You arrive to a very small theatre at the Signature Theatre building. The moment you enter you notice a nicely dressed man sitting on stage alone with a piano. He is playing show tunes. He is playing lots of show tunes. Then he is joined on stage with the remainder of the cast – – all well dressed – – all gathered up to the piano singing show tunes to each other. A few audience members – including myself – thought that what we SHOULD do is to find this so hooky, so yesterday, so beneath serious theatre audience goers. But . . . Continue reading Steve→
Let me get directly to the point. This play is brilliant. It makes perfect sense why this production is working its way to Broadway in the near future. This play is brilliant – oh, I said this already! Continue reading The Humans→
Gay marriage is a done deal – – now the issue that is up to bat is gay parenting. Dada Woof Papa Hot explores the joys and challenges of gay parenting. This is certainly a relevant issue in that the next step on the road to true equality for gay Americans is the right to be parents. The play certainly looks into the many ramifications of this issue from the silly to the naughty to the serious. Continue reading Dada Woof Papa Hot→
It began in a blackbox. So far so good. Then Mother Courage came out in character and played with the audience trying to sell them watches and buy jewelry off of them. A bit of a gimmick, granted – by my hopes reached up. I thought I was going to see an entirely new take on this literally, war horse of a play. Then the play began, and all was back to the uninspired – – apart from placing the play in the Congo it was what I expected – – but then Tonya Pinkins, as Mother Courage, began to sing and I was right back there in the past with her in the front row of Caroline, or Change. Once she sings you can never forget that voice – – so beautiful, so rich, and so full of soul. NOW, I was in love with this show. Continue reading Mother Courage and Her Children→
I really didn’t want to see Once Upon a Mattress. What I really wanted to see was the “dream casting” that pitted Jackie Hoffman (Princess Winifred) and John “Lypsinka” Epperson (Queen Aggravain) together. I wanted to see this. But the problem was I had to sit through almost two hours of Once Upon a Mattress to get to this. It really wasn’t a bad production. Most of it felt like a very competent college production of Once Upon the Mattress that roped in two gay icons of the stage – – Hoffman and Lypsinka. If only there had been more of them and less of the rest. Continue reading Once Upon a Mattress→
Steve
