Michael Rabice

This production solidly tells a story in a way that insures the audience cares about it’s human characters as much as the animals. When you feel the same sympathy for a battered elephant, a dying horse and a battered wife, you have achieved story telling at a high level. This circus story does not disappoint. Even when tragedy somehow results in a happy ending.

Where THE NOTEBOOK succeeds is in the gritty reality of the disease, and the production directed by Michael Grief and Schele Williams manages to entrance the audience in it's creativity. The score by Ingrid Michaelson, while pleasant and unoffensive, is merely utilitarian.

The music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard are utterly forgettable, adding little to the familiar story, and often slows it down. Songs like “21st Century” and “It Works” add a bevy of ensemble members in an attempt to say “look, this is a song and dance musical!” The end results are only mildly amusing.

A BEAUTIFUL NOISE utilizes the device of Diamond and his 'Doctor' (psychologist) seated at the outset in comfy leather chairs... Through gentle probing, the composition of those lyrics form a springboard for Neil to tell his life's story. These two characters are on stage at all times, witnessing, commenting and mingling with the action as the life of Neil-Then unfolds.

THE WIZ seems to rush through Act I quickly, with brief introductions to each character, and songs that do have a similar, nondescript tone. It takes a while to develop a sense of heart for these street smart versions of Dorothy's pals. Luckily the second Act allows the group to meld better. The reveal of the Wiz's trickery was just as disappointing as ever, only to be resolved by Glinda once again. By the time the cast sings "Everybody Rejoice" (aka "Can You Feel A Brand New Day" by Luther Vandross) we are thrown back into the the psychodelic land of the 1970's, with a paean as uplifting as "Let The Sun Shine In" from HAIR.

In what can only be described as one of the cleverest bits of writing in recent years, the brilliant script by David Rest Read (of SCHITT'S CREEK fame) somehow manages to find a way to update Shakespeare's most famous romantic tragedy and make it a story of empowering women. What would happen if Juliet did not kill herself and leaves Verona to find happiness? Anne Hathaway challenges her husband to avoid the dreary ending, and fashion a new production where the action unfolds as the husband and wife extemporaneously write the new script, as the actors act it out.

Guilty as charged. I openly admit I really enjoy the ABBA musical, MAMMA MIA! There is a time and place for all kinds of entertainment, and the birth of the jukebox musical can almost certainly be attributed to kind of show MAMMA MIA has become. Now 25 years after it's opening, the national tour that is playing at Shea's Buffalo this week has audiences happily enraptured with a musical comedy that serves solely to entertain. And it most certainly succeeds.

Another relative newcomer named Katerina McCrimmon is a triple threat revelation as this century’s newest funny girl. Equal parts singer, actress and comedian, McCrimmon is the type of performer you will not soon forget, and for all the right reasons.