In most corners, there’s something missing from the current and seemingly endless debate over illegal immigration: Brown faces. Stories of struggle. Real insight into the lives of the people involved in this crisis. But not in Terry Greene Sterling’s new book, which author Paul Perry has referred to as “the…
Sunnyslope Mountain. Phoenix Financial Center. Phoenix Towers. The Bikini Lounge. If it’s in Phoenix and it’s a building and it’s even a little bit pretty, artist Jason Hill has captured it in brightly inked three-color screen prints. And, amazingly, he makes it look spectacular. Don’t believe us? Head straight for…
It’s late to be further bemoaning the state of the American musical. Like it or not, staged musicalizations of popular motion pictures have become a genre of their own, and a staple at little theaters like Scottsdale’s Desert Stages. I attended this company’s mainstage production of The Wedding Singer with…
Parno Graszt, in Romani, means “white horse,” a symbol of purity and freedom in Hungarian culture. The band that uses this name takes its moniker seriously, using acoustic guitars, tamboura, the double bass, and various kitchen implements including spoons, a milk jug, and a water can to create the freest,…
It’s likely that no one cares that one of the props used in FrogWoman, a new play by Theatre In My Basement founder Chris Danowski, is a device made with the 9Kv/15A transformer from an oil-fired boiler; has a power-surge relay override; two eighteen-inch, six-gauge copper electrodes; and is built…
Last August, I bought a car with a sun roof. No big deal for most people, but for someone like me, who loathes the sun and hates nothing more than climbing into the toaster oven that every automobile becomes in the summer, it wasn’t my wisest move. (Before you condemn…
My husband is a piano teacher. Ninety percent of his students are children, and while I trust that playwright Rod Hayward has created a sincere portrait of the student-teacher relationship in his Living in the Spaces, I can tell you this: While Hubby has occasionally marveled over the arpeggios of…
The heck with Toy Story 3. Some of us know what an IMAX theater is really good for: Opera. And so, we’re flocking to AMC Desert Ridge (or one of five other local movie houses) on Thursday, July 15, to listen to Franco Zeffirelli’s classic production of Puccini’s masterpiece, La…
I’ve obviously seen too many gangster movies. Either that, or I’ve lived in Phoenix too long. Because when the Knipe House burst into flames a couple of weeks ago, I hollered, “I knew it!” So did my friend Kim Kasper. Kim, like me, is a building hugger. One of the…
Art as violence. Not a very pretty picture. But Bela Fidel wasn’t aspiring to beauty in the pieces that make up her new el Pedregal show, “The World at Ground Zero.” The artist, born and art-educated in Brazil, meant instead to depict the horror she and the rest of us…
Remember when “hoarder” was a word one only heard when talk turned to rodents and wildlife? When a pack rat was the crazy old guy at the end of the block who never threw away his newspaper? Today, hoarders and pack rats are entertainment–and, if some of the items on…
I worry about my interest in hoarders. They are, as the stars of reality shows like A&E’s Hoarders and TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive, the latest in a long line of Americans–right after celebrity drug addicts, obese weight-loss competitors, and tone-deaf teenagers who think they can sing–who are being exploited for…
Architecture fans, Phoenix historians, and horror movie enthusiasts are resting easier these days: The Luhrs block has been spared. Built by the German-immigrant Luhrs family, the block — bounded by Central and First Avenues, and Jefferson and Madison streets — has been home to the gorgeous 10-story Luhrs Building at…
There’s a song in George Reinblatt’s Evil Dead: The Musical called “What the Fuck Was That?” that captures perfectly the sort of post-camp fun that this show offers. The tune, about a zombie attack on a bunch of college kids trapped in a backwoods cabin, does precisely what one wants…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the state of camp. I recently reviewed Evil Dead: The Musical, a satirical musical based on a series of movies that parody the horror film genre. In other words, I was watching a spoof of a spoof. And while I was entertained, I…
Ever since the ‘70s, Béla Fleck has been obsessed with the banjo. (He introduced its twangy sound into jazz, pop, classical, and world music.) His passion for the instrument has snagged him 20 Grammy nominations in more distinct categories than any other recording artist in the history of the award…
My memory of Pioneer Living History Museum is that it smelled like horse poop. But when I visited recently, it smelled like summer in the desert: cactus-y and arid and oppressive. I also remembered being bored at Pioneer when I’d visited before, and was surprised to find it kind of…
If Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights is remembered more for the giant box of awards it’s amassed, it’s not because its story is dreary or forgettable. It’s just that In the Heights — which won the the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as for Best Music and…
Nighthawks, that famous Edward Hopper painting depicting a mostly empty, big city street-corner diner, has inspired songs, short stories, and now a play. Alan Austin’s Podski’s Hole imagines the possibilities in pairing a real-life Average Joe with the characters from a renowned painting, who’ve magically escaped its canvas and are…
A naked septuagenarian stuffs a boiled egg into his left armpit. A woman wearing plastic butterfly wings reads a dour poem, then torches a five-dollar bill. Three drunk guys shave off one another’s body hair. This is Space 55 Theatre’s Seven Minutes in Heaven, a collection of unvetted short skits,…
There’s good news for those of us who can’t bear to wait to find out who won Best Lighting Design of a Musical or Best Scenic Design of a Play: ASU Gammage, in conjunction with Tony Award Productions, is presenting the Live Tony Viewing Party. The event, often called the…
I’ve been dining at this cheesy Italian cafe a lot lately. The service is slow and the lasagna is runny and the placemats are paper, but I’ve become a regular all the same — because they serve frozen sangria. No apologies. I’ve lived in Phoenix for nearly a half-century, and…
