This review aired on KBAQ June 21, 2010

HALE CENTRE PRESENTS ENTERTAINING & POLISHED “FOREVER PLAID”

“FOREVER PLAID”
Hale Centre Theatre
Gilbert, AZ

Gilbert’s ambitious community theater, the Hale Centre, continues to do remarkably professional productions. Their current musical, “Forever Plaid,” is a remount of a production done several seasons ago that was great. With a new cast and director, the latest version is just as entertaining and polished.

The musical revue focuses on a four-part guy quartet, a 1950s entertainment staple, who patterned themselves after The Four Aces, The Four Lads, and The Four Freshmen. The group rehearsed until 1964 when they got their first … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ June 17, 2010

“IN THE HEIGHTS” EXPLORES PULSATING MANHATTAN NEIGHBORHOOD

“IN THE HEIGHTS”
Broadway Across America – Arizona, ASU Gammage
Tempe, AZ

“In the Heights,” the throbbing 2008 Tony Award winning musical, explodes all over the huge ASU Gammage stage as it explores with a vibrant rhythmic beat the Manhattan Washington Heights Puerto Rican neighborhood. This pulsating immigrant area has housed most of New York City’s ethnicities. “In the Heights” is a sprightly and superbly entertaining study. It pulsates with this community’s life and, through fascinating characters and clever situations, it brings a rich cultural understanding.

The touring company duplicates effectively … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ June 14, 2010

WONDERFULLY FUN “EVIL DEAD” LOADED WITH KILLINGS AND MAYHEM

“EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL”
Nearly Naked Theatre
Phoenix, AZ

Killings, wild mayhem, and dead people who become evil zombies are the madcap ingredients that turn the zany “Evil Dead: The Musical” into a wonderfully fun show.

It’s based on the cult movie classics, a weird source for a show that took off back in 2003. In Damon Dering’s capable directorial hands, his Nearly Naked Theatre Company’s superlative Arizona premiere production is blessed with a great cast and cleverly wacky stage chicanery. The hilarious staging turns the spooky evils joyful … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ June 10, 2010

FUNNY “THE VAST DIFFERENCE” IN COMPETENT FLAGSTAFF STAGING

“THE VAST DIFFERENCE”
Theatrikos Theatre Co.
Flagstaff, AZ

Flagstaff’s stalwart and ambitious community theater, Theatrikos, is presenting the Arizona premiere of actor/playwright Jeff Daniels’ “The Vast Difference” in a competent, if undistinguished, staging.

Daniels, known primarily as a Broadway and film star, has also developed a playwrighting career. “The Vast Difference” is a fast-paced, funny, social commentary about George Noonan, a flight attendant, who struggles to find his life’s purpose. The father of five girls, George is begged by his loving wife, Rita, to get a much needed vasectomy. George … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ June 7, 2010

VIBRANT BERLIN REVUE “I LOVE A PIANO” WELL STAGED AT BROADWAY PALM

“I LOVE A PIANO”
Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre
Mesa, AZ

The great composer Jerome Kern said “Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music.”  This truth is apparent in the vibrant Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre musical revue, “I Love A Piano,” which traces Berlin’s songs from the turn of the last century until the ‘50s.

The show, conceived by Ray Roderick and Michael Berkeley, focuses on an old upright piano that has already had a distinguished career in 1910, when the show … Continue Reading