Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More!

By: Feb. 09, 2018
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BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More!

Check out our top features from around the BroadwayWorld below! Want more great global content? Check out our "Around The World" section!


Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! Washington DC: Contributor Elliot Lanes reviews DIGGING UP DESSA at the Kennedy Center. He writes "First, there are the performances. As Dessa, Alina Collins Maldonado commands the stage. She embodies a teenager with tons of angst. The same can be said for Chris Stinson as Nilo. He is the perfect match for Maldonado's Dessa. Both characters are, as drawn, pretty grating - and Director Rives Collins does nothing to soften them - but both of the talented actors work with what they have."


Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! Boise: Contributor Shannon Foy reviews BEER FOR BREAKFAST at Boise Little Theater! She writes "Now the rest of the audience seemed to bubble along with laughter -- remembering what it was like to dance with your girlfriend in the quad the night before graduation. Before kids and bills and high cholesterol levels gripped at you from every angle. I firmly believe that although I didn't like the script, that the target audience may enjoy it and have a fun, light-hearted time."


Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! Japan: Contributor Mara Jill Herman reviews DOGFIGHT at Toho Stage. She writes "Birdlace's tentative heart slowly opens over the course of the night. When Rose nervously invites him home, they consummate the relationship in "Give Way." The next morning, he leaves for Vietnam where Birdlace witnesses the senseless deaths of his friends, including his closest, the two B's. The play transitions to where it began in 1967 and as a sole survivor of the trio, Birdlace's delivery of "Come Back" as a lost and broken man is impactful. He surprises Rose at the diner and the estranged lovers embrace, left to an uncertain fate."


Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! Vancouver: Contributor Alyson Eng reviews MOTOWN at Vacounver's Victoria Theatre. She writes "Outstanding performances were made by many of the cast members including Trenyce as Diana Ross. Her impressive powerhouse vocals and overall stage presence as Diana was phenomenal. At one point in the show, she makes her way into the crowd to sing, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" with some lucky members of the audience. This component of the show really connected the audience to Diana and displayed Trenyce's dedication to the fine details of her character."


Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! New Jersey: Contributor Marina Kennedy reviews AINT MISBEHAVIN at NJPAC. She writes "The audiences at NJPAC were tapping their toes and enjoying every moment of the production that transported them to Manhattan nightclubs of yesteryear like the Cotton Club and Savoy Ballroom. The show opened with a thrilling rendition of the 1929 Fats Waller song that the show was named for,"Ain't Misbehavin". Some of our very favorites in the first act included "Honeysuckle Rose," Jitterbug Waltz," "Cash for Your Trash," and "The Joint is Jumpin'." The second act had charming and comical numbers like "Your Feets Too Big," "Fat and Greasy," along with moving selections that included "Black and Blue." The show also had vibrant dance numbers like "Jitterbug Waltz" and "The Viper's Drag."


Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! Buffalo: Contributor Michael Rabice reviews WAITRESS at Shea's Buffalo. He writes "The book by Jessie Nelson is served well by swift direction by superstar Broadway Director Diane Paulus- who has helmed such successes as PIPPIN and PORGY AND BESS. Paulus propels the action with cinematic flare, gliding scenes on and off stage, never allowing the story to waver. The idea of a small community diner is emphasized by having the band onstage with the ensemble. They are used not only as chorus, but as backup singers who clap along propelling the drama and boosting the power of some of Bareille's writing."


Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! Austin: Contributor Frank Benge reviews THE CURIOS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME. He writes "Tony Award winning powerhouse Laura Benanti is scheduled to appear in her one-woman cabaret at the Straz Center in Tampa on February 11. Celebrated for her impression of Melania Trump on Stephen Colbert's Late Show, Miss Benanti played Louise in the 2008 Broadway revival of Gypsy, winning the Tony Award, and appeared in the stage musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 2010, winning the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. She played Baroness Elsa Schräder in the 2013 NBC television production of The Sound of Music Live! and in 2015 began playing twin sisters Alura and Astra in the TV series Supergirl. Laura is also performing with her mother, talented actress and singer Linda Benanti, in a musical celebration of family titled, Laura and Linda Benanti: The Story Goes On."


Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! San Diego: Contributor E.H. Reiter reviews VIETFONE at San Diego Rep. She writes "With an expansive cast of characters and events from relatives left in Vietnam, hippies, an American soldier, time shifts, and those aforementioned ninjas, there is a lot going on here. It can at times feel a bit like an "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of sprawling plot and tone (exactly the same problem Marvel movies tend to have come to think of it....). While the rap is a nice additional unconventional touch, it doesn't always illuminate inner thoughts so much as repeat what dialogue has already explained."


Regional Editor Spotlight:

Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 2/9 - DOGFIGHT, MOTOWN, WAITRESS and More! Elliot Lanes
Washington DC Contributing Editor

Elliot Lanes has been working in theatre for over 20 years as a PSM, Sound Designer, Board Op....you get the idea. He has had the pleasure of working with some of DC's finest artists at venues such as Theater J, Studio Theatre, and Round House Theatre. Other DC area credits include many productions at Capital Fringe, and "Two Trains Running" and "Circle Mirror Transformation" at Prince Georges Community College. He also has been the lighting designer for the past five years for Momentum Dance Company's "Jazz Hip Hop Nutcracker." Prior to moving to DC, he was the Resident PSM for Negro Ensemble Company and White Horse Theatre Company in NYC for five years each. He also had the pleasure of working with Liza Minnelli, Betty Buckley and Marilyn Maye at the Backstage Bistro Awards as PSM for that event. Elliot previously covered the DC Metro Area theatre scene for Maryland Theatre Guide, and wrote the successful "A Quick 5" column.

Elliot is happily married to BWW's DC page coordinator Jennifer Perry who keeps him in a good place every day and has been doing so for the past six years now.


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