This review aired on KBAQ April 29, 2013

CHILDSPLAY STAGES INNOVATIVE ADAPTATION OF “A WRINKLE IN TIME”

“A WRINKLE IN TIME”
Childsplay, Tempe Center for the Arts
Tempe, AZ

Leave it to the fabulously creative, endlessly innovative Childsplay to cleverly adapt Madeleine L’Engle’s popular children’s science fiction fantasy, “A Wrinkle In Time,” into a marvelously inventive theater piece.  If you have or know children who have read and relish the book, get your tickets and enjoy this magical story with your young friends as it unfolds on stage.  The kids at the opening performance applauded wildly and enjoyed themselves immensely.

L’Engle’s story starts on a bleak, … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ April 22, 2013

LATEST STRAY CAT PRODUCTION IS A FAST PACED COMIC DELIGHT

“CHICKS WITH ?????”
Stray Cat Theatre, Tempe Performing Arts Center
Tempe, AZ

Biker chicks, mock but noisy motorcycles, scads of unrestrained innuendo, riotous sexual excesses, some mud wrestling, and tons of raucous laughs are the wacky ingredients of the show I’m reviewing tonight that has such a sensitive moniker that I can only say the first two words of the three word title, “Chicks With ?????.”  You get to fill in that inevitable last word of the Stray Cat Theatre’s latest production and, as a suggestion, think … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ April 15, 2013

BTT’S “BUBBLY BLACK GIRL” WELL STAGED BUT NOT A VIABLE MUSICAL

“THE BUBBLY BLACK GIRL SHEDS HER CHAMELEON SKIN”
Black Theatre Troupe
Phoenix, AZ

The Black Theatre Troupe’s new production, “The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin,” is a prime example of a theater company struggling to find viable new plays and musicals.

The show is a terrible, self-serving musical.  Author Kirsten Childs tells about her agonizing climb to become a Broadway musical theater performer and to accept her Black heritage.  It is lifeless because the girl the musical portrays, Viveca Stanton or Bubbly, and her tribulations … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ April 8, 2013

2012/13 ARIZONA OPERA SEASON ANALYSED AND ASU PREMIERES A PLAY

2012/13 ARIZONA OPERA SEASON
Phoenix Symphony Hall
Phoenix, AZ

And

“SOOT AND SPIT”
ASU School of Theatre and Film, Paul V. Galvin Playhouse, ASU
Tempe, AZ

The just concluded 2012/13 Arizona Opera season further enhanced the company’s place as a major American regional opera company as they continue to bring the best young operatic singers to town.  Productions continue to improve and are all consistently well sung.  Staging, while still sometimes awkward and archaic, has improved.  The season’s best opera was the new local production of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.”

The company had … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ April 1, 2013

ATC’S PLODDINGLY SLOW “THE SUNSHINE BOYS” DRAGS ON FOR AN ETERNITY

“THE SUNSHINE BOYS”
Arizona Theatre Company, Herberger Theater Center
Phoenix, AZ

“The Sunshine Boys” is far from Neil Simon’s best comedy and in the plodding Arizona Theatre Company production, the show drags on for an eternity.  Although each act runs an hour, by the eagerly anticipated intermission, the first act seemed far longer.  Back in 1972, when the show premiered, it seemed funnier, faster, and much more fun.  It apparently hasn’t stood the test of time at all.

“The Sunshine Boys” looks at an old vaudevillian team … Continue Reading