The Fright Stuff

There’s nothing disturbing about ASU’s Lyric Opera Theatre production of The Turn of the Screw. The cast performs competently. The costumes and set work to good advantage. The orchestral score is wonderful to follow. Honest, it’s nothing to get alarmed about. But that’s the scariest part–because this is supposed to…

Children of a Loesser God

Director-choreographer Michael Barnard, who has helmed a disproportionately high percentage of the Valley’s most successful theatrical endeavors over the years, rarely takes chances when it comes to casting, especially for a musical. So it’s no surprise that he’s managed to attract the best available performers for Perfectly Frank, a fast-paced…

Wood Stock

For those who have never sampled the weird delights of Ed Wood’s filmmaking, the auteur’s entire “legitimate” (that is, pre-porno) feature canon is available on video. Any of his movies are worth a look for connaisieurs of the bizarre, although only two–Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer…

The Abominable Showman

If the life of filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr., were fiction, set down more or less as Wood’s cronies tell it, it would be hailed as the great Hollywood satire. It would seem like a creation of Nathaniel West, had he survived until the Fifties, or of Tom Robbins, had…