Anya Sebastian - Page 2

LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE, now playing at Aux Dog Theatre, deals with far more meaningful topics than the title may suggest. Written by Nora Ephron (WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE…) and sister, Delia Ephron, this is definitely a theatrical experience by, for and about, women.

CLYBOURNE PARK is not an easy play on which to slap a label. Part drama, part social history, part cultural commentary, woven together with humor that, in turn, inspires laughter, makes you wince, or leaves you squirming uncomfortably in your seat, this is not your usual theatrical fare. Also well-crafted (it won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for drama) provocative and thought- provoking, Bruce Norris's play is an experience not to be missed.

ALL MY SONS is a classic Arthur Miller psychological drama about a family torn apart by the unraveling of its own dark secrets. First produced in 1947 and based on a true story, the play (which became Miller's first Broadway success) is a timely reminder of the devastating impact that misguided personal decisions can have on the world at large.

DEFENDING THE CAVEMAN, comedian Rob Becker's one-man show about the age-old battle of the sexes, first appeared in San Francisco in 1991. It went on to become the longest running solo show on Broadway and, since then, has been translated into 16 different languages and been produced in over 35 different countries. It was presented, last weekend, at the Kimo theater, featuring Cody Lyman as the classic 'every man' figure.

Tom Paxton is a genuine American icon. The legendary folk singer and songwriter has been performing, singing, writing and recording songs for over 50 years and, judging by his performance to a sold-out house at the Broadway Cultural Center, he shows no signs of slowing down.

FREUD'S LAST SESSION, the off-Broadway runaway hit by Mark St. Germain, is now playing at The Cell - home of the Fusion Theatre Company - and I urge you not to miss it!

The Acting Company launched its national tour at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, on October 17, with a solid production of John Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN. This grim tale, which follows the fortunes of two, itinerant, California farm workers during the Great Depression, is a timely reminder of issues still painfully relevant in American society today. . .

THE CAPITOL STEPS has been delighting audiences with political satire for over 30 years and is now something of a national institution. The group was born in December 1981 ('when Reagan was president and ketchup was a vegetable') when some Senate staffers got together to devise entertainment for their upcoming Christmas party. They came up with the novel idea of satirizing, to music, the very hands that fed them. And the rest, as they say, is history. . .

It's not easy to slap a label on OTHER DESERT CITIES. Jon Robin Baitz has created a play that is truly a hybrid, combining laugh-out-loud humor with pin-drop silence, mystery and mounting suspense. . .

The Santa Fe Playhouse is the oldest, continuously running community theater west of the Mississippi, and summer would not be complete without its production of the FIESTA MELODRAMA. Reinvented each year by an anonymous committee of local writers (whose identity wisely remains a well-guarded secret) the melodrama has established itself as a good-natured, satirical send-up of some of the most noteworthy personalities, eccentricities and scandalous happenings in the City Different during the previous 12 months...

I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PEFECT, NOW CHANGE is an entertaining musical romp through the significant stages of love and relationships. Presented as a series of vignettes, the revue begins with a first date and ends with an attempted pick-up in a funeral parlor...

By any standards, DOIN' IT FOR LOVE, presented as a benefit for the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe, was a rare, delicious treat. For two nights only, on July 20 and 21, three of the most well known names in show business - Kaye Ballard, Liliane Montevecchi and Lee Roy Reams - teamed up to deliver a delightful, nostalgic stroll down memory lane. . .

GAS LIGHT, a Victorian thriller by British dramatist, Patrick Hamilton, opened in London in 1939 and in 1941 appeared on Broadway under the title, ANGEL STREET. The dark, psychological thriller about a murderous, scheming husband, who sets out to convince his wife that she is going mad, was an instant success and went on to become one of the longest-running non-musical shows in Broadway's history...

In the best tradition of grand opera, Tosca has it all; love, lust, evil, betrayal, hate, suicide, even an execution. Add to all that, Giacomo Puccini's stirring music, highlighted by a couple of particularly memorable arias (famously performed by operatic legends Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti) and you have the makings of an evening of fine, traditional artistry.

THE MEN OF MAH JONGG is not your typical comedy. Watching four, aging Jewish guys, sitting around in a New York apartment, kvetching about life, love, money and relationships, doesn't exactly sound much like a fun-filled scenario. . .

PHOENIX, by NY playwright Scott Organ, is not your standard romantic comedy. Four weeks after a one night stand, Sue and Bruce meet again. She tells him she really likes him, had a great time with him, but doesn't want to see him again. . .

To put on a full-length play with just three characters - two males who hardly ever leave the stage and one female who appears periodically - takes courage. And when the words are crafted by David Mamet and his fast rhetoric deals with issues and conflicts that lie beneath the surface, it takes masterful timing and good chemistry to bring it to life.

It may not sound much like a comedy, but IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? has kept audiences at the Adobe Theater happily convulsed with laughter since it opened.

Arlo Guthrie plays to a packed house at the Kimo Theater, at the start of a national tour with future stops in Los Angeles and Portland.