This review aired on KBAQ February 27, 2012

“DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE” POSES INTERESTING QUESTION

“DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE”
Actors Theatre, Stage West, Herberger Theater Center
Phoenix, AZ

Actors Theatre’s “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” poses an interesting question.  A woman, Jean, sitting in a café minding her own business hears a cell phone ring at another table.  The man, Gordon, sitting at the table doesn’t answer it and it finally stops only to start ringing again and again.  Now the question.  Should she answer the phone and invade another person’s private life?  She goes to Gordon and asks why he isn’t answering it and discovers … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ February 23, 2012

ENCHANTING “WICKED” BACK IN TOWN IN FINE TOURING PRODUCTION

“WICKED”
Broadway Across America – Arizona, ASU Gammage
Tempe, AZ

It’s wonderful to have “Wicked” back for the third time at ASU Gammage in a fine touring production that nearly duplicates the Broadway production that’s enchanted theatergoers since 2003.  For this tour, unlike many that stop locally, the elaborate New York production hasn’t been reduced so Eugene Lee’s fantastic scenery is intact, as are Susan Hilferty’s splendidly vibrant costumes, the many spectacular special effects, and the mood setting lighting.  And the cast is strong but, like most Broadway … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ February 20, 2012

”Last Days of Judas Iscariot” and “Coming of the Hurricane” Interesting and Well Produced Plays

“THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT”
Stray Cat Theatre, Tempe Performing Arts Center
Tempe, AZ

and

“COMING OF THE HURRICANE”
Black Theatre Troupe, Playhouse on the Park
Phoenix, AZ

Two interesting plays by two of the Valley’s smaller theater troupes are Stray Cat Theatre’s “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” an expressionistic fantasy by playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis that considers the fate in a Purgatory courtroom of sinner Judas that prompts an amusing but wordy discussion of disappointing someone and … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ February 13, 2012

ATC’S SUPERLATIVE “THE 39 STEPS” WILL MAKE THEATERGOERS LAUGH

“THE 39 STEPS”
Arizona Theatre Company, Herberger Theater Center
Phoenix, AZ

Based on the silly shenanigans of the original 1905 John Buchan novel and the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film adaptation, “The 39 Steps,” in a superlatively funny Arizona Theatre Company production, is guaranteed to make theatergoers laugh.

There’s nothing profound here but there’s nothing wrong with theater that entertains especially when the Joel Sass staging is so hysterically guided and is enacted by a quartet of superb farceurs who bring out every bit of humor as the play deliciously … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ February 6, 2012

BAD STAND-UP COMIC PARADING AS IF HE’S IN A STAGE COMEDY

“MY MOTHER’S ITALIAN, MY FATHER’S JEWISH & I’M IN THERAPY”
Herberger Theater Center
Phoenix, AZ

I get upset when a stand-up comic uttering banal jokes parades around as if he’s in some carefully scripted theater comedy.  Such is the case with Steve Solomon’s dreadful “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish & I’m in Therapy,” now playing at the Herberger Theater Center.

The play premiered in the Catskill’s several seasons ago and it’s gone on to engagements around the country.  It’s certainly not a play.  In it, the … Continue Reading