Voices Lifted: Bringing Musical Comfort to Valley Hospice Residents

On July 20, Kellie Walker and her Voices Lifted choir packed their songbooks and headed to Dobson Home — one of three homes overseen by Hospice of the Valley. Walker, along with choir members Rebecca Riggs, Nancy Wittenberg and Melissa Bush, sing regularly for a number of patients and their family…

The Neighborhood Improv Is a Place to Laugh ‘Til You Fall Over

It’s disillusioning but, ultimately, reassuring to learn that improv comedy has structure and rules and stuff like that (for its performers). The reassuring part comes when you realize that 1) “solid improv experience” is not an oxymoron and 2) dedicated application of technique makes for reliable craziness (also not an…

Five Best Stand-Up Comics on the Silver Screen

If you want to see Jon Stewart cry a little on the inside, ask him about his sadly brief career as an actor. The leap from stage to screen is a notoriously tricky one, best facilitated by “Saturday Night Live” and, increasingly, Stewart’s own star-making machine, “The Daily Show.” Today, comedian Nick…

You’ll Eat Up Hale Theatre’s Little Shop of Horrors

My visit to Hale Center Theatre last week marked the fifth production of Little Shop of Horrors I’ve seen in a decade — no surprise there, as this show is a musical theater staple, trotted out by Equity houses, children’s theaters and everything in between. The revelation is that this…

Space 55 Performs at New York Fringe Festival

Like many thespians, the actors and actresses of Phoenix’s Space 55 dreamed of one day making a splash amongst the bright lights of the New York City theatre scene.  They can now cross the accomplishment off their respective bucket lists, as the Valley theatre troupe traveled this month to the Big…

Baby: The Musical: The 1980s Tuner Is Ripe for a Comeback

The nice people at Arizona Broadway Theatre sent someone to lecture me about the way I review theater. Apparently, my last review of an ABT show included a fart joke and the word “fuck” (hey, I’m not Frank Rich), so when I called to ask for a ticket to see…

Five of My Favorite MTV Comedy Moments

For the purposes of this post, I feel I must divulge that I have watched a whole hell of a lot of MTV in my lifetime. Notice my careful wording — watched. I honestly cannot watch MTV nowadays — I’m not a 16-year-old who listens to Top 40 while waiting…

Mama’s Family at The Rock, and Other Weekend Shenanigans

Somewhere in the universe, there’s always going to be someone whose idea of contributing to society is transcribing the dialogue of old sitcoms and posting it online. Without such people, it’d be an even rarer thing to be able to walk into a bar and see live re-creations of episodes…

Hormel New Works Festival at Phoenix Theatre

For theater so new you have to be careful not to touch its soft spot, Phoenix Theatre’s annual Hormel New Works Festival is a safe bet. It’s also one of those rare occasions that the development of art is as much fun for the audience as it is for the…

Desert Stages’ Hairspray Holds Strong

Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan’s Hairspray is, I’ve decided, made of Teflon. It would appear that nothing can hurt this oft-produced musical version of the 1988 John Waters film, a Broadway winner that’s been produced here twice this season already (and is about to take the stage at the Herberger…

Season Preview: Actors Theatre Gears Up for 2011-12

When we crave a home-town taste of the kind of theater that makes us miss New York, Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco — more thoughtful (though often still gaspingly funny), less spectacle-driven works that audiences elsewhere have enjoyed relatively recently — Actors Theatre is the place to go. The company’s staked…

Bill Bellamy’s Bringing Ladies Night Out Comedy Tour to Tempe

​Bill Bellamy is plotting a comeback. Due to the popularity of his Ladies Night Out stand-up comedy tour, he’s bringing it back out for another round of dates — coming this weekend to the Tempe Improv. Bellamy, accompanied by fellow comedians J. Reid, D’Lai, and host Ali Siddiq, says he’s using…

ASU Gammage and Aji Spa Host Broadway Summer Spa Day

In an unlikely (and totally drool-worthy) collaboration, Aji Spa at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort and ASU Gammage will host a Summer Spa Day with sneak peek visuals of the upcoming theater season. Just don’t splash the artwork. The all-day package includes a full body 50-minute Swedish Massage, lunch…