Fourth of July and I am sitting here with the Brits for a full day (near 6 hours) of King Henry VIII and his relationship challenges. This massive work was really quite perfect for the Fourth of July! Told in two parts separated by a dinner break, I took off my shoes, curled my legs and hunkered down for a delicious piece of this history. Smartly so, the set was black and grey and stark and ready to put all of the attention on the characters – not their world. Unlike most tellings of this piece of history, Wolf Hall focuses on the role that Crowell played as he goes from minor player to the puppet-master himself. Continue reading Wolf Hall, Parts 1 & 2→
Wow! Expressionism simmer down! The theatre company Elevator Repair Service never to be blamed for making safe choices, is tackling The Sound and the Fury? Come on! Adapted for the opening section, the one told by the “idiot” — a man who had been “3 years old for 30 years.” This incredibly dense play demands a reader’s patience as a character picks up an actual copy of the Faulkner novel and begins to read it – – and from the reading comes character – and from the character we going on an epic expressionistic roller coaster. Imagine expressionism through the eyes of a three your old child?! Continue reading The Sound and the Fury→
Wow! For a funny man like Larry David on stage – – nobody and I repeat nobody in the audience coughed up more than a laugh or two for the entire two hours. My row-mates and I thought that the opening scrim with the giant fish that actually winks at you was so cute – but then the curtain opened and we were in the land of TV sitcoms. Fish in the Dark focused on how bad family can behave around the relatives – especially the ones that have just kicked up the bucket. This is always ripe for comedy – but how many times have we seen it and how much better have we seen it! Continue reading Fish in the Dark→
Something Rotten!
book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O’Farrell
music and lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick
directed by Casey Nicholaw
St. James Theatre
June 20, 2015
Two massive things collide in this completely and way over the top musical: Shakespeare and Musical Theatre. And collide they do as the story takes us to a second rate Elizabethan acting company as it seeks to outdo Shakespeare fame by coming up with an entire new genre: Musical Theatre. Admittedly, I am not the biggest fan of musical theatre – – but I just found this one way to over the top – – to the point that it became ultimately tedious. It is one show-stopper after another, milking the audience for more and more attention – – begging to be loved.
Gloria
written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
directed by Evan Cabnet
The Vineyard Theatre
June 20, 2015
Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
Talk to any wanna-be actor and they will tell you that his/her number one fear is to spend out their youth in the confines of a cubicle, answering the phone, shuffling paper and dreaming of their next concoction at Starbucks! Gloria gives us such a cruel and competitive cubicle where twenty-somethings fight for the attention of their boss to get better jobs that they will equally disdain!
Office humor can be quite caddy and funny and then, of course, it can become quite crude, as lines are drawn and a feeding frenzy begins on all of the weak and disconnected employees. To avoid going out for drinks with the gang on Friday after work is to risk being the butt of the joke for a long, long time. Continue reading Gloria→
ish in the Dark
loria