This review aired on KBAQ January 27, 2014

CLASSY TRIBUTE TO FATS WALLER IN “AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’” AT PHOENIX THEATRE

“AIN’T MISBEHAVIN’”
Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix, AZ

If you are looking for an explosion of Fats Waller song hits coupled with a classy production that delivers them with panache, Phoenix Theatre’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” is your show.  The breezy musical revue is performed by five talented performers who combine sleekly suave and sophisticated dance moves with brilliant singing to turn the show into an entertaining delight.

Born in 1904, Waller quickly demonstrated expert talent as both a musical performer and composer.  His well-known tunes encompass such standards as “Honeysuckle … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ January 20, 2014

SKIP SILLY AND FRAIL “MAMA WON’T FLY” AT PEORIA’S THEATER WORKS

“MAMA WON’T FLY”
Theater Works, Peoria Center for the Performing Arts
Peoria, AZ

An overtly silly and extremely frail comedy, “Mama Won’t Fly,” is marking its Arizona premiere at Theater Works.  It is competently performed but the play meanders all over the place and contains only one far-fetched and unexpected surprise that adds nothing except length to the ridiculous play.

The simple-minded premise has a mother driving from her Alabama home to attend her son’s California wedding because she’s afraid to fly for an asinine reason.  Her … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ January 16, 2014

PRETENTIOUSLY CUTE AND ANNOYINGLY COY “PETER AND THE STARCATCHER” OPENS AT ASU GAMMAGE

“PETER AND THE STARCATCHER”
Broadway Across America – Arizona, ASU Gammage
Tempe, AZ

If you like your fairy stories to be pretentiously cute, annoyingly coy, and drag on for well over two plus hours of tedium and blandly staged boredom, “Peter and the Starcatcher” is your show this week at ASU Gammage.  If you like vibrant and provocative theater that stimulates your mind and entertains dazzlingly, stay away from the touring “Peter” company, a recent Broadway show guaranteed to lull you to sleep.

And that’s … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ January 13, 2014

“4000 MILES” BRILLIANTLY ACTED BUT “TAKE ME OUT” REVIVAL IS DEADLY

“4000 MILES”
Actors Theatre, Black Theatre Troupe’s Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center
Phoenix, AZ

Two plays opened over the weekend.  Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles” in Actors Theatre’s superb staging is brilliantly acted and sensitively directed.  The other production is a disappointing remounting of Nearly Naked Theatre’s most popular play “Take Me Out.”

The local premiere of “4000 Miles” is a touching generational gap play that shows movingly the way an elderly grandmother and her hip grandson look so differently at life.  The play is solid but … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ January 6, 2014

ATCs “XANADU” EXPLODES IN SHEER DELIGHT AS IT LAMBASTES THE 70s

“XANADU”
Arizona Theatre Company, Center Stage, Herberger Theater Center
Phoenix, AZ

With tongue firmly planted in its gregarious cheek, the musical “Xanadu” explodes in sheer delight on the Herberger Theater Center stage as it affectionately lambastes the 1970s in a dazzlingly entertaining Arizona Theatre Company staging by David Ira Goldstein.

The musical is crafted by book writer Douglas Carter Beane from the original movie but he’s beefed up the plot to reference Greek mythology.  The silly and coy story is campy fun that works because it never … Continue Reading

This review aired on KBAQ January 2, 2014

POORLY CAST “MAMMA MIA” IS NOT THE GIANT PARTY IT SHOULD BE

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

With Tuesday’s return of “Mamma Mia” to ASU Gammage, there should be a giant party on stage.  But there isn’t because of a tired and poorly cast production that doesn’t belong in a major Broadway road tour stop like Phoenix.  This tacky bus and truck company version belongs only in small, unsophisticated theater towns like Tucson where this mediocre tour stopped for a few days before its local engagement.

The show includes nearly two dozen … Continue Reading