PHOENIX THEATER REVIEWS

In a theatrical era where standing ovations are dispensed like party favors, THE BOOK OF MORMON at ASU Gammage on its opening night elicited a reaction that felt less like polite approval and more like an arena rock concert. Audiences weren’t just clapping, they were erupting, unable to contain th...

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET CHRISTMAS brings sizzling entertainment to Arizona Broadway Theatre this holiday season! The run has closed, so this critic was very glad to have made it to the closing performance! ...

A 2 hour, high-voltage, rock ‘n roll joyride with the founding fathers of rock ‘n’ roll....

Theatre Artists Studio’s THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT is a whirlwind of wit, whimsy, and moral purpose. An imaginative, brisk, and highly entertaining staging....

The Phoenix Theatre Company’s production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL arrives as both a tribute and a celebration: a tribute to the late Alan Ruch, whose melodic and heartfelt score anchors the show, and a celebration of community, renewal, and theatrical craft....

REYKJAVIK is less a play to be solved rather than a mood to be inhabited. That may frustrate some, but for others, it’s the kind of theater that embraces mystery, that resists tidy endings, that thrives in the uncanny spaces between genres....

Based on the books by Arnold Lobel with music by Robert Reale and book/lyrics by Willie Reale, A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD is like a warm cookie....

One of the most difficult decisions an actor can face is the choice between financial gain and artistic integrity. When you add the paranormal haunting from a previous actor who played Hamlet, that choice becomes even harder. Ghostlight Theatre’s production of I HATE HAMLET is a quirky but insight...

HEIST at ATC is an unexpected treat!...

MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL at Broadway in Tucson casts a poignant spell over Centennial Hall this December 2-7. A transcendent spectacle, MOULIN ROUGE is a feast for the senses and will give audiences plenty to talk about. ...

Only on Broadway can a show this proudly preposterous, this shamelessly corny, sneak up on the skeptics and knock the wind out of them. SHUCKED, the goofy little musical that could, arrives at ASU Gammage in Tempe like a hayride crashing into a punch bowl....

In a piece defined by moments that dissolve as quickly as they form, the dedication lends the evening a quiet gravity, where the act of gathering in the Tornabene becomes its own gesture of remembrance. In many ways, the Tornabene itself becomes a collaborator. The theatre's quirky yet flexible geom...

A rare sequel that understands what made part one beloved, sweeping the audience up in a storm of feeling. It gives us what musicals once promised: a world heightened enough to believe that, like Elphaba, emotion itself can fly....

A big-hearted, crowd-pleasing production that wraps nostalgia, comedy, and a festive score into one joyful package....

Guest contributor David Appleford gives a grateful glowing green light to Childsplay’s production of RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER....

LOTERÍA: THIS GAME IS NO JUEGO is a marvelous and mystical musical now playing at Live Theatre Workshop....

RACE TO THE NORTH POLE is the warm cup of cocoa we need in the world right now....

In the Tony-nominated musical & Juliet, it’s as if William Shakespeare was handed a bedazzled microphone and told to start writing Romeo and Juliet all over again, only this time he should make it a fizzy, whirling pop fantasia that pulses with enough pop/rock earworms to play in your head on an ...

Some art offends not out of malice, but out of necessity. It erodes our defenses and upsets the hierarchies we've internalized for generations. Cloud 9 thrives in that awkward space where laughter and shock trade places. Caryl Churchill's comedy, though seemingly gratuitous, diagnoses our assumption...

Though modest in scale, Chanel Bragg’s and Kelcey Watson’s production achieves gravitas, a testament to a life fully lived in history’s shadows. They have turned Still’s monologue into a reminder that history is shaped not only by those in power but also by those who carried the trays, polis...

THE FRONT PAGE, although it is a crazy and ridiculous scenario, still resonates with audiences today. Fountain Hill Theater’s portrayal of the show is a great take on a classic show. ...

& JULIET, playing at Broadway in Tucson, is a lively jukebox musical stuffed to the brim with charm. Shakespeare and his wife Anne have a little disagreement over the ending of ROMEO AND JULIET....

Ken Ludwig's MORIARTY is now playing at The Invisible Theatre in Tucson. The play runs at breakneck speed and features a stellar cast of seasoned actors. MORIARTY is a thrilling and comedic tour de force....

A. R. Gurney’s LATER LIFE unfolds on a Boston terrace overlooking the harbor, a space suspended between the warmth of a party and the chill of the night air. It’s the perfect metaphor for the world Gurney’s works chronicle: gracious, tasteful, and ever so slightly paralyzed....

Patrick Hamilton’s Gas Light lit its first flame in 1938, a moody little stage thriller set in the fog-drenched backstreets of 1880s London. It was a venom-laced marital drama where domesticity was turned into a psychological trap. ...