Both in tribute to a rollicking show and in deference to folks sitting behind them, the audience doffed their hats during Regina Taylor’s Crowns at Geva. But men and women wore fancy hats to the opening, and some bought fancy hats from Rochester milliners in the lobby. The show celebrates the “hattitude” of Southern African-American […]
Herbert M. Simpson
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An engrossing ‘Trial’
Fred Nuernberg is giving a heroic performance locally in a Canadian play about a truly great US poet, Ezra Pound, who was accused of treason following World War II. Pound exiled himself from the US to Mussolini’s Italy at age 39, and throughout the war, he broadcast to American soldiers his messages of hatred […]
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Role playing in a time warp
Gerard Stembridge’s funny play, That Was Then, now getting its American premiere at Geva Theatre Center, makes an interesting point about the everlasting battle between the Irish and English: Their roles have been reversed. Ireland is enjoying an economic and population boom and replacing its agricultural industry with high tech industry and its dependence on […]
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Dance a new dance
Returning to Nazareth Arts Center November 30 through December 5, Garth Fagan Dance introduced new dancers and an already acclaimed new work and demonstrated again why they are Rochester’s only performing arts group to receive annual plaudits worldwide. I’m not sure that departed company icon Natalie Rogers or the superb Chris Morrison can be replaced, […]
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Queasy queens and claptrap death
A leader in alternative theater, Shipping Dock chose an offbeat gay Christmas comedy for the holidays. But The Crumple Zone by Buddy Thomas is slight and uneven and needs all the theatrical help it can get. On opening night it didn’t get much. Under the pressure of a major case of amateur actors’ opening-night panic, […]
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Too far up the Irish
Given its remarkable show of ability by local actors David Jason Kyle and Peter J. Doyle, I’m sorry to report that Blackfriars’ production of Marie Jones’ Stones in His Pockets is attempting more than anyone involved can handle. The overall outlines of the comedy emerge intact, and the actors’ commitment and understanding of their roles […]
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A topper and a last chance
Some holiday traditions reassuringly retain their values: in Rochester The Nutcracker remains a pleasure and an artistic highlight and keeps getting better. Artistic director Jamey Leverett reports that the 18-year-old Rochester City Ballet is dancing at its best to date, and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra reportedly sounds splendid in its 82nd season, playing in the […]
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A stranger comes to town
Despite its winning both the Toronto SummerWorks Festival’sBest Play and Outstanding Ensemble Awards, Alan Dilworth’s The Unforgettingstrikes me as inchoate and barely effective. The ever-resourceful Downstairs Cabaret Theatre imported this offbeat drama and, because it runs less than an hour, added Canadian folksinger Claire Jenkins with Andrew Penner from the play’s cast to perform a […]
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Irish, Jewish, or Texan, it’s all comedy
One reward from Geva’s artistic director Mark Cuddy’s sabbatical year in Ireland is a new season richly flavored with Irish plays. There will be exciting new ones, but the first, now playing, is 100 years old. And, in every sense of the phrase, it’s a tough choice. No masterpiece, John Bull’s Other Island is talky […]
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Through the eyes of a child
There’s a formula for single-actor plays that can get pretty tedious. “What’s that you say, Mr. President?” the actor playing some famous person says, then answers in an effort to imitate the president’s voice. Some are historically interesting and even showcase an actor’s versatility. But in The Syringa Tree Shipping Dock Theatre is offering a […]
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Music of the heirs
Conceived, designed, and directed by John Haldoupis, After Sondheim, a new musical revue, is a collection of songs from musical theater pieces by newer and younger composer-lyricists. Haldoupis considers them possible successors to Stephen Sondheim, the current king of American musicals. With three unlikely exceptions, they all write both words and music for their shows. […]
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Third Simon a charm
Geva has treated Neil Simon awfully well in its now-complete trilogy of Simon’s autobiographical “BB-plays,” Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Broadway Bound. The last is the best, because the script and characters, as well as the actors, director and designers, have all matured and grown in the process. Biloxi took Eugene Morris Jerome to […]
