Who needs Venice? Like that lovely city, Phoenix may, if Dr. Nan Ellin and her students have their way, be fronted by waterways one day soon. The exhibit “Canalscape for Metro Phoenix” proposes the re-creation of Phoenix’s most vital urban hubs, where our canals meet major streets. It’s an adventurous…
If you’ve ever driven along Indian School Road, just east of Seventh Street, you may have noticed the wacky birdhouses displayed on a long, low bench outside the little strip mall on the 1100 block. They’re a startlingly colorful exhibit on a rather bleak stretch of road, their wavy-walled, peak-roofed…
The Smell of the Kill is an awful name for a play, especially one as smartly written as Michele Lowe’s tart black comedy, now on display at Algonquin Theater in Peoria. The story concerns three 21st-century wives stuck in pre-feminist marriages; each has a husband who’s lacking in some real…
Everyone is plotzing because Marlo Thomas is coming to town to do an Arizona Theatre Company play, but how about this? That play, George Is Dead, was written and directed by Elaine May. Hello! Elaine May! As in Elaine May and Mike Nichols. As in Heaven Can Wait and The…
Who needs Venice? Like that lovely city, Phoenix may, if Dr. Nan Ellin and her students have their way, be fronted by waterways one day soon. The new exhibit “Canalscape for Metro Phoenix” proposes the re-creation of Phoenix’s most vital urban hubs, where our canals meet major streets. It’s an…
The only thing better than a play by Douglas Carter Beane is a play by Douglas Carter Beane — the author of As Bees in Honey Drown, the Broadway musical Xanadu, and the movie To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar — presented by Nearly Naked Theatre. Therefore, the…
Your husband sucks. So do the husbands of your two best girlfriends (whom you actually don’t know all that well, and aren’t sure you even like). Yours has been busted for embezzling money from his employer and has taken up hunting, leaving bloody deer carcasses in your basement. One of…
Who needs Venice? Like that lovely city, Phoenix may, if Dr. Nan Ellin and her students have their way, be fronted by waterways one day soon. The new exhibit “Canalscape for Metro Phoenix” proposes the re-creation of Phoenix’s most vital urban hubs, where our canals meet major streets. It’s an…
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s creationist comedy about the end of the world is, excuse the pun, built for disaster. Apocalyptic commentaries on theories of evolution tend not to go over big, and Boom is as funny as it is smart — always a dangerous combination when one is attempting to entertain…
For fans of Eames chairs, nylon Frieze, and built-in blond-wood cabinetry, the title says it all: “Modernism Revisited: An Exploration of Iconic Mid-Century Furniture, Interiors and Textiles.” For the rest of us, it bears mentioning that this exhibition surveys the work of graphic, industrial, and interior designers and architects –…
You think you know some scary people, but you haven’t met Screwtape. He and his nasty nephew — both demons in the literal sense — are out to get our hero, a fellow known only as The Patient, in Jeffrey Finske and Max McLean’s funny, supersnarky translation of C.S. Lewis’s…
Jules is a guy looking for a quickie. But be forewarned: If you want to hook up with him, you have to do it in his subterranean biology lab. That’s because Jules, the lead science nerd in Actors Theatre’s Boom, is a marine biologist. When Jo, a female journalism student,…
The Kite Runner has finally received the adaptation it deserves. Its Arizona Theater Company production, now flying high at the Herberger, trumps the inferior 2007 film version of Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel, thanks to a faithful translation by playwright Matthew Spangler and graceful direction by ATC’s artist director David Ira…
Most of us know one: a clever 20-something who dresses exclusively in vintage clothing, listens to big-band music, and is obsessed with Joan Leslie films. And now, playwright Kim Porter has written a musical about these roadster-driving coolios. Blue Galaxy concerns lovely Lana, who wants desperately to find romance with…
Global elite, beware: David Icke is coming to town. The British author, public speaker, and conspiracy theorist has spent the past two decades profiling, for our benefit, the organizations that are controlling the world. The former soccer player and sports announcer has uncovered, in 20 different books, ways in which…
The worst part was the cheering. On the other hand, there wasn’t much to love about that particular Sunday morning in the first place. It was hot out, of course, and we were all standing in tight little crowds, a hundred or so strong, on oily stretches of concrete. Making…
National Coming Out Day is an annual opportunity for gay people who have been pretending to be heterosexual to stop lying about themselves and announce their proclivities to the world. Typically, what they do instead is get loaded and attend an umpteenth drag show at a gay bar. This year,…
Apparently, the Pilgrims did more than wear buckle shoes and funny hats and forge friendships with Native Americans. Who were they, exactly, and how pure were they? In her new book, The Wordy Shipmates, author Sarah Vowell, funny-voiced contributor to National Public Radio’s This American Life and author of Take…
David Vining is many things: theater director, dialect coach, university professor. In Stray Cat Theater’s new production of Blackbird, Vining reminds us that he’s also a fine actor. His rather estimable job in this one-act, written by David Harrower and directed by Stray Cat founder Ron May, is to create…
The word “hero” is too often bandied about, but when distinguished author Jon Krakauer (Into the Wild, Into Thin Air) writes a book about Pat Tillman and refers to him as a war hero, one takes notice. In Krakauer’s new book, Where Men Win Glory, the author draws on the…
The good news is that the theater season has officially commenced. The better news is that Stray Cat Theatre is kicking things off with David Harrower’s controversial Blackbird, recipient of the 2007 Olivier Award for Best New Play and featured on many American and London theater critics’ Top 10 lists…
If, as the saying goes, no news is good news, then this year’s theater season is nothing but good news. Great news, in fact, for those of us who don’t like our plays and musicals to do much of anything new or different. Magnificent news for anyone worried that local…
