Hairspray Dolls Up Phoenix Theatre

D. Scott Withers made me forget Divine. That’s not easy to do, and not just because I think rather often of the late cross-dressing actor who first played Edna Turnblad in John Waters’ Hairspray. Withers’ performance as Edna in Phoenix Theatre’s Hairspray: The Musical was an entirely new creation, one…

Phoenix Fringe Festival Looking for Freaky, er, Eccentric Applicants

Take note, local weirdos: The priority deadline for 2011 Phoenix Fringe Festival applicants is 10 days from now. PHX:fringe 2011, as its otherwise known, is looking for theater, dance, and performance art peeps to take part in the shebang scheduled to take place from April 1 through April 10. Applications…

Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! Is Holiday Fun for Kids

Not all children’s shows are grippingly entertaining for grownups, but their audiences always are. Careful eavesdropping on the moppets who attend Childsplay’s Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells! will take you back to your own days of wonder and excitement. “Whoa! It’s her school!” exclaimed one girl, when she…

The Rise Project Offers After-School Urban Arts Classes for Teens

When the Phoenix Center for the Arts partnered up with ASU Downtown’s School of Public Affairs and the Phoenix Center Association, we knew things were about to get seriously creative — and educational. Together, they’re sponsoring the Rise Project, an 8-week, after-school program in urban performing arts. Classes will be…

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Gets to the Heart of the Blues

“You don’t sing to feel better,” actress Jevetta Steele says at one point in her electrifying lead performance in Arizona Theater Company’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. “You sing because it’s a way of understanding life.” August Wilson understands life. There’s rich, musical proof in the hopeful, often anguished portraits he…

Dane Cook to Perform at Celebrity Theatre Tonight

Actor and comedian Dane Cook’s been in movies alongside the likes of Steve Carrell (Dan in Real Life) and Kevin Costner (Mr. Brooks), he’s hosted Saturday Night Live twice, and had a hit comedy album, Retaliation. Now, he’s on tour, and he’ll be bringing his brand of observational humor to…

Arizona Women’s Theatre Company Presents its Pandora Showcase

The Arizona Women’s Theatre Company has supported women playwrights since 2003 and returns this weekend with its annual Pandora Festival — an opportunity for women writers to showcase their full-length, one-act, or 10-minute creations. This year, AWTC is adding a twist. The theatre company will host a Pandora Showcase –…

Batizado and Afro-Brazilian Dance Takes Over The Theodore Hotel This Weekend

When local group Axé Capoeira Arizona says “Bring your Axé,” they’re not referring to the bladed chopping instrument. Axé (pronounced AH-shay) is a Yourba word meaning “positive energy,” and that’s what Capoeira practitioners will bring to Scottsdale this weekend for the 10th Annual Batizado and Afro-Brazilian Dance Event.Capoeira is a…

Dance the Night Away at Tempe Center for the Arts this Weekend

What will be the hottest dance club in Tempe this Saturday night? If you guessed someplace on Mill Avenue, like Crave or Rula Bula, you wouldn’t be too far off. But how about Tempe Center for the Arts? Yes, that beautiful building off Rio Salado Parkway where they usually host…

Light Up the Sky Fails to Ignite

In Act Two of Moss Hart’s 1948 comedy Light Up the Sky, a group of theater types await the reviews of the opening night performance of their out-of-town play. They’ve already spent the first act gloating about how wise they were to have discovered, produced, or starred in this play,…

Torch Theatre Venue Hitting Some Snags

The new Torch Theatre at Central Avenue and Highland is tied up in city bureaucracy, and will not open until late this year or early next year. “It’s still coming along. Obviously, we’re way behind schedule of where we wanted to be. We’re in the process of site plans and…

Backward in High Heels Makes Even Ginger Rogers Forgettable

It’s too bad that Virginia Katherine McMath’s mother turned down the movie contract her daughter was offered at age 6. A career as a child star might have afforded Virginia, who later took the stage name Ginger Rogers, a more interesting backstory. Which would have given playwright Christopher McGovern a…