Until fairly recently, genre plays — romantic comedies, murder mysteries, and so on — were a theatrical staple, whether on Broadway or in community theaters. Movies, and especially TV, gradually took them over (without making them any less formulaic). But the best of these plays are tidily written, and when they are well performed, they’re […]
Theater Review
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“Shirley Valentine”
Blackfriars Theatre is getting a slight jump on the fall theater season with its early-September production of “Shirley Valentine.” However, this production of Willy Russell’s endearing one-character play, anchored by a terrific performance, is not a theatrical hors d’oeuvre. It’s a modest, expertly prepared, and tasty meal. Susan Hopkins plays Shirley Bradshaw (née Shirley Valentine), […]
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The show must go on
If there is an Olympics of Theater, rehearsing and performing Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” would be its equivalent of the triathlon: an endurance test for the participants, but a lot of fun to watch from the safety of one’s own chair. With its lovingly detailed look on backstage and onstage chaos, and the opportunities it […]
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Theater Review: “The Kingdom Next To Fid” at MuCCC
The poster for “The Kingdom Next to Fid” promises, “There may be unicorns.” You’ll have to find that out for yourself, but if you see the new play at MuCCC, I can guarantee you will see all the other classic adventure-fantasy ingredients: good and evil fairies, chambermaids who are truly princesses, handsome princes, spells and […]
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Theater Review: “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at Geva
There’s an unofficial theatrical genre that’s called “The Little Show That Could” — a play or musical with modest requirements that started life in the hinterlands, finally made it to hit status in New York, and now has a lively afterlife in community theaters. A recent example — and a very appealing one — “The […]
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“A Little Night Music”
Pittsford Musicals has discovered sex. And in the nicest way possible, with a production of “A Little Night Music,” the Stephen Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical that details the amorous entanglements of a group of turn-of-the-20th-century Swedes. If this seems like a major change from this group’s generally family-friendly fare like “The Sound of Music,” “Annie,” and […]
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Theater Review: “Hedda” at MuCCC
The most unheroic of heroines is currently appearing at MuCCC in “Hedda,” an adaptation by M.L.P. Carroll of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler” that brings some interesting changes on the original. Carroll changes the setting from late 19th-century Norway to New Haven, Connecticut, in 1948. Hedda (Meredith Powell) is returning to town from a long, arid […]
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Theater Review: Out of Pocket Productions presents “Well”
I don’t know if it is postmodern, or meta-theatrical — or neither or both — but Lisa Kron’s “Well” is a clever, humane, and thought-provoking play. At the beginning of the show, Kron, who is the play’s writer as well as its main character, tells the audience they are in for a “theatrical exploration” of sickness […]
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Theater Review: “Sunset Boulevard” at Blackfriars
The dark side of Old Hollywood was apparently on the mind of Blackfriars Artistic Director John Haldoupis when he programmed the theater’s 2013-14 season. It opened with “Me and Jezebel,” which told an inspired-by-real-life story about latter-day Bette Davis. And now it closes with “Sunset Boulevard,” Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder […]
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Theater Review: “Tinker to Evers to Chance” at Geva Nextstage
One of the themes underlying two of Geva’s plays this season seems to be — as the PR for the latest Nextstage production has it — “the redemptive power of baseball.” This particular kind of redemption is achieved not by good works, but by faith — eternal optimism directed toward perpetually losing teams. Last winter’s […]
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Theater Review: RBTL presents Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”
Disney’s animated adaptation of the French fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” hit movie theaters in 1991. It is an important Disney property for several reasons. It was the first animated film to ever score a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards, and it was also the first Disney animated feature to be turned […]
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Theater Review: JCC’s “Young Frankenstein”
A few years back, JCC Centerstage presented “Mel Brooks’ The Producers.” The show packed the house and in some ways raised the bar for what audiences could expect from a splashy, modern musical put on by a community theater. The JCC is currently presenting Brooks’ follow-up show, a musical adaptation of the actor-writer-director’s 1974 comedy […]
