I saw Arizona Theatre Company’s production of Anna in the Tropics with a second-weekend audience, having missed its opening night. Second-weekenders are a tough crowd, harder to entertain; first-nighters are there as much for the schmoozing as for what’s up on stage. And so the warm reception given by these…
Ah, downtown Phoenix. Home to Bank One Ballpark, the famous Luhrs Building, that stunningly awful Patriots Park. It’s a tangle of high- and low-rise construction that has — dare I say it? — risen from the ashes of its former run-down self, reborn as a burgeoning almost-metropolis that might someday…
Being thankful isn’t enough. We — every one of us fortunate enough to be alive during this scary, exciting time — want dessert besides. We want this Thanksgiving to be about pie, not about gratitude for our diminished waistlines. It’s been more than a year since low-carb guru Robert Atkins…
I got another piece of hate mail the other day — this one from some sniffy playwright whose musical I’d recently panned. Mr. How Dare You ended his pissy missive (which, as usual, was filled with reasons I should be murdered in my sleep) with, “I’d like to see you…
What are the chances that Nearly Naked Theatre will continue to rack up winners with its string of subversive, complex plays? I’ve watched as small companies have managed a handful of hits with cute musicals and Neil Simon revivals, and seen my share of avant-garde troupes wither and die after…
Those of us who have been bemoaning the state of the Union lately have clearly lost sight of the great bounty America offers. We live in a land where a block of Styrofoam is also a sofa; where chairs can be made of wicker; and a dining table is built…
When Bert Parks sang “There she goes . . .” about Ms. Senior America, he might well have meant it. The contestants at this pageant are judged on beauty, poise and continence. Insert other cheesy old-lady-pageant joke of your choice here. But seriously, folks, this Ms. Senior America stuff is…
Stray Cat Theatre has made a name for itself by mounting dicey material and testing untried plays by unknown authors, nearly always triumphantly. And so I wasn’t at all surprised to leave [sic], Stray Cat’s latest offering, completely charmed and still chuckling as I drove away. [sic] (the title is…
It’s Arizona’s high standards that are screwing us. At least that’s what Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is saying about Arizona’s abysmal ranking in a national education study released last month. In Morgan Quitno’s annual Education State Rankings report, Arizona ranked 48th, just above Nevada and New Mexico. But…
Debbie Does Dallas is coming to town, but her prospective admirers can leave their raincoats at home. The musical version of this infamous blue movie is not so naughty that it might attract the vice squad — although the recently formed Artists’ Theatre Project is hoping the show’s notorious name…
You know it’s November when Circle K starts carrying eggnog, and you know some theater troupe is in a pinch when it announces a last-minute production of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters, that perennial stage substitute that audiences love and anyone with the slightest bit of sense runs screaming from. Love…
If you believe what you’ve read about Donald Harris, he’s little more than a loudmouth crackpot out for retribution –and maybe a little tail on the side. The Democratic candidate for Maricopa County Attorney has barreled through his campaign without an endorsement from his party, dodging accusations that he’s a…
Note to the next person to answer a cell phone call during a theater performance at which I am present: Enjoy your telephone conversation, because it will be your last. I will personally murder you with my bare hands at intermission. If you somehow evade me before Act Two commences,…
Poor Dion Johnson. Surrounded by other “actors,” he’s nonetheless left all alone to make his way through two acts of The Elephant Man. That he turns in a spectacular performance and walks off with every minute of the show would be more impressive if he happened to share the stage…
Once upon a time, eighth graders bought pot from classmates and smoked it right on school grounds, with barely a glance over their shoulders. Today, thanks to hyper-conservative “zero tolerance” rules, kids don’t dare carry a couple of aspirins to school for fear of expulsion. Just ask 13-year-old Hayley Hoffman,…
The nice folks at the Shakespeare Theatre have had the courage and temerity to attempt playwright Peter Weiss’ The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. It is, as you might imagine from…
When the presidential debate rolls into Tempe next week, Yaser Alamoodi, a 27-year-old political science major from Saudi Arabia, almost certainly won’t be in attendance. And not just because Arizona State University, which is hosting the event, is limiting the number of seats available to ASU students. Apparently, because he’s…
I had a friendly e-mail from Wes Martin the other day. Normally, theater people only write to tell me that I’m profoundly fucked up and need to be fired, but Wes, who’s the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre, was writing to tell me how much he admires theater critics…
Sit down with a couple of anti-Bush artist/activists and a pro-Bush children’s book author, and you get what you play for: lots of debate about politics, war, and the election, and not so much about artistic motivation or choice of medium. At least Emma Kratz, whose new single, “You’re Going…
What good is sitting alone in your room when you can go watch the folks at Phoenix Theatre flog another famous musical to death? Cabaret is PT’s latest awkward attempt to look like a professional theater company without offering anything inventive or genuine. Art usually loses out over artifice at…
The world is bursting with people who would just as soon jack off as get laid, so it’s no surprise that, for some folks, pretend awards programs are just as valuable as those that actually honor talent and achievement. For people who’ve spent their whole lives fantasizing about giving a…
Runways during Manhattan’s Fashion Week were clogged with gauzy blouses and underskirts made of mosquito netting — perhaps in preparation for a global version of the West Nile epidemic that’s currently doing big business in the Valley. Will Humble, bureau chief of the Arizona Department of Health Services, swears that…
