Paula and George Wolkind's dream of a Delaware Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is now a bonafied institution. A sellout crowd at the baby grand on September 22 welcomed not only musical legends but also historians, DJ's and promoters who have had and continue to have a profound influence on the music scene... (more...)
Based on the hit film and the incredible true story, Candlelight's CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is the high-flying musical comedy about chasing your dreams and not getting caught. If you're gonna fake, fake til you make it!... (more...)
Delaware Theatre Co opens its season with THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. For Arthur Conan Doyle adherents, this is pipedreams away from Benedict Cumberbatch OR in my case, Basil Rathbone (my favorite all time baddest of bad guys in the movies of the 50's).... (more...)
The Walnut Street Theatre opens its 211th season (no typo) with an uproarious YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. This venerable theatre has seen the likes of all the Barrymores, Katherine Hepburn and Edwin Booth, to name a few. (Although his brother's legacy probably tanked his career).... (more...)
Leslie Bricusse's book follows the basic outline of the often told tale. The good Dr. Henry Jekyll is a man with a mission - develop a serum that will separate mankind's innate dichotomy of good and evil to cure mental illness (mainly, his father). Dr. Jekyll's desire to test his formula is aggressi... (more...)
Such a serendipitous time to stage SOUTH PACIFIC at Candlelight; 1949 legendary musical theatre consciously plotted to speak to racial animosity; brown skins vs white skins. And now, 78 years later, we reside in a country riven by a racist president.... (more...)
From a short 1976 New York Magazine article by Brit ex pat Nik Cohn (which he later admitted was fictional) was spawned a block buster film that made John Travolta a household name.... (more...)
I understand why actors have a passive-aggressive relationship with critics. Over 30+ years of reviewing regional theatre, some don't make eye contact with me when they feel I have slighted or criticized them unfairly in a previous review…or worse yet…never mentioned them!... (more...)
Bono, friend to Troy the protagonist in UD Rep Ensemble's FENCES, comments 'Some people build fences to keep people out, some people build fences to keep people in'.... (more...)
While UD Rep Ensemble's general modus operandi is classic plays from the likes of Moliere, Shakespeare and Thornton Wilder, their mission statement includes production of contemporary classics as well. Artistic Director Sandy Robbins is smitten by Theresa Rebeck, a prolific and award-winning America... (more...)
HONK! Is a musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson story of "The Ugly Duckling". It embodies a message of tolerance and bullying…and as Director Bud Martin suggests in his program notes…'the discourse in our country today is full of bullying, name-calling, racism and anti-immigration". (Pr... (more...)
GUYS AND DOLLS, at Candlelight through February 24, opened on Broadway in 1950 and is front and center in the pantheon of American musical theatre. I had forgotten how much I treasure this show.... (more...)
There's a reason that the vast majority of parishioners to musical theatre had not seen SHE LOVES ME prior, including Aisle Say. The show, while billed as charming and seasonal with carolers singing "12 Days of Christmas", has as much gravitas as tweets from Tweeter in Chief... (more...)
In his liner notes, Artistic Director Sandy Robbins comments that Alan Ackybourne's WOMAN IN MIND (December Bee) was on his short list since the inception of UD Rep ten glorious years back.... (more...)
Aisle Say is prescient. He can determine where SANCTIONS, the terse and taut production now at DE Theatre Company, will NOT be staged: U of Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan State and Penn State, to name a few. There are hundreds more.... (more...)
I'm a bit surprised that the News Journal did not report a run on Scottish plaid leading up to Candlelight's opening of BRIGADOON. The tartans from the various clans made for a colorful array by Costumer Tara Bowers and surely enriched the production.... (more...)
The Walnut Theater opens its 210th season with HOLIDAY INN with music by America's songwriter, Irving Berlin. One is invariably impressed by the institution's lavish sets (Robert Andrew Kovach) and the quality and attention to detail of their entire Creative Crew.... (more...)
Let's start with a basic misconception - FUN HOME is not a comedy. The word 'fun' is an abbreviation for funeral. FUN HOME is the shortened, more enjoyable characterization of the Bechdel Funeral Home. Even though the young Bechdel children play inside caskets, and make-up silly commercials for the ... (more...)
Candlelight's DO BLACK PATENT LEATHER SHOES REALLY REFLECT UP was a revelation to me. I am serious! I began my public-school education in the mid-fifties. Some of my friends went to Catholic school. Now I know why some of them are screwed up.... (more...)
One wonders what Director Rosanne DellAversano and Music Director James Fuerst talk about at home. Is dinner conversation taken up with zombies, flesh eaters, how to maximize blood flow on the brave guests who sit in the "Splatter Zone" of their present production of EVIL DEAD, THE MUSICAL?... (more...)
Shakespearean stars were aligned this season with not one but two TWELFTH NIGHTS, staged earlier in the year at UD Rep Ensemble and presently in the sylvan fields of Arden.... (more...)
BWW Review: DE ROCK N ROLL HALL OF FAME at The Baby Grand
BWW Review: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN at Candlelight Theatre
BWW Review: HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES at Delaware Theatre Company
BWW Review: YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN: THE MUSICAL at Walnut Street Theatre
BWW Review: JEKYLL & HYDE at Wilmington Drama League
BWW Review: SOUTH PACIFIC at Candlelight Theatre
BWW Review: SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER at Media Theatre
BWW Review: LEND ME A TENOR at Candlelight Theatre
BWW Review: THE LAST FIVE YEARS at Kent County Theatre Guild
BWW Review: AIDA - ELTON JOHN & TIM RICE at Wilmington Drama League
BWW Review: FENCES at UD Rep Ensemble
BWW Review: MAURITIUS at UD Rep Ensemble
BWW Review: HONK! at Delaware Theatre Company
BWW Review: GUYS AND DOLLS at Candlelight Theatre
BWW Review: THE LAST FIVE YEARS at Wilmington Drama League
BWW Review: SHE LOVES ME at Candlelight Music Theatre
BWW Review: WOMAN IN MIND at UD Rep Enemble
BWW Review: SANCTIONS at Delaware Theatre Co.
BWW Review: BRIGADOON at Candlelight Music Theatre
BWW Review: HOLIDAY INN at The Walnut Theatre
BWW Review: FUN HOME at Wilmington Drama League - Welcome to the house on Maple Avenue
BWW Review: DO BLACK PATENT LEATHER SHOES REFLECT UP at Candlelight Music Theatre
BWW Review: EVIL DEAD, THE MUSICAL at Bootless Stage Works
BWW Review: TWELFE NIGHT at Arden Shakespeare Gild
