revenge. She is a person. A woman. A little girl. She is a torrent of true and visceral emotion. She is a queen and a pawn in her own life.
“Never Felt So Near” Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, but practically used as both a greeting and a farewell (none too distant from the Arabic word for peace: salaam, also used for hello and goodbye), is derived from the same root word as the name of the real-life and biblical character Salomé. Named for peace, Salomé is recorded both by history and the Bible as a person not known for it. She is …
Review: Evita by Woodlawn Theatre
by Kurt Gardner
Published on August 16, 2016
The Woodlawn production directed by Christopher Rodriguez is virtually flawless.
Evita is one of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s best musicals, and certainly one of their most enduring. The story of a woman who used her body (and any other means at her disposal) to achieve fame and power, it also presents audiences with a moral dilemma. Are we meant to cheer for someone who relied on such unscrupulous means to achieve her success? The answer is both yes and no, as the musical gives …
Review (#2 of 2): POSTVILLE by Don Fried, Last Act Theater Company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 06, 2016
POSTVILLE is a very American story with a very real origin in America’s heartland. Everyone involved has given it a beautiful and brief life at the Trinity Street Theatre. Do not miss it.
Finding Heart in America’s Heartland The opening scene is quaint, peaceful and idyllic: a café on a nearly deserted main street of small town America. The locals slowly occupy the rocking chairs and tiny tables waiting both patiently and impatiently for the succor of their morning coffees. The inevitable weather conversations begin along with a re-hash of the past year’s events. Past year because it seems only a few events happen a year …
Review: Mary Poppins by Zach Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 05, 2016
As director Dave Steakley muses in his production notes: Mary Poppins lives in a fantasy world, and the point of visiting her is to forget your cares in the real world. And there is nothing wrong with that.
“First of all let me make one thing quite clear… I never explain anything.” Perhaps my favorite line from the musical Mary Poppins, this classic one liner of delightful irony sums up the story of a magical nanny who descends from the sky to teach two unruly children (and their parents) the true meaning of family. Many things in the story are non-linear and silly for silliness sake: Any part of …
Review (#1 of 2): POSTVILLE by Don Fried, Last Act Theater Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on July 31, 2016
Postville emphasizes that sources of refuge and support often lie across religions, across cultures, across voting lines, across the tracks, and sometimes just in the rocking chairs along Main Street.
The latest production of Last Act Theatre Company involves life in a small town in Iowa, based on actual events in the 1990s. Named for the town, the play Postville captures many of the events, some characters, and almost all of the feelings of the time when Hasidic Jews arrived in Postville to purchase and reopen a meatpacking plant for marketing of kosher meats. The closed plant had been the only realistic source of employment …