WEST VIRGINIA THEATER REVIEWS

Occasionally a show comes along that ignores all the established rules of what musical theatre is supposed to be and instead opts to poke fun at, well, the theatre itself. Something Rotten, the acclaimed Broadway hit which opened in 2015 and was nominated for ten Tony awards, including Best Musical,...

Who would have thought that a play about a dog - a role performed by a human no less - would offer such a thought-provoking look at the meaning of life, the bond between owner and animal, the struggles of a long term married couple, and how to cope with growing older? Well Sylvia, A.R. Gurney's hila...

42nd Street is everything that theater should be; beautiful, touching, funny, impressive, and magical. It is why we go to the theater. There's no better way to spend two and a half hours than watching a group of extremely talented performers sing and dance their way through iconic songs and set piec...

It all starts with a waltz that goes terribly wrong. A man and woman enter, underscored by soft piano, and turn to face each other. They join together under the pool of a spotlight on an otherwise blank stage, and they dance together harmoniously-for a while. Suddenly, he misses a cue, she shoots a ...

Stuffed with razzle dazzle and old fashioned sex appeal, Chicago is an excellent musical evening at the Apollo Civic Theatre....

A sharply timed and hysterical show featuring a wonderful ensemble cast with pristine comedic direction from Susan Thornton, Ken Ludwig's Lend Me A Tenor at the Old Opera House is one evening of comedy you don't want to miss!...

We Will Not Be Silent at CATF is an extraordinary theatrical experience based on true events. College student Sophie Scholl is arrested and interrogated by a German Nazi officer (not entirely unsympathetic to her cause) for the only act of civil disobedience protesting Hitler by a German citizen dur...

A dark comedy about unexpected choices and familial prejudices, Byhalia Mississippi is a phenomenal evening of entertainment directed by Marc Masterson and wonderfully written by Evan Linder....

Though it contains the admirable and relevant racial contemporary message the playwright, Kara Lee Corthron, intended, Welcome to Fear City suffers from a lack of a coherent vision and a dragging pace unsuited to the fast-talking, non-stop world of the 1970's Bronx in which the play is set....

A beautiful story of redemption and forgiveness within a family, Everything is Wonderful truly is a wonderful show at CATF this summer. While still handling a dark subject matter, the tone and eventual outcome of the show is much more light-hearted than one would expect walking in and Ed Herendeen's...

Featuring a tour de force performance from its' two female stars, cutting dialogue and presenting the strongest of both social questions and CATF performances this summer, The Niceties is a show not to be missed....

Wild Horses is a charming, energetic coming of age story of teenage rebellion and romance in the 1970's expertly performed in a solo show by Kate Udall. Written by Allison Gregory and in the National New Play Network premiere, a single unnamed woman recounts a single summer from her teenage years wh...

Unlike Anything Goes or some other lighter summer shows set on ships, Christina Anderson's phenomenal new play, pen/man/ship, currently running at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, is a stunningly crafted and unforgettable voyage that confronts modern controversial issues, such as race, re...

At its basic essence, a play tells a story. But when the audience has difficulty understanding the story and the language, the message, no matter how poignant or powerful, is lost. The Wedding Gift, a world premiere play at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, is a visual feast for audience m...

The 2016 CATF mission statement lists their vision as 'The Ultimate Theater Experience', and Not Medea, one of the five plays in rotating rep at the festival, completely satisfies this expectation. A highly creative and completely immersive theatrical experience, Not Medea is brilliantly written by ...

Take a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead approach to O Neill's classic Long Day's Journey Into Night, and you have Ronan Noone's fantastically crafted The Second Girl, now running at the Contemporary American Theater Festival....

A show about older women celebrating and commiserating aging has been done countless times in entertainment, from Steel Magnolias on stage to The Golden Girls on television. However, 20th Century Blues, a world premiere play at the Contemporary American Theater Festival written by Susan Miller and d...

We Are Pussy Riot, currently running at CATF, is an immersive and outstanding theatrical experience, filled with unique choices and the sobering undercurrent that this story is not just theatrical fiction....

Everything You Touch, a black comedy focusing on the fashion industry and two intertwining stories about how it affects two separate women's self worth, is very similar to the industry it portrays. The overall look, visual appeal and staging is phenomenal, but beneath the gorgeous costumes and flair...

Exquisitely directed by Ed Herendeen with a strong script by Steven Dietz, On Clover Road at CATF is truly an edge-of-your-seat thriller which leaves the audience guessing and gasping at every new suspenseful situation....

In a twist on the typical modern American romance, The Full Catastrophe shows just how funny and futile our modern ideas about love can be. Dr. Jeremy Cook is a successful linguist, now unemployed, and accepts a mysterious job offer from an eccentric businessman, Mr. Pillow. As part of the "Pillow P...

In an intimate show with epic possibilities, World Builders at the Contemporary American Theater Festival raises important questions about the fine line between imagination and insanity in today's medical society....

Written by Bruce Graham and directed by Ed Herendeen, North of the Boulevard is an enjoyable modern-day comedy with enough undertones of familial dysfunction and economic inequality to make the humor hit a little too close to home for many viewers. North of the Boulevard focuses on one evening ne...

Written by Christina Anderson and directed by Lucie Tiberghien, the World Premiere production of The Ashes Under Gait City displays an age-old conflict through the modern lens of our reliance on social media technology....

For a show heavily focusing on artificial intelligence and technology, Thomas Gibbon's Uncanny Valley displays a genuine feature of human emotion. Directed by Thomas Dugdale and set in the "not-distant future", Uncanny Valley portrays the relationship between retiring neuro-scientist Claire (Ba...