In 1978, I received an F on a high school English composition in which I wrote that the characters in the film Rebel Without a Cause were all losers. John, I wrote, was a babyish invert, too stupid to hide his crush on Jim, a loser whose idea of fun…
Whenever folks gripe about the dreary state of theater in our town — which happens as often as you’d imagine — I always point out that stage legends live and work here every day. I’m especially boastful about the fact that theater luminary Marshall Mason teaches at the local university,…
Despite its somewhat labored Actors Theatre of Phoenix production, there’s plenty to recommend Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing. There’s the richness of its writing, the allure of its subject, and the astonishing range of emotions its people endure. This is the kind of play that used to be dubbed “a…
There’s an unfortunate timeliness to Orson Welles’ adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, with its deadly attacks on America and its evacuation of New York City. It doesn’t take much effort to find parallels between the catastrophes of September 11 and the infamous 1938 radio broadcast, with its…
Just before the curtain goes up on each of Black Theatre Troupe’s productions, executive director David J. Hemphill makes a gracious speech in which he thanks the company’s subscribers and supporters. Hemphill always ends his speech by saying, “If you enjoy the show tonight, tell all your friends. If you…
An amazing thing happens a few minutes into 2 Pianos, 4 Hands: After the show’s co-stars, both of whom are seated at glossy grand pianos, have performed a complicated duet, one of them begins banging on the keyboard in a perfect imitation of a tiny child — a character he…
T he truest test of any great piece of theater — or any drama whose title is routinely appended with a superlative, has been produced for years on Broadway to great critical acclaim, or been handed any kind of trophy — is to release it for public performance. Dropped onto…
Nothing, not even the threat of world war, can discourage Phoenix Theatre’s annual tradition of kicking off the season with a big, tacky musical. This year, it’s Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s perfectly terrible Applause, which won the 1970 Tony Award for Best Musical entirely on the strength of its…
The silence from experimental theater lately has been deafening. Since the dissolution of oddball Planet Earth Theatre last year, there’s been almost nothing out of the ordinary — save the occasional offbeat translation by teeny Nearly Naked Theatre — happening on local stages. But there’s hope for those who want…
In Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour, a little girl destroys her teacher’s life with accusations that the teacher is gay. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, mere mortals are tried and convicted as witches by their peers. In the best theatrical tradition, recent behind-the-scenes shenanigans at local companies have combined…
What I did this summer is scramble to find theater productions to write about, which is how I came to break my rule about never attending any play presented in a strip mall. But a summer season almost entirely bereft of theater found me last weekend driving up and down…
“I hate the idea that I’ve been resurrected,” says actress Jacqueline Gaston. “I hear people say I’ve inspired them, that if I can come back after what I’ve been through, they can do anything. It all makes me sound so noble, like I’m a much better person than I actually…
I can’t pretend to know what it’s like to design a number of elaborate stage sets with next to no money, but I can describe the results. In fact, I’m still trying to shake the memory of Michael Brooks’ terrifically horrible set designs for The Sound of Music, which I…
Type Michael Learned’s name into any Internet search engine, and you’ll find yourself linked to several hundred articles and dozens of Web sites devoted to The Waltons — and almost nothing about her notable stage career. Like a lot of former television stars, Learned’s theater credentials have been eclipsed by…
The will-call line for The Vagina Monologues snaked all the way across the lobby of the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, and I was the only man in it. That is, until another fellow — a local publisher of some renown, at least in publishing circles — approached the line;…
“Why the heck would anyone want to do a play about that?”I’ve been speaking for more than an hour with “Tony,” a convicted sex offender, about Mr. Bundy, Jane Martin’s one-act drama about a child molester. I’ve got a long list of questions I’d like Tony to consider — Does…
I usually leave playwright Joe Marshall’s comedies having found plenty to like. Marshall regularly offers interesting insights into the human condition; his people are usually at least amusing; his dialogue is often droll and sometimes downright funny. But In a Nutshell, which Marshall is presenting via his own Alternative Theatre…
Audiences for STOMP, the dance and percussion spectacle that swept the globe in the 1990s, range in age from toddler to octogenarian.It’s no accident these hooligans of dance have such broad appeal. Before STOMP, there was stomp from A to Z: Appalachian Stomp, Kansas City Stomp, Louis Armstrong’s Mahogany Hall…
I’ve wanted to see a worthwhile production of Once on This Island for more than a decade. I’ve long suspected that Stephen Flaherty’s and Lynn Ahrens’ musicalized Little Mermaid had great potential, that its folksy tale and melodic score could be elevated by the right cast and conductor. But now…
Opening-night performances by small theater companies usually play to half-empty houses — except, apparently, for shows with the phrase “sexual perversity” in their titles. Sexual Perversity in Chicago’s first night was a sellout for Nearly Naked Theatre Company, a fact that so pleased the show’s director that he photographed his…
To say that no actor creates a perfect Hamlet is no more than saying that no person leads a perfect life. It’s the richest part in English-language drama, maybe in Western drama, and every actor lucky enough to get a crack at it can hope only to grab an aspect…
My faithful theater companion and I normally agree about the quality of the shows we see every weekend. When we don’t, it’s he who is more generous and forgiving about a program’s shortcomings. Last weekend, during the long ride home from faraway Theater Works, we bandied words about the company’s…
