Tim Shawver - Page 2

Disney's THE LION KING has found its way back to Tempe nearly a decade after its sold-out multi-week visit in 2013.

HADESTOWN has arrived in Sun Devil country for a six day run at ASU's Gammage Auditorium. The 2019 Best Musical Tony Winner succeeds with an expressive, haunting score and the dark imagination of director Rachel Chavkin.

Last fall, when local companies were announcing their various seasons, one particular show made my eyes widen as I thought, 'WHO'S doing WHAT?' I'm talking about Arizona Opera bringing to Phoenix and Tucson a fully orchestrated presentation of the infrequently produced, head-shakeningly brilliant Stephen Sondheim musical, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. Elegant, poetic, heady, romantic, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC is an exciting choice for a large-scale staging leaning into traditional opera. Arizona Opera makes the most of the moment with an enchanting, delightful treat of a show.

Don Bluth Front Row Theatre debuts their new venue with ORSON WELLES, a one-man theatrical biography of the acclaimed actor/filmmaker. It’s a pleasant 80 minutes featuring Keath Hall’s expert performance of an unambitious script. 

Arizona Theatre Company's current production hits the mark as a historical reminder and, through masterful performances by its cast of three, depicts institutionalized racism's capability to destroy even the most loving relationships.

The first clue that ANASTASIA was going to be different than what I expected was a note on the title page reading, “Inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox Motion Pictures.” Plural? A savvy journalist, I quickly asked Siri to bring up the imdb page for “Anastasia”. Turns out Fox made ANASTASIA twice, the 1997 animated movie and a 1957 film that scored Ingrid Bergman's second Oscar and marked Helen Hayes' transition to the big screen. And it turns out the musical version has more in common with LES MISERABLES and RAGTIME than BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Gone is the hell-wizard Rasputin, his talking fruit bat sidekick, and the singing demon caterpillars. At intermission, I asked my third grade niece, Adalyn, how she was liking it. “It's awesome…it's real people, like no Beast or anything. No animals.” We decide that Disney staged musicals are great but more it's more impressive when you can achieve the magic without a story that departs from reality. ANASTASIA is historical fiction hypothetical. It poses a “what if…?” that a daughter of the last czar of Russia (The Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna) escaped when the czar's family was executed in 1918. Rumors persisted for decades that Anastasia did, in fact, escape. In 2007, DNA testing confirmed the remains of all four Grand Duchesses were in the Imperial grave. In this version, Terrence McNalley's book follows Anastasia's rediscovery of her identity after surviving the attack on her family and sustaining some plot enabling amnesia. Renamed “Anya” she grows up and makes a life in post-Revolution Russia. Anastasia's grandmother, the Dowager Empress (in a staggeringly moving performance by Joy Franz) has fled to France and offered a cash reward for anyone escorting the rumored alive Anastasia to Paris. The wily duo Vlad (Edward Staudenmayer) and Dmitry (Jake Levy) pull a My Fair Lady style makeover on Anya to collect the Dowager's prize. They are pursued by Gleb (Jason Michael Evans). A Soviet officer drawn to Anya romantically but tasked with finding and eliminating the last Romanov. Anya's memory becomes somewhat coaxed back, but the Dowager has stopped seeing Anastasia claimants after too much heart-break from countless frauds. It sounds dark, but with high-tech digital scenery and inspired performances across the cast it is delightful. Stephen Flaherty (Music) and Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics), responsible for bringing us RAGTIME, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, LUCKY STIFF, as well as the Oscar nominated songs carried over from the animated film. ANASTASIA is a perfect context for this pair. “Stay, I Pray You” (my favorite song of the evening) is evocative of RAGTIME's “New Music”. The two songs literally race my heart in a strangely specific way. My real test of a National Tour at Gammage is how fast I get the music playing in my car on the way home. At ANASTASIA I was already finding, “Stay, I Pray You” walking through the parking lot. The rest of the score is similarly haunting. Lila Coogan, as Anya/Anastasia, powers through the score with nuance, clarity, and passion. Tari Kelly, as Countess Lily, and Stadenmayer (Vlad) were Adalyn's favorite performances and I have to agree. This incredibly gifted pair take the “triple threat” designation (singer, dancer, actor) and go quadruple with the addition of flawless comic timing. The choreography by Peggy Hickey is masterful. It somehow combines inventive and traditional throughout and the ten-minute slice of “Swan Lake” infused into “Quartet at the Ballet” is the highlight of the second act. It's a fun-size version that gets an under-represented art form onto the plate. This kind of trope often means the plot putting the plot on hold. But here, it is the connective tissue between Anya, Dmitry, the Dowager, and Gleb as they each bring us up to speed heading into the show's climax. Ultimately, the show's success comes from applying a higher artistic standard to the “previously-animated-film-now-theatrically-staged” genre. It cashes in on the name draw of the 1997 film then gives the viewer something much more enriched than what they think they are coming to see.

With its spectacular American premiere production of playwright Andrew Bovell's THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE, Arizona Theatre Company might soon achieve its greatest impact on and thrust into the national theatre conversation.

The most producible classic American play, OUR TOWN, is thankfully one of its best. Zao Theatre's production delivers an enjoyable, well-performed production running in Apache Junction through April 13th.

ASU Gammage has capped their record breaking week of THE BOOK OF MORMON by announcing a second visit by the show in May 2017. Tickets go on sale Monday, November 9th. That's an eighteen month head start for a show that just grossed more than $2 million in the first six days of its inaugural trip to Arizona.

Gammage Auditorium fires up its impressive 2015-2016 season with the high-profile opener The Book of Mormon.

Arizona Broadway Theatre extends DISNEY'S LITTLE MERMAID for two performances in Prescott, AZ.

Tony nominees Laura Osnes and Santino Fontana present a musical theatre performance workshop January 21st in Phoenix.

PIPPIN's 1st National Tour arrives at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, AZ.

Like its composer, KINKY BOOTS is so unusual. Meticulously derivative, yet passingly original.

ONCE National Tour woos Tempe with sincerity and skill.

Origin stories get a headstart. An audience follows deeper a familiar character. Clever, new exposition regarding established plot points is engaging and often delightful. Origin stories can be the flashback episode of a water cooler weekly serial. They can be the other side of a story like WICKED. They can be the how did the super hero discover their super-powers story or a combination of all three like PETER AND THE STARCATCHER. The show, based on Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's book of similar name, calls itself 'a Grownup's Prequel to Peter Pan'. And in it, the devices of the origin story meet a play already propelled by a talented staging, hilarious incongruity, and impressive performances. The National Tour visits Tempe's Gammage Auditorium January 14th through 19th.

DISNEY'S THE LION KING as prideful as ever

The Dazzling 1st National Tour of PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT launches Gammage Auditorium's eclectic 2013-2014 season.

The new Mel Brooks musical, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, is a delightful and fun way for Tempe's Gammage Auditorium to start the 2010-2011 season. Strong performances and world-class choreography entertain despite a limited book and score.