The grainy images are both utterly mundane and deeply disturbing. They flicker past silently; the soundtrack to this short movie is long lost. Yet there’s a soundless wail of horror behind these simple scenes — of a group of men erecting a low, tarpaper-covered building; a woman hanging laundry; a…
Proof: Fountain Hills Community Theatre leapt to the fore and rescued Is What It Is Theatre’s doomed swan song after its own theater space was sold out from under the troupe. The result is a short, single-weekend run of David Auburn’s family drama, which takes its name from a mathematical…
I Do! I Do! is a musical with a beard a mile long, which is almost certainly why it’s part of Theater Works’ summer stock season. This 20-year-old troupe caters mostly to the blue-hairs of Sun City, where “risky” means any show in which someone turns up in a peignoir…
You thought high school theater teachers spent their summers far from the madding crowd, but you were wrong. Jennifer E. Ruddle, who instructs budding thespians at Glendale’s Sandra Day O’Connor High School, is proof that theater profs stick to the stage, even in their off-hours; she spent her summer directing…
Deb Baker swears it’s a coincidence that her newest murder mystery, Dolled Up for Murder — her second for Berkley Books — is set in Phoenix. From her home in Wisconsin, the author says she didn’t even know there were serial killers here, and insists there’s nothing so odd about…
West Side Story: This deeply sincere take on Arthur Laurents’ landmark musical thankfully never tries to impersonate the movie version, which is what audiences who attend West Side Story often want. Instead, Desert Stages’ Sharks and Jets dance like kids actually might if they were trapped in Hell’s Kitchen and…
1740 The first version of Beauty and the Beast, by Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve, appears. Villeneuve’s version doesn’t end with the transformation of the Prince, who remains ugly — and grumpy about it, too. 1756 A newer, more cautionary (and much more sexist) version of the tale by Madame Le…
I’ve nearly recovered from having seen a dinner theater production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in east Mesa last week. My headache, which began shortly after Anthony Majewski began singing, is almost gone. My stomachache (which wasn’t caused by anything I ate, since I skipped the dinner portion of…
This ravenous raven has been wing-deep in tears since it learned that its all-time favorite eatery — Stacy’s, at 1153 East Jefferson Street — was being forced to leave its home of seven years, de-nested on far too short notice. Owned and operated by chef Stacy Phipps and family, the…
One produces or appears in West Side Story at one’s own risk, and not only because it’s trotted out with the frequency of a Seattle rain shower. Most folks coming to see the Arthur Laurents/Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim classic are fans of the famous film, and illogically expect to be taken…
Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: These adapted adventures feature music and lyrics by Roger Miller and a book by William Hauptman, but retain Mark Twain’s deeply moral depictions of the 19th-century social tapestry. Twain scholars probably don’t head for dinner theaters often, but those who do in this…
Any second now, the nice folks over at the ariZoni Awards will start handing out bowling trophies to anyone who’s come within three feet of a theater stage this season. Therefore, welcome to the Second Annual Robbie Awards, which celebrate actual accomplishments — and acknowledge some really low points —…
Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: These adapted adventures feature music and lyrics by Roger Miller and a book by William Hauptman, but retain Mark Twain’s deeply moral depictions of the 19th-century social tapestry. Twain scholars probably don’t head for dinner theaters often, but those who do in this…
June 1969 Tommy, a double-album rock opera by The Who, is released. At first banned by the BBC and certain U.S. radio stations (probably because of the child abuse that features so prominently in its story), it eventually reaches #4 on the U.S. Billboard album charts and #2 in the…
Before I tell you why and how quickly you should go to see Nearly Naked Theater’s nearly perfect (and almost entirely clad!) production of The Who’s Tommy, I had better come clean: I don’t like modern dance. All that flailing and hopping and mimicking of shape and form; all that…
By now, if you follow the news, you’ve no doubt heard of Lawrence R. Pargo, a.k.a. The Poor Kid Who Police Claim Was Driving a Hyundai at 147 Freaking Miles Per Hour. But for all you cave-dwellers out there, here’s the recap: Scottsdale PD arrested Pargo, 26, in late May…
Leesa Stuck’s house is where birds go to kill themselves. “They fly directly into the glass walls,” Stuck says, pointing a bare foot at one of the several floor-to-ceiling windows in her Paradise Valley home. “Mostly sparrows. You know, the little brown kind. They don’t know about glass. They’re just…
The hell with whistle-blowing! The Bird is squawking loud and clear on behalf of workers who toil on the printing presses at Phoenix Newspapers (the company responsible for inking the Arizona Republic), who are being forced to work triple shifts — or else. That’s almost 24 hours straight, folks. And…
Trainspotting: The heck with rehab. Anyone wanting to kick narcotics addiction should just go see this gloriously ugly production of Harry Gibson’s meditation on addiction’s dark night. The play, based on the Irvine Welsh novel and best known from director Danny Boyle’s popular 1996 film adaptation, is really just a…
A friend and I have resolved that this will be the first summer of our lives during which we never once complain about the heat. Each of us has spent our lives here in the desert, and both of us are champion whiners — she about injustices against children and…
First, the accolades: Arizona Theatre Company’s production of Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays With Morrie is nearly perfect. Its actors turn in superb performances; its stage design is magnificent; its director, Samantha K. Wyer, brings subtleties to its simple, sad, two-character story. Which all leads to Morrie’s working so beautifully on the…
Keystone Klowns Who needs Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey when Maricopa County’s got its own version of the Insane Clown Posse on call, 24/7? Yep, these clowns wear brown instead of round red noses and greasepaint, and they’ve even got shiny badges instead of water-spittin’ daisies on their shirts!…
