A great cast can mean the difference between artistic gold and and extreme annoyance. Yet sometimes a good performance takes a bit more. Such is the case with Neil Labute’s reasons to be pretty. Robrt L. Pela on reasons to be pretty: The third in playwright Neil LaBute’s trilogy about…
The third in playwright Neil LaBute’s trilogy about looks-ism, reasons to be pretty is a humdinger, full of fire and music and enough invective for a half-dozen Edward Albee plays. Dark, angry streams of abuse fuel both LaBute’s comedy and his larger message about language as power — a message…
I sometimes like to use the word “fearless” about a performance, and it may not always mean that much to you, the audience member. But it means a lot when you go to see Th [sic] Sense sketch comedy troupe, because all of them are fearless, and it’s what makes…
Photos by Niki D’AndreaMargaret Cho at Dodge Theatre on Saturday nightPoop jokes will never get old, and they will never die. But they may never be more explosive and fresh than they were in the hands of comedian Margaret Cho, during her performance at Dodge Theatre on Saturday night. But…
Pack a blanket and a lawn chair — Ballet Arizona is back for its annual event, Ballet Under the Stars. In 12 years, the event has drawn over 60,000 Valley residents. Guided by Ib Andersen, the company’s artistic director, dancers perform programs ranging from classical to contemporary. This year’s series…
Things that once seemed so clear, such as the vital roles played in U.S. history and culture by immigration and the labor movement, are a freakin’ can of worms these days. But here at Curtains, none of that matters. Here, we review plays. Theater of the human condition. Theater that…
Austin YoungThe seriously funny Margaret ChoWhen tickets for comedian Margaret Cho’s show at Dodge Theatre this Saturday first went on sale, we were stoked. Because in addition to her raunchy stand-up comedy (including but not limited to dick jokes, gay jokes, riffs on race, and impersonations of her Korean mother),…
Tania Katan exists in a very specific niche: America’s foremost Jewish, lesbian cancer survivor. If that sounds interesting to you, you may want to see her latest play. Robrt L. Pela on Saving Tania’s Privates: “Not having boobies is not who I am,” she’s saying. “It’s an opportunity for me…
TED is a small nonprofit, devoted to “ideas worth sharing. The goal is to bring people together from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment and Design. In 2009, the nonprofit gave communities the opportunity to organize, design and host their own TED-like event under the name TEDx (“x” meaning independently organized). Last…
Tania Katan is talking about her chest. Again. “Not having boobies is not who I am,” she’s saying. “It’s an opportunity for me to say something about being human. Yeah, I’m telling a story about surviving breast cancer, and having had girlfriend trouble, and being part of a crazy family…
Good and useful news: Noises Off, originally scheduled to close Sunday, September 12, has been extended through Sunday, September 19, at Phoenix Theatre. It’s a hot ticket — and this is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see crisp, impeccably executed farce at its best.Now and then, I look at…
When asked what she loves about Flamenco dancing, Angelina Ramirez pauses. The reasoning, she says, is hard pin down. “I like the community aspect of it. When you go to Spain you don’t have to be a professional Flamenco dancer to be able to participate,” she says. “It’s very social.”…
Reading this week’s “Stage” column, it’s clear that Robrt L. Pela has a certain amount of contempt for The Dinner Party’s Neil Simon. It’s nice to know, however that he was able to look past one man to find a few things to enjoy about this piece presented by Desert…
Every eight years or so, I give Neil Simon another try. Usually I do this by trying to make it through one of the perfectly terrible film translations of his treacly and annoying stage plays by watching one on TV. (I always fail to get much past the middle of…
From time to time, our theater guru, Julie Peterson, dishes helpful advice before you head out the door with your own or your companion’s disability. If you have more tips, especially about local theater-going with non-mobility impairments, please comment or drop her a note. Any time you’re planning to see…
Does Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens sound like it borrowed a few tactics from the Rocky Horror Picture Show play book? Sure it does, but think about it. Doesn’t that make it sound like a hell of a lot of fun? Robrt L. Pela seems to think so: I…
Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens was written, the story goes, for people who felt more at home in bars and discos than they did going to the theater. Its authors set the show in an intergalactic nightclub called Saucy Jack’s Cabaret Bar, and wrote the show’s audience into the…
On August 25, Phoenix Theatre will be opening its mainstage season with a production of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off. In preparation for staging this three-act farcical play, the Phoenix Theatre crew spent the last five weeks building a three-ton set, built entirely in-house, from scratch.Noises Off is a farce (read: disastrous…
Lauren Froderman took home Fox television’s So You Think You Can Dance trophy last night, beating out the remaining male competitors and proving that a girl who just graduated from Greenway High School in Phoenix can definitely kick some national dance competition butt.(Apologies if you’re still waiting to watch your…
courtesy of Great Arizona Puppet Theater It’s Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb, the title characters of Two Bad Mice. I try to bring a kid along (a friend or relative, not a random kid I’ve abducted from the street) when I’m reviewing a kids’ show. I can’t really gauge audience…
To be honest, we’re not too into musicals. Then again, when Robrt L. Pela gives a show like Hale Centre’s Annie Get Your Gun a favorable review, the least we can do is give it a shot. Robrt L. Pela on Annie Get Your Gun: It hardly seems fair to…
It hardly seems fair to comment on Hale Centre Theatre’s hyper-cheerful Annie Get Your Gun. In a better world, a community theater production of the Irving Berlin perennial would be exempt from the considerations of any critic. But it’s summer in Phoenix, which means three months of warhorses performed by…
