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…
I’d been looking forward to Nearly Naked Theatre’s production of Metamorphoses ever since they announced it as part of their lineup two seasons ago. Back then, the folks at Nearly Naked wisely postponed the show once they realized that its elaborate set, which involves a full-size swimming pool right on…
Seussical: This cheerful tuner based on the much-loved books of Dr. Seuss screams to be seen by — dare we say it? — kids of all ages, even those who haven’t yet met Horton (who heard a Who) or visited the Jungle of Nool. Childsplay’s version, which has become its…
As a kid, I dreaded Sundays. Sunday meant also-ran cartoons (all the crappy animated shows that had failed the previous season seemed to end up on Sunday mornings; no child in 1971 wanted to watch The Bugaloos or The Curiosity Shop on any day — trust me) followed by the…
Dog Sees God: Subtitled Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, this irreverent, unsanctioned spoof of the Peanuts comic strip is this season’s surprise breakout. Originally slated to close last week, this turncoat cartoon has proved so popular that Stray Cat has extended the show’s run with two extra performances on the…
Altar Boyz is musical theater for people who don’t really like musical theater, although Phoenix Theatre’s excellent production, currently on display on the company’s main stage, might change some anti-musical-theater minds. The vaguely irreverent one-act is staged as a concert from fictional Catholic boy band The Altar Boyz, so its…
Phillip Fazio, a youngish local stage director and artist in residence at Phoenix Theatre, e-mailed me recently to tell me, in effect, it isn’t fair that I’ve given up on the smaller East Valley theaters because I think they do only tired old shows everyone’s seen a hundred times. I…
Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical: Artists Theatre Project launches its fifth season with a reprise of the company’s popular 2004 staging of this campy tuner about a whorish teen with her eyes on the big prize. This adaptation of the classic 1978 skin flick was already old news when @Pro…
Dracula: The Musical?: The question mark in this Scottsdale Desert Stages productions title screams Careful! Hyper-clever campiness awaits you! But who can resist any show that includes a song called The Tippy, Tippy Tap of Love? Playwright Rick Abbot is taking pokes at Bram Stokers classic monster story in this…
One takes a mighty risk when one attempts Arthur Kopit’s Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad, a frantic farce that mocks the Theater of the Absurd even as it honors that form’s peculiar rhythms and deeply weird possibilities. Fortunately for local…
Forever Plaid: Theyre dead and they like to sing close harmonies, so whats not to love about The Plaids, a fictional guy group thats become a fixture of sorts in local theater? This time, theyre brought to you courtesy of Copperstate Dinner Theater, where theyll cover the Four Aces and…
Welcome to Phoenix, where the sun never sets and one can typically find on local stages the same half-dozen shows (Little Shop of Horrors, Forever Plaid, West Side Story always among them) playing pretty much year-round. Sometimes, one can even find the same show playing simultaneously at two different theaters,…
Fifteen minutes after the curtain went up on Actors Theatre’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, two audience members ran for the exits. Ten minutes later, five others got up to go. A little while later, four more left — one of them nearly breaking my foot as she tromped out of…
