Phoenix Metro Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 41

BWW Reviews: PHANTOM Lifts the Spirits at Hale Centre Theatre
by Herbert Paine - September 01, 2014

It's kind of gutsy to feature an alternative musical treatment of Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera when its iconic award-winning Andrew Lloyd Weber namesake is liable to overshadow any such effort, but that's what Hale Centre Theatre has done, and with great success, in its season opener, Phanto...

BWW Reviews: ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID Needs More Grooming
by Herbert Paine - August 25, 2014

I'm a great fan of Golden Girls, the legendary and hilarious TV sitcom for which Jamie Wooten was a producer and writer ~ the same Jamie Wooten of the equally prolific comedic trio of Jones Hope Wooten that penned Always A Bridesmaid. I therefore expected a comedy imbued with similar sparkles of wi...

BWW Reviews: BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK Reveals A Stark Reality
by Herbert Paine - August 25, 2014

In By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, acclaimed dramatist Lynn Nottage (winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Ruined), has illuminated the irony and hurtful absurdity of the Black struggle in Depression-era Hollywood to break the chains of racial stereotyping and to land good roles with good lin...

BWW Reviews: Valley Youth Theatre's WEST SIDE STORY Is Brilliant In Every Way
by Herbert Paine - August 15, 2014

Think about the combined genius of Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerome Robbins and the driving inspiration of William Shakespeare that created West Side Story. Then realize how awesome a dare it is to mount this classic musical, to be true to its artistry, its complexity...

BWW Reviews: …AND THE CHIHUAHUA II Sates the Palate at Lunch Time Theater
by Herbert Paine - August 08, 2014

Karen Burns and Debra Rich deliver a pumped up and punchy portrayal of a dynamic duo of complementary if not competing spirits in a short play (of which they are as well the authors) that wonders out loud if the path to self-improvement and self-realization ever ends. They are a delightful team of a...

BWW Reviews: Desert Stages Theatre Sings the BILOXI BLUES
by Herbert Paine - August 04, 2014

On a simple stage, set with rough-hewn foot lockers and makeshift bunk beds, Mark-Alan Clemente has assembled an able cast of actors who sing Biloxi Blues the way Neil Simon might have appreciated. It is in the angst and defiance of Arnold Epstein, compellingly portrayed by Todd Michael Isaac and Sg...

BWW Reviews: JERSEY BOYS is Sensational!
by Herbert Paine - July 24, 2014

Jersey Boys is far more than a jukebox musical. It is deeper and richer in story line, texture, and technique than most~ a tale of invention, of the creative work-in-progress, the sometimes perilous and sometimes glorious alchemy that, in the case of four young men from the gritty streets of Newark,...

BWW Reviews: Desert Stages Theatre's CABARET Lacks Oomph
by Herbert Paine - July 21, 2014

The one good thing to be said about Desert Stages Theatre's production of Cabaret is Terry Gadaire. As the racy and suggestive Emcee of 1929 Berlin's Kit Kat Klub, he personifies the decadence and ultimately the pathos of a Germany descending through the gates of Hitlerian hell. Gadaire has been a c...

BWW Reviews: PETER PAN is Enchanting! Arizona Broadway Theatre's Production is a Triumph! Errigo is Amazing!
by Herbert Paine - July 16, 2014

Arizona Broadway Theatre has pulled out all the stops and mounted a production of Peter Pan that is unparalleled in its charm and dazzle. David Errigo, Jr. delivers the quintessential Peter Pan ~ puckish, daring, self-assured, clever, poignant, stubborn....

BWW Reviews: FOOTLOOSE Explodes with Talent and Flair at Hale Centre Theatre!
by Herbert Paine - July 14, 2014

Cambrian James has directed and choreographed an uplifting and super-charged production of Footloose at the Hale Centre Theatre in Gilbert AZ. It's a seamless show with a smartly assembled cast of superbly talented actors and inspired stagecraft....

BWW Reviews: Anything Goes at Actors Theatre's THE COTTAGE
by Herbert Paine - July 11, 2014

Actor's Theatre's The Cottage is light and enjoyable fare for a hot summer's night. It's silly and predictable stuff, based on a premise that could have as easily come from the mind of Noel Coward but that to be truly great and live up to its hype would have required his writing prowess....