The Big Voice: God Or Merman?,by Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu, is completely original and utterly rewarding. A musical about two totally opposite, deeply religious, gay men falling in love, surviving AIDS, and finding success in showbiz could be camp or cliché. But we are truly indebted to Downstairs Cabaret Theatre for producing the East […]
Theater
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Geva program up for grabs, maybe with food
They’re back! Well, sort of. Three years ago, The Neo-Futurists opened Geva’s new Nextstage with Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. New players from the same outfit are presenting the same nonsensical title on the Nextstage again, taking time off from their perpetual clowning in Chicago, at (where else?) the Neo-Futurarium. […]
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Nostalgia with a giggle at Geva
Neil Simon’s 1983 Brighton Beach Memoirsis an immensely pleasing balancing act. Our most popular playwright’s first major drama of serious autobiographical content, it deepens Simon’s previous 22 years of hit gag-fests, yet more than equals their charm and humor. In these memoirs of the summer when Simon’s extended family shared a beach bungalow, we get […]
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Fuddy talk, crazy play
David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers slowly unearths haunting mysteries. I’ll tell you all the plot revelations now. You’re unlikely to remember the details when you go see Shipping Dock Theatre’s production of this goofy, disturbing drama, anyway. And if you do, they’ll probably turn out to be untrue. What happens, you see, is that Claire […]
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ABBA cadabra
The only question about the touring blockbuster musical Mamma Mia! was whether it keeps up the phenomenal energy and high performance standards that have made its long runs in the world’s major theater centers so magical. And the answer is a resounding yes. Completing two-weeks at the Auditorium Theatre this Sunday, December 8, Mamma Mia! continues to […]
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Billy wins twice at Geva
Who’d want to go see a two-person show about a Canadian air ace in World War I, with songs? Well, if you like Billy Bishop Goes to War as much as I did, you’ll try to see it twice at Geva Theatre to enjoy the cast-switch. Until the play closes December 8, the two leads […]
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Six Characters in search of Pirandello
The University of Rochester’s International Theatre Program is playing Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Authorto surprisingly potent effect. It’s hard to tell, though, whether that theatrical strength comes from, or despite, director Michael Barakiva’s “adaptation” of this modern masterpiece. Like two other plays from Pirandello’s early collection, Naked Masks, Six Characters […]
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Another beautiful mind
I think back fondly on an article called “On The Nature Of Mathematical Proof,” published more than 40 years ago by a bright undergraduate math major at Harvard named Joel Cohen. In it, Cohen proved mathematically that “Alexander the Great did not exist and he had an infinite number of limbs.” It follows that […]
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Still misbehavin’
What becomes a legend most? Revival. For what must be the biggest theatrical touring venture in Rochester’s history, Downstairs Cabaret Theatre is producing a 63-city tour of the legendary Fats Waller musical Ain’t Misbehavin’. The original award-winning show opened in February, 1978, off-Broadway, as a cabaret show, but quickly moved to Broadway for 1,604 […]
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Surefire comic spirits
More than six decades after Noel Coward took about two weeks to toss off his enchanting ghost-frolic, BlitheSpirit, it is still delighting audiences in frequent productions around the world. Everybody loves the show, but it’s about time to start respecting it as a modern classic of foolproof comic theater, as well. Blackfriars’ enjoyable revival this […]
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When tolerance is merely academic
Although its subject is controversial and its characters’ responses are emotional, Shipping Dock’s current, challenging production is thoughtful, rather low-key, and pleasant. Rebecca Gilman’s Spinning Into Butter takes its central character, Sarah Daniels, the dean of students at an elegant, Vermont liberal arts college, through conflicts with both minority students who feel discriminated against and […]
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Geva cooks up a mouth-watering blues musical
“You go to the theater night after night, hoping that something magical will happen,” my guest said to me as we were leaving Geva Theatre on Saturday, “and tonight it did.” Everybody knows what a tough business it is to try to produce new theater, especially a new musical show. But I don’t think I’m […]
