Jersey Boys is presented in a documentary-style format that dramatizes the formation, success and eventual breakup of The Four Seasons. When I last met up with these boys, it was during their return engagement at DPAC back in 2015. Since then, the Broadway production celebrated its 10th anniversary,... (more...)
At the core of Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, THE FLICK is the juxtaposition between celluloid and digital film projections, art and commercialism, reality and make-believe. But it's more than that. It's a character study of the everyman navigating familial workplace relationships and di... (more...)
Based on Ron Chernow's 2004 biographical novel titled Alexander Hamilton, the musical, Hamilton, tells the true story of one of America's Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton. An immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and was the new... (more...)
Every so often an offbeat show comes along that's nonsensical and nutty. But not all those shows have the longevity or fandom of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW. The costumed crowd filling the Town of Cary's Booth Amphitheater for the limited run of Theatre Raleigh's production the weekend before Halloween wa... (more...)
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately one in five adults, 43.8 million people, in the United States lives with a mental illness.
As a person who has lived with family members suffering from mental illness, I know how a diagnosis of anxiety, or any mood disorder for ... (more...)
They say the show must go on. Such was the case Saturday night when THE CHOIR OF MAN'S truck broke down and showed up in Durham at 7:10 p.m. for an 8:00 p.m. show. Nevertheless, the cast handled the mishap in true CHOIR OF MAN style, greeting the audience in the lobby while the set was being loaded ... (more...)
LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE by Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron explores the complex relationships women have with their shoes, purses, bras, weight, Madonna, their sisters, and their mothers.
Based on the book by Ilene Beckerman, the play opened off-Broadway at the Westside Theater in 2009 after a l... (more...)
A 'Forbes' headline from last week read: "Ford Prepares for Mass Layoffs After Losing $1 Billion to Trump's Trade Tariffs, Report Says." In fact, Ford is planning to restructure its company to the tune of $25.5 billion, which could cost as many as 24,000 people their jobs.
Seemingly ripped from t... (more...)
In the Heights is an original musical that is set over the course of three days, involving characters in the largely Hispanic-American neighborhood of Washington Heights in New York City. Originally conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda during his sophomore year at Wesleyan University, the musical had its... (more...)
On April 11, 2003, just two days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, along with General Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the media. When asked about the looting and the lack of law and order following the 'liberation' of Iraq... (more...)
A storm is brewing over Theatre in the Park (TIP), a storm of such magnitude that it brings three strangers together in a honky-tonk bar in the middle of nowhere.
The barkeep in this gin joint is Hank. He doesn't see too much traffic (except in September), which makes this random Tuesday unusual.... (more...)
At the Carolina Theatre in Durham Sunday night, Randy Rainbow got a standing ovation before he even sang one note. In fact, one woman in the audience stood up and called him a national treasure, a beacon of frivolity amidst precarious times.
Rainbow's show was interlaced with clips of his viral v... (more...)
Last weekend, Lauren Gunderson's THE REVOLUTIONISTS opened at Raleigh Little Theatre, proving once again that women and feminists can be very funny.
THE REVOLUTIONISTS tells the story of four women during the French Revolution: Marie Antoinette, an 'occasionally, unexpectedly profound queen who n... (more...)
From the outset, it is clear, that Theatre Raleigh's production of ONCE is not going to be a typical theatrical experience, but a completely immersive one.
Based on the 2007 movie of the same name, ONCE is a story about a Guy and a Girl who come together through their love of music.
From the g... (more...)
Based on Emile Ardolino's 1992 film of the same name, Sister Act follows disco diva Deloris Van Cartier as she is put in protective custody after witnessing a murder. Not only that, but she is hidden in the one place that the cops are sure she won't be found, a convent. While struggling through the ... (more...)
There's an irony about sitting in a theater on opening night reviewing a play about a play and the sometimes-tempestuous relationship between the players and the critics. But that's exactly what Terrence McNally's IT'S ONLY A PLAY is about, a group of theater people waiting for the reviews of their ... (more...)
With the fiery intensity of a tigress, Judy McLane channels opera diva Maria Callas in Theatre Raleigh's production of Terrence McNally's MASTER CLASS.
The Tony Award-winning MASTER CLASS opened on Broadway in 1995. The play is inspired by the master classes Callas taught at Julliard in 1971 and ... (more...)
When THE BOOK OF MORMON opened on Broadway in 2011, it was called blasphemous, crude, raunchy, and genius. The brainchild of the creators of adult animated series "South Park," THE BOOK OF MORMON won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical. This week it plays at the Durham Performing Arts Center (D... (more...)
Kristin Chenoweth kicked off the next leg of her tour in Boone after a six-week hiatus last weekend. She lit up The Schaeffer Center as part of the Appalachian Summer Festival. The concert was a homecoming of sorts for Chenoweth's ever-talented musical director Mary-Mitchell Campbell who is from Wil... (more...)
Based on the 1992 Disney film of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the real-life newsboys strike of 1899 in New York City, Newsies tells the captivating story of a band of underdogs who become unlikely heroes when they stand up to the most powerful men in New York. When I last met up with... (more...)
Any Stephen Sondheim musical is a lofty feat for even the most seasoned of performers. Sondheim's music is notable for its quick syncopated rhythms, timing and nuance, which is one reason Raleigh Little Theatre's Teens on Stage production of INTO THE WOODS is such an achievement.
INTO THE WOODS t... (more...)
Long before Disney introduced the world to Anna and Elsa, Christina Rosetti penned GOBLIN MARKET, a fairytale narrative poem about the power of sisterly love. In Rosetti's poem, two sisters, Lizzie and Laura, triumphantly overcome the temptation of goblin men in a haunted wood.
Rosetti's piece ha... (more...)
FIRST DATE is a cute, somewhat formulaic, kitsch musical comedy that packs a whole lot of laughs.
The show, which premiered at Seattle's ACT Theatre in 2012 and opened on Broadway a year later, kicks off North Raleigh Arts Creative Theatre's (NRACT'S) new season. The score features music and lyri... (more...)
Theatre Raleigh's BIG FISH transports audiences to a simpler time, before the age of social media and the insatiable need to curate personal stories on small screens. This is the stuff of pure imagination.
Based on Daniel Wallace's 1998 novel, BIG FISH centers around the character of Edward Bloom... (more...)
BWW Review: JERSEY BOYS National Tour at North Carolina Theatre
BWW Review: The Barlett Theater's Site-Specific Production of THE FLICK Capitalizes on Every Multileveled Morsel of Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-Winning Play
BWW Review: HAMILTON National Tour at Durham Performing Arts Center
BWW Review: Theatre Raleigh's ROCKY HORROR Spotlights Triangle Talent and Pays Homage to Cult Classic
BWW Review: NRACT'S NEXT TO NORMAL Tackles Difficult Subject Matter with Dignity
BWW Review: Wildly Entertaining CHOIR OF MAN Brings Joyous Romp to Durham Performing Arts Center
BWW Review: The Judson Theatre Company's LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE Celebrates Sisterhood and Unity
BWW Review: Sentimentality and Show-Stopping Performances Make Temple Theatre's GHOST Worth the Trip
BWW Review: Playmakers' SKELETON CREW Gives Contemplative Commentary on the Decline of American Industry and Fleeting American Dream
BWW Review: North Carolina Theatre's IN THE HEIGHTS
BWW Review: Burning Coal's Well-Timed Historical Drama STUFF HAPPENS is the Right Play for Right Now
BWW Review: Theatre in the Park's IT IS DONE Serves Up Spooky Tale Along With Fine Performances
BWW Review: No-Holds-Barred, RANDY RAINBOW Takes Down Trump and Friends One Parody at a Time in Durham
BWW Review: Raleigh Little Theatre's Timely REVOLUTIONISTS Feels Like the Right Story for Right Now
BWW Review: Theatre Raleigh's ONCE is Simply Grand
BWW Review: Raleigh Little Theatre's SISTER ACT
BWW Review: Theatre in the Park's IT'S ONLY A PLAY Has Makings of a Good Show, but...
BWW Review: Intense and Fiery Performance Makes Theatre Raleigh's MASTER CLASS Riveting
BWW Review: Irreverent THE BOOK OF MORMON Still Big on Laughs, Slight in Shock Value
BWW Review: Kristin Chenoweth Returns to the Stage in Boone After a Six-Week Hiatus and Lights Up the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
BWW Review: North Carolina Theatre's NEWSIES
BWW Review: Raleigh Little Theatre's INTO THE WOODS Turns Spotlight on Talented Teens
BWW Review: Women's Theatre Festival's GOBLIN MARKET Makes for a Visual Feast
BWW Review: NRACT'S Fun FIRST DATE Worthy of a First Impression Rose
BWW Review: Theatre Raleigh's Inventive, Heartfelt BIG FISH Transports Audience to a Simpler Time
