Perry Tannenbaum - Page 4

The new Charlotte Ballet production of PETER PAN, choreographed by Christopher Stuart, is the most inclusive and politically correct I've seen, retaining sets and costumes from previous editions while completely changing the music. Plenty of delightful surprises and only one SOS: it's a no-fly zone.

With deft direction that plumbs the depths of silliness in turning a Parker Brothers board game to farce, Jill Bloede weds the flimsiness of the 1985 film's plot with a divinely flimsy set populated by precision actors scurrying around amid flawless transitions and scene changes, lifting Sandy Rustin's stage adaptation to heights of delight, ridiculous story and all.

The new Broadway revival of INTO THE WOODS, now touring with a significant portion of the New York cast, dispels the too-clever-by-half aftertaste I've experienced in previous productions and bares Stephen Sondheim's heart in an affecting tribute to the late master.

Scott Brown and Anthony Brown's stage adaptation may be hit-and-miss, and Eddie Perfect's score may be a punkish bust, but thanks to a design and tech dream team, BEETLEJUICE fanatics won't be disappointed with the touring Broadway version.

A meteor named Mei-Ann Chen had an impact on Charlotte Symphony and its subscribers that was simply electrifying.

A worthy candidate for CSO's vacant musical directorship, Vinay Parameswaran brings a winsome personality and an eclectic modern program to the Knight Theater podium for his Charlotte debut.

Overamped at Belk Theater, with an underwhelming set of grievances in Diablo Cody's adaptation of Alanis Morissette's megahit 1995 album, JAGGED LITTLE PILL generates more fire and heat than substance until it arrives at its #MeToo moment - and finds its heart.

In a uniquely simpatico collaboration, composer-lyricist Anäis Mitchell and developer-director Rachel Chavkin have retold the Orpheus-Eurydice myth in a musical form that is slick and glitzy, with primal and profound truths lurking amid the razzle-dazzle.

Knight Theater should have been abuzz last Friday night. Yet somehow, a year after Charlotte Ballet's 50th-anniversary celebration - celebrated a year after the company's actual 50th anniversary - my own excitement wasn't reflected by the community at large. A night after Opera Carolina opened its 2022-23 season at Belk Theater to an empty upper balcony and a disappointing crowd, the curtain went up on Ballet's new era with a similarly sparse turnout.

Tina Fey proves she still knows high school in her musicalized version of MEAN GIRLS, but she makes rookie mistakes about what to leave out and what to leave in. Music by Fey's husband, Jeff Richmond, doesn't compensate for these deficits with Nell Benjamin's lyrics. But the deep and talented touring cast often brings redemption.

Amid a banquet of juicy roles doled out by Aaron Sorkin in his adaptation of Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Richard Thomas feasts the fullest, delivering the most powerful, staggering work I’ve seen from him in my 59+ years of watching his most memorable performances live on Broadway, live in Charlotte, and on TV.

We may have underestimated Cheri and Bill Steinkellner's musical adaptation of Paul Rudnick's SISTER ACT screenplay, moving the action from Vegas to Philly and making the show more character-driven. It actually works better on the smaller community theater stage at Matthews Playhouse than the big stage productions we've previously seen.

UNTIL THE FLOOD is an amazing, transformative theatre experience, a lesson for us all - including playwright Dael Orlandersmith, who researched it in Ferguson and St. Louis, Missouri.

With a mix of perennial favorites and time-tested originals, KAT EDMONSON made her long-anticipated Charlotte debut, charming a latenight Middle C Jazz Club audience

Stewart Goodyear was scintillating in his Charlotte Symphony debut, but the Stravinsky-Weill lineup that followed wasn't an anticlimax.

Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning SWEAT analyses the effects of NAFTA on steelworkers in Reading, PA - a microcosm of why blue-collar and union workers jumped out of the pockets of Democratic politicians in the 2000 election and how the seeds of xenophobic Trumpism were first planted

A late shift in venues moved the visitation of THE WOMAN IN BLACK, that famed West End perennial second in longevity to only The Mousetrap, from the Charleston Visitor Center Bus Shed - quite an intriguing choice - to Spoleto Festival USA's Festival Hall. Results are mixed.

As relevant and compelling as it was back in 2014 in responding to Michael Brown, HANDS UP is a perfect way for Three Bone Theatre to return to the Charlotte scene, more activist and more woke.