David Mamet’s American Buffalo is that rare, much-loved play that seems never to age or grow threadbare, no matter how often it’s produced. And it’s produced rather frequently. Directed by the company’s Michael Peck, the story chronicles three small-time crooks who are after a man’s coin collection, which contains a…
It’s unfortunate that Ellen Snortland’s Now That She’s Gone: Unraveling the Mystery of My Mother is so often compared to the work of Lily Tomlin and Garrison Keillor — not because those folks have been working at writing and performing for decades longer than Snortland, but because Snortland’s piece is…
I found that if I squinted, I could pretend I was watching a master acting class led by thespian Debra K. Stevens, and not a failed production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers. It was easy to keep this little fantasy going because Stevens — who’s playing the lead in Nearly…
Editor’s note: This begins an occasional series about Van Buren Street. I’m obsessed with Van Buren Street. I spend way too much time thinking about this once-bustling thoroughfare, which rather quickly became — and stayed — a miles-long punch line to a joke about how Phoenix is a town that…
The exhibit “Geoffrey Beene: Trapeze” is neither a fashion show nor a high-wire act. It’s a tribute to the pioneering fashion designer who turned dressmaking into a high art. Beene, who died in 2004, was often criticized for his irreverent designs and sharply tailored men’s suits. Among his many champions…
Boo. Okay, so Medea’s Ghost isn’t that kind of ghost. It is, instead, a world premiere of a new play by Arizona playwright Micki Shelton contains, according to the firm disclaimers issued by Theatre Artists Studio, “mature themes and adult content.” Sounds promising. So does the synopsis, which promises a…
I don’t exercise. And I don’t mean I’ve allowed my membership to the gym to expire. I’m not talking about how I should really increase the distance I jog every other day, or that the daily “fun” activities I’ve planned to increase my heart rate have lately gotten too easy…
Those of us who get our kicks collecting recordings of people who can’t sing (my current fave: Telly Savalas’ 1975 vinyl opus Who Loves Ya, Baby?) already knew about Florence Foster Jenkins, a tone deaf old songbird beloved by fans of the absurd. And those of us who’ve seen Stephen…
It’s called the Melrose Crawl, but it’s neither a groovy new dance nor a limb affliction. It is, instead, a monthly evening of nighttime shopping in downtown’s most vintage-centric district: Seventh Avenue between Camelback and Indian School roads. Some wise marketing soul nicknamed this strip of land “Melrose,” and now,…
In an early nod to Black History Month, Black Theatre Troupe is presenting Jeff Stetson’s riveting Fathers and Other Strangers this week and next. Stetson’s story, about a Black everyman who struggles to stand as a worthwhile example for his son, details the legacy of a faceless victim of America’s…
If there’s a moral to David Barker’s Dodging Bullets, playing again (hurray!) at ASU for one night only (boo!), it probably has something to do with being careful what one wishes for. Barker meant to spend his 2004 sabbatical from ASU (where he teaches in the Theater Arts Department) developing…
Things were not going well. I was at a holiday party, and people were doing that thing where they try to get me to talk about theater. Mostly, when this happens, it’s because people assume that I want to chat about shows I have seen or am about to see…
It’s safe to say that Americans have made as much as we can of the construct of the “dysfunctional family,” and can now officially stop talking and writing about fucked-up families and move on to some other annoying form of navel-gazing. Perhaps as our sendoff, we can all go see…
Nothing says “holiday season” quite like an African-American, pistol-toting gramma with attitude. Or so says Tyler Perry, who’s taken his fictional matriarch, Madea, on the road for the first time in five years. The 40-year-old playwright and filmmaker is reprising the character – whose full name is Mabel Simmons and…
My spouse and I recently invited 2,000 strangers into our home. Friends roll their eyes when I admit this, but for me, the only weird part about throwing open our home to thousands of visitors was that so many of them felt compelled to peek inside our clothes closet. Our…
It’s not about man-on-man action anymore. In order to truly be gay, it appears, a homosexual man must name a “diva” – a famous female performer – with whom he feels a special connection. Ours is Cher, the 1960s bad girl Cher, with the bangs and the eyeliner, who recorded…
The irony in the failure of Stray Cat Theatre’s current production of Speech & Debate is that it falls short largely because its lead actors are so adept at playing infuriating teenagers. After close to two hours of hand-wringing and anguish from Stephen Karam’s trio of peculiar pubescents, their audience…
Apparently some misguided fans of Stray Cat Theatre have been heading for the flashy new Tempe Center for the Arts, rather than the older Tempe Performing Arts Center, in search of this kicky troupe’s oddball entertainments. This month, those folks will want to take note: head to the former home…
There’s a big plaster duck in the driveway of Rick Orr’s mobile home. If you know Rick Orr, you know this can’t possibly be just any plaster duck; it’s almost certainly one of the world’s rarest plaster ducks, probably worth tens of thousands of dollars and crafted by some dead…
Novelist Zachary Lazar has a reporter’s heart. In Evening’s Empire, a Phoenix-centric account of the murder of his father, Lazar sets out to tell yet another of our town’s stories of corruption and killing — this one a tale close to Lazar’s heart, as it involves the murder of his…
Just when you thought it was safe to keep a secret, Frank Warren turns up with another of his PostSecret books. Warren, “the most trusted stranger in America,” has just published PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God, his fifth collection of arty postcards from around the world on which…
Oh, dear. And I was so looking forward to seeing Elaine May’s new comedy, too. Most of the rest of you — those of you unfortunate enough to have gone to see this dismal flop at Arizona Theater Company earlier this week or last —were probably more interested in seeing…
