PHOENIX THEATER REVIEWS

Alastair Evans's documentary, A CRACK IN THE MOUNTAIN, brings to the forefront the potential threats to the grandeur and sanctity of one of the world's great environmental treasures. Featured at this year's Sedona International Film Festival (February 19th-27th)....

ADA AND THE ENGINE is a sprawling narrative that dabbles in the intersection of mathematics and a love triangle - and it does so eloquently while shedding light on the immortal shadow of a father's abandonment. It's a handful, but it's one way to alleviate the esoteric chatter of binary codes and al...

Karen Burns's AN OTHERWISE MAGICAL LIFE, showing at Theatre Artists Studio through March 6th, is a stunning and uplifting account of one woman's journey to overcome life's trials and tribulations....

Roko Belic's must-see documentary TRUST ME exposes the pervasive manipulation of information by forces aiming to create social disruption and influence human behavior. Screening at this year's Sedona International Film Festival (Feb 19-27)....

THE BAND’S VISIT, now playing at ASU Gammage in Tempe until February 13, may tell the small, modest tale of a group of musicians from another country stranded overnight in the middle of nowhere, but it's really about friendship, loneliness, and wasted opportunities; characters discovering how simi...

Don Lockwood and Lena Lamont are the most famous silent movie stars of their time. When audiences start clamoring for talkies, Don, Cosmo, the Studio, and Don's new lady love, Kathy, have to get creative to ensure the movie is a success because Lena doesn't have the voice for the talkies....

POWERLANDS is a riveting tribute to the Resistance of Indigenous peoples to the exploitation of their lands. To be screened at this year's Sedona International Film Festival....

THE GODS OF COMEDY are forcing us to choose between hilarity or health. This #stageleftaz production of Ken Ludwig's two-hour romp has been extended through Feb. 6. Not by popular demand, although it deserves it, but because of #COVID exposure. If you're up-to-date on your vaccinations and crave a l...

Arizona Broadway Theatre's handsome new production of GYPSY, featuring Cassandra Klaphake as Mamma Rose and a solid supporting cast, gives the audience the chance to enjoy the Rodgers and Hammerstein form of musical theatre storytelling all over again. Runs through February 20th....

Director Matt Bowdren helms this steady ship and fashions a piece of theater that strikes an impeccable balance between nuance and grandiloquence. With delicate adherence to Miller's sensibilities, actors never go out of bounds even as they achieve their bombastic heights; conversely, poignant momen...

In A SONORAN DESERT CAROL, Claire Mannle had the insight to adapt Charles Dickens' Christmas classic as a sacred homage to our native ancestors, but not without admonishing the predatory elites of our modern economic system. Dickens would likely approve the latter inasmuch as income inequality had b...

The Southwest Shakespeare Company has abridged and adapted one of Shakespeare's most famous plays to introduce younger audiences to classical theater. This troupe of actors does a phenomenal job with a shortened script that packs a punch....

Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre’s production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, directed by Trisha Ditsworth is refreshing and entertaining holiday fare for the entire family. Runs through December 19th....

Black Theatre Troupe’s production of Langston Hughes’s BLACK NATIVITY is a moving celebration of life and faith. A Seasonal must-see! Runs through December 19th at The Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center in Phoenix....

As an homage to Oscar Wilde and his genius, Mesa Community College's production of Melissa Leilani Larson’s GIN MUMMY is an enjoyable and enlightening comedy of manners. Limited engagement through December 11th....

The National Tour of MY FAIR LADY is a theatrical joy ride that bursts into life the moment the giant pillars of Convent Garden are lowered from above and the opening scene is established. Running through December 12th at ASU Gammage in Tempe, AZ....

Tyler Pirrung is terrific as Buddy in Arizona Broadway Theatre's ELF THE MUSICAL, directed and choreographed by Kurtis Overby. The show runs through December 29th....

Hale Centre Theatre's production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL ~ A Play with Music is a wholesome and joyful celebration of the Christmas spirit ~ the perfect Holiday fare for the entire family. Directed by David Dietlein and featuring Tim Dietlein as Scrooge (in the Red Cast), the show runs through December...

No matter the competition, Gaslight remains a thriving enterprise -- an ironclad formula that keeps the house full, taste buds sated, music playing, jokes cracking, and business humming....

David Appleford hails MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET CHRISTMAS as 'a genuine, rock ‘n roll musical theatre thrill ride.' Just right for the Holiday Season! Runs through January 2nd at The Phoeni Theatre Company....

In MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY, Gunderson partners with her friend Margot Melcon and lends a righteous voice to Mary Bennet, the third child of the Bennet household in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. In the duo's amusing account, Mary comes of age in a way Austen enthusiasts ought to appr...

“Funny” is what’s on tap in Arizona Broadway Theatre’s wicked pissah production of URINETOWN THE MUSICAL, directed by Renée Kathleen Koher and accentuated by Stephen Hohendorf’s energetic choreography. The show runs through November 14th at ABT's Mainstage....

A critical review of Stray Cat Theatre's production of Alexis Scheer's OUR DEAR DEAD DRUG LORD on stage at Tempe Center for the Arts through November 13th....

A tribute to adolescent angst and nerd revenge fantasies, MEAN GIRLS is a satisfying, hilarious musical adaptation of Tina Fey's 2004 comedy. It's an entertaining (if guilty) pleasure propelled by superb video design, skilled comedians all over the stage, and its fun (if disposable) score. The hit m...

A lot is written about the effect of an absent father on sons. The phrase 'A boy needs his father' is often bandied about in conversation but not really heard concerning daughters. Scores of scholarly papers about this have been written with experiments and scientific data that reinforce the importa...