The setup: For several if not most of the past 17 years, Black Theatre Troupe presented Langston Hughes’ seminal 1961 pageant Black Nativity as its Christmas show. I never got to see it, but I hear it’s rather awesome, and now it’s a Major Motion Picture. Meanwhile, BTT is premièring…
The setup: Orange Theatre Group has been working since last summer to develop an experimental theater production inspired by Federico García Lorca’s 1933 play Blood Wedding. The show is about two-thirds complete, and that two-thirds is a stunning (yet appropriately bizarre) event that’s quite unlikely to be much like anything…
If you’re like my family and me, then seeing The Nutcracker is a holiday tradition. The score is as familiar as Christmas carols, and the story as well known as a favorite bedtime book. And if you go to Ballet Arizona’s Nutcracker looking to witness the magic of the Nutcracker…
If you’re like my family and me, then The Nutcracker is a holiday tradition. The score is as familiar as classic Christmas carols, and the story as well known as a favorite bedtime book. And if you go to Ballet Arizona’s Nutcracker looking to witness the magic of the Nutcracker…
Though the story of Frances Smith Cohen’s The Snow Queen isn’t exactly a holiday tale, the local show has become a Christmastime tradition for many Valley families. In it, Cohen turns the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name into a 90-minute performance that includes students from dozens…
BIG OL’ HOLIDAY THEATER UPDATE: Because of you people and how much you love to go to good plays, White Christmas has added two performances, one this Sunday evening, December 15, and one on Christmas freakin’ Eve! Back to our regularly scheduled weirdness: The setup: Can it be only three…
There’s a lot of cinematic shorthand, both literal and figurative, in Zach Braff’s All New People, now on stage at Stray Cat Theatre. That’s to be expected from Braff, a TV star whose first indie film, Garden State, was a huge critical and commercial success. Braff employs quippy dialogue and…
There’s a lot of cinematic shorthand, both literal and figurative, in Zach Braff’s All New People, now on stage at Stray Cat Theatre. That’s to be expected from Braff, a TV star whose first indie film, Garden State, was a huge critical and commercial success. Braff employs quippy dialogue and…
A Christmas Carol is a moving, witty, smoothly written piece of 19th-century propaganda about being a nice person all the time — and maybe just being extra-nice at Christmastime — and removing that stick from up your butt already. It works so well and is so very in the public domain…
The setup: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s third blockbuster sung-through musical collaboration, 1978’s Evita, was revived in a new production on London’s West End in 2006. That restaging, which ran 337 performances on Broadway last year, began its U.S. tour this fall and visits Gammage Auditorium through Sunday…
To call Andrew Dice Clay’s comedic career long and storied would be an understatement. Since first appearing on a Rodney Dangerfield special in the late 1980s, Clay’s leather-jacket-wearing, chain-smoking mug has become synonymous with the kind of raunchy comedy that dominated the scene in the 1990s. He became the first…
The setup: Though Childsplay first presented The Velveteen Rabbit 25 years ago and it was the company’s go-to holiday offering for many years, the past several seasons have featured alternates such as Seussical, Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! and, one memorable year, Lyle the Crocodile, who I hope…
BIG OL’ HOLIDAY THEATER UPDATE: Because of you people and how much you love to go to good plays, White Christmas has added two performances, one this Sunday evening, December 15, and one on Christmas freakin’ Eve! The setup: Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” isn’t just the best-selling song ever –…
“Arrested 48 times . . . Future don’t exist . . .Don’t ask me about my personal stories, because they all have the same ending . . . One soul lost, two weeks ago this Friday, last seen hitchhiking to Flagstaff. If found, please return to this school of schools…
Though Jim Breuer has been performing stand-up comedy for over 20 years, he’s had success in other creative areas as well. Breuer showed his talent for portraying a pothead in his role as Brian, Dave Chappelle’s lovably high best friend in the stoner cult comedy Half Baked. He showcased his…
THRILLING UPDATE: Fifty Shades of Felt has been extended! See the end of this post to order tickets for added shows on December 5, 6, and 7. The setup: Nearly Naked Theatre and All Puppet Players aren’t saying what bestselling books Fifty Shades of Felt is inspired by, but we…
The setup: The 2009 London première of American playwright Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop made her the first black woman to receive the Olivier Award for Best New Play. The show moved to Broadway in 2011 and is now the second production in Arizona Theatre Company’s 2013-14 season. Like the works…
In January the seventh annual contemporary dance festival Breaking Ground will take place at Tempe Center for the Arts. The two-day event will include performances, films, and more. Tickets for the event are already on sale now — and we’ve got the list of Main Stage Artists who will be…
An old friend who knows theater phoned me last week. “I’ve just seen the most perfect production of Ragtime,” she said. “At Theater Works. You should go!” Oh, dear, I thought. A community theater production of Ragtime. No. But I went — fortunately. This well-crafted production of Terrence McNally’s musical…
The setup: In theater, maybe even more than in the other performing arts, getting work or being successful (by whatever one’s standard for that is) often seems to be a matter of luck and the accumulation of years of chance meetings. Brelby Theatre Company is currently presenting Ben Abbott’s play…
An old friend who knows theater phoned me last week. “I’ve just seen the most perfect production of Ragtime,” she said. “At Theater Works. You should go!” Oh dear, I thought. A community theater production of Ragtime. No…
Whether you know him as Frank Rossitano from 30 Rock, Toby Radloff from American Splendor, or as his guest characters on Flight of the Conchords or Curb Your Enthusiasm, Judah Friedlander is one thing and one thing only: The World Champion. The 44-year-old comedian has been performing stand-up for more…
