The trouble with Mama and Jack Carew is that there’s so very much of it. Hal Corley’s full-length play, at least as presented by Theatre Artists Studio, is too long by a good 90 minutes. Its sluggish 2½ hours unfold as slowly as a dental exam; its underwhelming lead male…
Fandom being what it is, some of you may miss Mystery Science Theater 3000 more than I do, but I doubt you could’ve enjoyed it more than I did. Surely one of the series’ finest film features was The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, and it turns out the only thing…
I think I need a break from camp. I realized this after attending Devil Boys from Beyond at Nearly Naked Theatre last weekend. It was, I thought, a perfectly executed send-up of old Z-grade science fiction films. But just the fact that I’m typing the phrase “send-up of old Z-grade…
Attention young music minds (and lovers of the musical television show who’d like to introduce their children to real-life performing arts): Scottsdale Glee is now enrolling. The Arcadia-based children’s choir, for 5- to 15-year-olds, is looking for new members for the Spring semester, which begins January 31. The choir’s also…
If you’re not a huge Shakespeare fan but remain curious and open, it might help you to know that the Fresh Prince of Stratford was not a “pure” artist, one of those tortured souls who create because they must, are annoying, obscure, and unpopular in life, and inspire cult-ish devotion…
It’s not every day one has the opportunity to see a compilation musical based on a historical survey published by a Vanderbilt professor who’s also a Fulbright Scholar, a one-time United Nations delegate, and a member of the Bahá’í faith (that last tidbit should be irrelevant but isn’t, for a…
Comedian Tom Green is known for a number of things, including acting crazy on his old MTV series, The Tom Green Show, marrying and divorcing Drew Barrymore, surviving testicular cancer, and appearing in films such as Charlie’s Angels and Freddy Got Fingered.But for the past few years, Green has been…
The 2011 edition of the Phoenix Improv Festival will take place on April 15 and April 16, festival officials announced last week. The indie fest, which will be entering its tenth year, is produced and run by Bill Binder, a stalwart in Phoenix’s improv community. PIF (the hip kids pronounce…
Eventually, American theater will run out of 20th-century musical troubadours to venerate. In the meantime, there is Woody Guthrie’s American Song, a sort-of biography told in tunes and travelogues written by Guthrie himself. And though we may leave the playhouse knowing as little about Guthrie the folk singer as we…
Oh, 2010, how is it that you can have gone by so quickly, yet we can still be so glad to see you go? What I will miss, even though they’re already all a blur, are the many great shows the year brought — and even the dozens of just…
Theatre Artists Studio member and playwright Hal Corley is back with two women, two choices, and a whole lot of steamy drama. For the first time, the studio, at 4848 E. Cactus Road in Scottsdale, presents two of Corley’s plays, Suocera and Mama and Jack Carew, in repertory on alternating…
I long to take the month of December off from writing, so that I can focus on tree-trimming and card-making and other seasonal events. December deadlines are usually a nightmare, largely because printers keep such odd holiday schedules, and writing January copy the week before Christmas usually means I’m missing…
Secret’s out — Third Fridays are your best chance to see what you missed on First Friday, (plus a few extra openings) without so much shenanigan. And tonight is no exception. Here are seven must-sees if you’re out and about and looking for art. 1. GIG STIGMATA @ Trunk Space…
It took attending Learn to Be Latina with a very smart date (who often consumes journalism the day it appears) for Curtains to hear that not everyone thinks the latest from Stray Cat Theatre is about identity politics in any serious, up-to-the-minute way. In fact, this script, Stray Cat’s production,…
I long to take the month of December off from writing, so that I can focus on tree-trimming and card-making and other seasonal events. December deadlines are usually a nightmare, largely because printers keep such odd holiday schedules, and writing January copy the week before Christmas usually means I’m missing…
Last winter, I attended a holiday dance show — one of those Christmas-themed musical pageants where the stage is overtaken by crowds from one dance class after another, mostly prepubescents determined to slog through “Jingle Bell Rock” without forgetting a ball-change or bursting into tears. I really enjoyed this production,…
Space 55 Theatre Ensemble defies pinning down, even in the world of offbeat, tiny companies. The dump they perform in is nowhere near the neighborhoods that are alleged to be bohemian — it’s crammed between some faux loft apartments and ASU Downtown. The folks who run the place are super-multi-talented…
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…
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…
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…
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…
