KENTUCKY THEATER REVIEWS

There is electricity in the air during this time of the year at Actors Theatre. Humana Festival is in town and with it patrons are introduced to new and exciting works that get their start on Actors' stages. Included among these works, the season's Actors Apprentices get time to shine with You Acros...

Sleeplessness is something we can all relate to, and The Patron Saint of Losing Sleep opens with a wonderful comic montage of Ada (Trina Fischer) struggling with insomnia. Up, down, tossing, turning, collapsing to the floor like a cartoon. Trina Fischer's performance as Ada begins with an engaging s...

Tori Amos' 'Raspberry Swirl' pumps throughout the theater as I enter it, and I cannot help but feel as though I have been transported into some sort of concert. I almost instantly settle into the energy as I recognize several artists I like in the preshow music. A theme arises: These artists are all...

Marginal Loss is a play written by Deborah Stein about an investment firm previously located in the Twin Towers trying to gather the fragments of their business in the wake of the 9/11 tragedy. They find themselves working at a backup facility in New Jersey struggling with limited resources and wond...

Whether or not Lost in Yonkers is Neil Simon's greatest play may be arguable; there are a lot of plays to compare it to, but it did win the Pulitzer Prize in 1991, beating out plays like Six Degrees of Separation. Although it does have plenty of humor, including several classic Simon one-liners, it ...

The 42nd Annual Humana Festival opens with a play about family and loss that connects deeply with its audience. God Said This, by Leah Nanako Winkler, introduces a family fractured by the past and the mother's battle with cancer....

As a prelude to this play, vintage cartoons from the 1930's were projected onstage as the audience entered to take their seats. Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie, which introduced Mickey Mouse, was animated by Ub Iwerks, who (we are informed on titles between the shorts) soon left Disney to make his ow...

A Chorus Line seems like catnip for any local company with a taste for musicals. It is a classic that has achieved iconic status in the years since its Broadway premiere in 1976; moreover, it is not only a show about show business but about the people who live for it: the gypsy dancers who show up i...

Ken Ludwig's Moon Over Buffalo is the kind of well-constructed, old-fashion farce that has been a mainstay of community theaters for generations, yet it was written in the early 1990's. Set in 1953, it captures the struggle in desperation of a second-rate repertory company touring mid-range towns wi...

Derby Mine 4 starts out with a pair of coal miners trapped underground after a methane explosion. Becky (Megan Adair) is a new employee, under the watchful eye of Dan (Casey Moulton), a youthful but prolific member of the industry. Their interaction quickly shows that Dan is a playful and aggressive...

There is an idea that Ancient Greece was an exemplary society. Even though they did build the foundation of western civilization and democratic ideals, especially when it comes to theatre. Yet the subjects of the plays are often war and it's devastating effects on humanity. This Commonwealth Theatre...

Murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery, and treachery take center stage in CHICAGO....

The Honey Harvest is a modest, heartfelt exploration of time and family. Melissa Holt (Megan Kubac) has moved back home to care for her widowed father, John (John Lina) as he suffers the advanced stages of Alzheimer's. One generation coming to grips with the diminished capacity of a parent is not an...

Hopping and bopping, Little Bunny Foo Foo takes over Actors Theatre....

The Broadway hit that's baked from the heart opens up in Cincinnati....

There's a lot to like about one of the newest theatre companies in town, Imagine Blind Players. They are a high-energy troupe of performers with varying performance experience, with the majority of them living with some visual impairment or blindness - hence the name of the group....

As you step into The Mex Theater before The Hunchback of Notre Dame, hymns and church songs fill the air. An impressive, monumental set fills the entire space accented by stained glass and bells at every angle. Below this set rests a chamber choir and music pit kept in the shadows, just out of view ...

The classic holiday comedy is now a big, brassy, and ultimately heartwarming Broadway musical....

What does a family do when their beloved father starts showing signs of dementia? Do you take him in and try to keep him comfortable or do you send him to an assisted living facility where experienced personnel will be there to take care of him? It's the question at the heart of Juergen Tossmann's l...

Tired of the family friendly holiday classics? Actors Theatre has the perfect remedy with this clever balls to the wall one man Christmas comedy....

The story of the holiday classic lands in Louisville....

Actors Theatre takes us back to Detroit circa 2008 in Dominique Morisseau's SKELETON CREW....

'Merry Christmas You Wonderful Building And Loan.'...

The scars carried home by combat veterans are often visible, but just as often they are invisible, at least to anyone who hasn't had similar experiences. In Pvt. Wars, James McClure examined Vietnam veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome years before it was given that name....