KENTUCKY THEATER REVIEWS

What did our critic think of CHICAGO at The Lexington Theatre Company? Chicago the Musical is in a word , conic, especially for musical theatre types. Thanks to a wildly successful film adaptation, it's a cemented staple in pop culture. With perhaps John Kander and Fred Ebb's most recognizable score...

What did our critic think of ANASTASIA at Whitney Hall? The Broadway musical Anastasia finally opened in Louisville this week, 28 months after its anticipated opening in March of 2020. It also marks the final show of Broadway in Louisville's 'Welcome Back' season. The audience was buzzing as patrons...

What did our critic think of THE BAND'S VISIT at The Aronoff Center?...

When you hear the word Xanadu, you can't help but snicker. When you hear that Xanadu is a musical, your jaw hits the floor. The film Xanadu is infamous for its negative reviews after the release in 1980, but over the years it has earned a 'guilty pleasure' cult classic status. Fast forward to 2007, ...

When someone says they're turning one of the most beloved movies ever into a musical, there's always some cause for worry. The usual questions flood in: 'Will they do it justice? 'Will they say this line?' 'What are they going to change?' In most cases these worries are warranted, but in the unique ...

It's hard to think of a musical with 9/11 as it's central event, isn't it? An event so tragic and recent couldn't possibly be musicalized? Well, in most cases I would tend to agree, but as a lover of the art from, I'm always open to be surprised....

Lincoln Center Theater has a vast and now legendary history of producing lavish revivals of some of the most amazing golden age musicals. In recent years they brought us splendid productions of South Pacific, The King and I, and Falsettos. However, this is nothing new as they flourished in the 80s a...

It's interesting to think at one point in time, Cats was one of the hottest tickets you could get. Almost a Hamilton of the 80s, the show was a global sensation, running over 18 years on Broadway and spawning numerous tours and international productions even up to today. At the time of its height, t...

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is an indie rock musical that started it's life off-broadway and put the phenomenal John Cameron Mitchell on the map. That successful indie rock musical made its way to the big screen where it solidified itself as a cult classic in musical theatre and gay culture....

Last night almost didn't feel real. Waitress opened in Louisville. This statement under normal circumstances wouldn't hold that much weight, but this show has been a bit of a unicorn for Louisville audiences, as the show's opening has been over three years in the making. The show was originally sche...

The cast is led by relative newcomer Olivia Valli as Vivian. This show is her first leading role having been an ensemble player in various companies over the last few years. I cannot overstate how perfect Valli is in the role. Vocally she's stunning, but what makes this combination of performer and ...

The Long DistanceAnd thus is launched the 44th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. Once not very long ago the showcase for the Professional Training Company used to be the last show to open; now it OPENS the festival itself. Whether this is just out of love for the members of the PTC, a co...

BWW Review: SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION at University Of Louisville...

Song Of Capitulation...

Hot off the success of Les Misérables, the creative team of Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil created another war musical: Miss Saigon. Loosely based on the opera Madame Butterfly, Miss Saigon is an epic romance set right before the end of and three years after the Vietnam War. While the m...

If you imagine a new production of the classic musical Hair will be a cozy, nostalgic revel in hippie culture you are partly right. But Hair was created as a bold and provocative statement of the counter culture to the establishment, and director Frank Goodloe's take on the material is faithful to b...

In a blaze of glory Miss Saigon is back and better than ever!...

What's the point of voting? StageOne Family Theater sets out to answer this question in the premiere production of Lawbreakers: A Fast and Furious History of Women's Suffrage. Commissioned from native Louisville playwright Diana Grisanti, this hyperactive whirlwind of race and gender inequality is f...

Once On This Island is a pretty good show, but this production is closer to great. As with the recent Broadway revival, Robert Fleming exploits the aspect of fable or folk tale at work in the story to interject thoughts of the aftermath of generations of colonialism and the state of island cultures ...

What you consider to be the turning point of the 1960s may depend on where you were standing. If you lived on the west side of Detroit it may have been July 1967, when five days of rioting left 42 dead. In Detroit '67, Dominique Morriseau creates a story just a short distance from the epicenter of t...

Acting Against Cancer identifies itself as 'a nonprofit semiprofessional theatre company that strives to change the lives of children touched by cancer through the arts.' Within the Kentuckiana theatre scene, they have also developed a reputation as an ambitious theatre company most likely to perfor...

Actors Theatre of Louisville's current production of The Wolves has an embarrassment of riches, onstage and off. Sarah DeLappe's Pulitzer Prize nominated, soccer-centric play is an important script that features 10 girls and femmes who pass the Bechdel Test as easily as the ball. They probably only ...

With flat out, incredible singing and excellent movement through complicated issues, Pandora Productions' Choir Boy is no-doubt about it a winner....

Would you believe that Jesus Christ Superstar has been a part of our musical theatre repertoire for 50 years now? That almost stops me in my tracks as I can recall singing choral arrangements of this production when I was but a budding and promising middle school student. Songs such as 'What's the B...

This modern classic returns to the stage in a spicy new production....