The most sparkling bit of dialogue I heard the other night at Actors Theatre’s production of Speak Spanish to Me came from the charming lady seated on my left. At intermission, she leaned across the empty seat between us and, indicating my notebook, asked, “Are you reviewing, or plagiarizing?” I…
She’s what’s politely called a curmudgeon, but more commonly called a bitch. Ruth Steiner is a short-tempered, arrogant, bossy woman “of a certain age,” a celebrated writer of stories who’s been slumming as a literature professor for a little while. One of her students, Lisa, shows some promise, and Ruth…
I practically forgot where I was the other night (I was at Stray Cat Theatre, watching their production of Pulp) once the play commenced and Johanna Carlisle got busy playing a Sapphic saloon owner named Vivian Blaine. Carlisle always shines like a beacon, even when she’s appearing in crap, which…
To Kill a Mockingbird: The impossible has occurred: There is, at the Herberger, a professional production in which the entire (and rather long) first act is held merrily aloft by three child actors. Although one of them, Daria LeGrand, appears at first glance to be a young woman in an…
Tom, Dick, and Harry: Members of the Peter Hill fan club, rejoice! Your fave dog track director is not only at the helm of this Arizona première; he’s the star! Ray Cooney’s latest British farce has something to do with a better-than-middle-aged couple who’ve adopted a baby. The dame from…
If I have a quibble with Childsplay’s A Tale of Two Cities, it’s that it’s too smart for children. Kids tend not to notice the kind of subtle beauty that Dwayne Hartford has brought to his adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic; they aren’t built to appreciate the skill it…
The Sweetest Swing in Baseball: Rebecca Gilman’s comedy/drama is turning up just in time for spring training with a study of the cult of celebrity and how it can screw up both idols and fans. Gilman places baseball bad boy Darryl Strawberry at the center of her story, but this…
It’s impossible, watching Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire, not to be overcome by our powerlessness over the war in Iraq. I felt lazy, disconnected, oafish as Raffo’s remarkable one-woman show unfolded before me, moved not only by the depth of emotion she brought to each of her nine characters…
Kissing: Here’s proof that tiny Theatre Artists Studio is a force to be reckoned with: Their latest production stars Bob Sorenson, one of the few New York stage “stars” Phoenix can claim. Sorenson, fresh from his run in Arizona Theatre Company’s The Pajama Game, is joined by Christian Miller, Maureen…
The premise of The Full Monty is pretty simple: Six broke, unemployed Buffalo steelworkers decide to stage a one-night-only striptease act after noting the sell-out crowds drawn by a local Chippendales act. These guys are sick of being penniless and their leader, Jerry Lukowski, is worried that his son, who…
Folded somewhere into the cramped coldness of my tiny mind is a virtual list titled Things I Hope Never to See Again. I’ve compiled this list over several decades as a reminder to myself of things I have seen before that have frightened or unnerved me. Way at the top…
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Arizona Theatre Company’s favorite playwright, Jeffrey Hatcher (Turn of the Screw, Tuesdays With Morrie, Ella), has adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story of evil, dual personalities, and grisly murder for another ATC world première. Not to be confused with the wildly…
About halfway through Act One of Stray Cat Theatre’s super-fashionable Kate Crackernuts, my middle-aged companion leaned over and whispered in my ear, “It’s always nice to see what the youngsters are up to these days.” I’m not sure I agree with him. Because while I found Kate energetically acted and…
I used to know a crazy lady who looked exactly like Cloris Leachman. Ella was the kind of crazy that can never be cured; the kind of crazy that struck fear in the hearts of her friends and family, that caused former employees to change their telephone numbers after she…
Fiddler on the Roof: It is, of course, too much to ask that we should make it through a single theater season without this kosher chestnut getting dusted off for our perusal. God forbid we should have to not hear “If I Were a Rich Man” or “Sunrise, Sunset” for…
Here’s a one-word review of Nearly Naked Theatre’s production of As Bees in Honey Drown: Phew! And here’s a 601-word one: What a relief it was to attend a show at Nearly Naked, one of my favorite theater companies, that I enjoyed nearly as much as I’ve enjoyed so many…
The Oldest Profession: The cast of Algonquin Theater Company’s first show of the season features JoAnn Yeoman, Judy Rollings, Sharon Collar, Jacqueline Gaston, and Barbara McGrath — and that’s all you need to know. That this astonishing cast is performing Paula Vogel’s tart story about five aging hookers whose clientele…
I needn’t have worked very hard this week reviewing the show I saw, because the noisy dame who sat in front of me critiqued every musical number, every punch line in Arizona Theatre Company’s The Pajama Game. “That was good!” she bellowed to her seatmate after the cast busted moves…
Pajama Game: Word from Tucson, where Arizona Theatre Company debuted this recently revived Broadway favorite last month, is that the company has come up with another winner. With direction by ATC artistic director David Ira Goldstein, and a return from New York by local favorite (and former Phoenix native) Bob…
Early in the year, I wrote that I wondered whether I’d see a scene all season that was as astonishing to me as the one I saw in Space 55 Theater Ensemble’s Book of Liz, where actress Shawna Franks attacked a tray full of flatware with such gusto that forks…
If there’s a criticism to be leveled at Black Theatre Troupe for presenting Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change, it’s that attempting such a challenging piece of theater seems imprudent of any company that has failed in the past with musicals only half as complicated. But artistic director David J. Hemphill…
Anything Goes: Not to be confused with the super-cheesy ’70s game show of the same name (Remember? Pie fights and challenge rounds featuring The DeFranco Family?), this popular book musical is among the better composer-centric homages. Sing-along standards from Cole Porter like “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “You’re…
