Self Reflection

In 1966, proto-performance artist, Kendrick Washington, stood before an audience in Los Angeles’s Coronet Theater and held up a large mirror, aimed at the crowd. For an hour. Washington’s “performance” ended when an audience member (one of the few who remained) threw a shoe that busted the actor’s mirror. The...

By Robrt L. Pela

February 18, 2010

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In 1966, proto-performance artist, Kendrick Washington, stood before an audience in Los Angeles’s Coronet Theater and held up a large mirror, aimed at the crowd. For an hour. Washington’s “performance” ended when an audience member (one of the few who remained) threw a shoe that busted the actor’s mirror.

The response to Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen’s [title of show] has been better -- perhaps because the playwrights and performers involved in this production are holding up a mirror to themselves. A figurative mirror, that is, as [title of show] is a musical about two New York songwriters who are writing a new musical about two New York songwriters who are writing a new musical. The show wowed Broadway audiences and critics last fall, and ought to go over well with Phoenix crowds, as well: the Arizona Theater Company version is staged by the same team that created ATC’s acclaimed adaptation Hair from last season.

Feb. 18-March 7, 2010

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