Exit StrategyIke HolterAurora Theatre CompanyAdam Niemann & Margo HallIt’s 6 p.m. in early August a couple of weeks before school is scheduled to open. A thirty-year-old, boyish-looking, white Vice-Principal is trying his best to make friendly small talk about the chocolate cake he left today in the teacher’s lounge to a stone-faced, African American veteran teacher … [Read more...] about “Exit Strategy”
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“Anastasia”
AnastasiaTerrence McNally (Book); Stephen Flaherty (Music); Lynn Ahrens (Lyrics)SHNLila Coogan & Stephen BrowerSoon after a group of Bolsheviks brutally murdered Tsar Nicolas II and his entire family on July 17, 1918, rumors spread faster than the Revolutionary Guard could extinguish them that Grand Duchess Anastasia had somehow escaped and was living in hiding. … [Read more...] about “Anastasia”
Anything Goes
Anything GoesCole Porter (Music & Lyrics)P.G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, Howard Lindsay & Russell Crouse (Original Book)Timothy Crouse & John Weidman (New Book)Hillbarn TheatreNathaniel Rothrock & Caitlin McGinty Beginning with the ship’s captain and sailors raising full-voice and rousing harmonies in “There Is No Cure Like Travel” and the full cast blending … [Read more...] about Anything Goes
“The Language Archive”
The Language ArchiveJulia ChoTheatreWorks Silicon ValleyThe CastIn her play, The Language Archive, Julia Cho explores that interplay of language and love as we meet a couple in the course of a break-up because spoken words fail them, an elderly couple who have spent a lifetime differentiating the languages of love and of conflict, and a young woman who learns a new language … [Read more...] about “The Language Archive”
“Cabaret”
CabaretJoe Masteroff (Book); John Kander (Music); Fred Ebb (Lyrics)San Francisco PlayhouseJohn Paul Gonzalez & the Kit Kat DancersSince its 1966 Broadway debut and its initial eight Tonys, Cabaret has continued to evolve through several major, award-winning revivals in both New York and London, becoming ever darker, starker, and rawer with each new production during its … [Read more...] about “Cabaret”
“Indecent”: Day 8, Play 9, TheatreEddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Indecent Paula Vogel Oregon Shakespeare Theatre The Cast of Indecent As a violin hauntingly plays a song unknown but still quickly familiar in its sounds and rhythms as Eastern European Jewish, we see eight pairs of shoes at the stage’s edge – eerily reminiscent for any of us who have been to Budapest and have seen the moving memorial there to … [Read more...] about “Indecent”: Day 8, Play 9, TheatreEddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
“Hairspray — The Broadway Musical”: Day 8, Play 8, Theatre Eddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Hairspray – The Broadway MusicalMark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan (Book); Marc Shaiman (Music); Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman (Lyrics)Oregon Shakespeare TheatreKaty Geraghty, Daniel T. Parker & CastIt is only fair to open this review of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Hairspray – The Broadway Musical with a warning: From the opening “Good Morning Baltimore” to the … [Read more...] about “Hairspray — The Broadway Musical”: Day 8, Play 8, Theatre Eddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
“Cambodian Rock Band”: Day 5, Play 6, Theatre Eddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Cambodian Rock BandLauren Yee, with Songs by Dengue FeverOregon Shakespeare FestivalJoe Ngo, Abraham Kim, Brooke Ishibashi, Jane Lui & Moses VillaramaA play about family displacement, trauma, and massive genocide is not a play one would normally expect often to laugh, to tap one’s foot to rock music, or to walk out feeling uplifted and inspired. But when the play is … [Read more...] about “Cambodian Rock Band”: Day 5, Play 6, Theatre Eddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
“All’s Well That Ends Well”: Day 4, Play 4, Theatre Eddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
All’s Well That Ends WellWilliam ShakespeareOregon Shakespeare FestivalRoyer BokusCan anything actually end well in a play where for every good, there is a bad; for every show of trust, there is a betrayal of deceit; for every wise counsel, there is an insult full of biting cynicism. Opposites meet, blend, clash, fight, make love, make war, make peace. The sexes pit … [Read more...] about “All’s Well That Ends Well”: Day 4, Play 4, Theatre Eddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
“Mother Road”: Day Two, Play Two, Theatre Eddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Mother RoadOctavio SolisOregon Shakespeare FestivalMark Murphey & Tony SanchoSeventy-plus years have past since the Joad family of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath joined a parade of desperate migrant farmers, all leaving their starving lives in Dust-Bowl-ravaged and looking for the lush life they saw painted on fruit crates from California. Two Joads – a mother and her … [Read more...] about “Mother Road”: Day Two, Play Two, Theatre Eddys Goes to the 2019 Oregon Shakespeare Festival
“Passion”
PassionStephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics); James Lapine (Book)Custom Made Theatre CompanyJuliana Lustenader & John MelisTwo voices intertwine as their beautifully sung notes erotically embrace in an opening song that mirrors the locked eyes, the probing hands, and the lip-to-lip brushes of two lovers singing “Happiness” in duet:“I’ve never known what love was ...But now, … [Read more...] about “Passion”
“Once”
OnceEnda Walsh (Book); Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglov (Music & Lyrics)(Based on the Movie by John Carney)42nd Street Moon The Ensemble of OnceEven if the pre-show were the show, how could one not rush to pocket a ticket for 42nd Street Moon’s regional premiere of Once? Thirteen hand-clapping, body-swaying, and foot-stomping singers – all also musicians – fill the … [Read more...] about “Once”
“One Man, Two Guvnors”
One Man, Two GuvnorsRichard Bean(Based on The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo GoldoniWith songs by Grant Olding)Palo AltoPlayers The Cast It only takes the stumbling entrance of Doug Santana onto the stage in the persona of Francis Henshall – the servant of two ‘guvnors’ – to ascertain immediately that Palo Alto Players has a rollicking, riotous hit on its … [Read more...] about “One Man, Two Guvnors”
“Oedipus El Rey”
Oedipus El ReyLuis AlfaroMagic TheatreGendell Hing-Hernandez, Armando Rodriguez, Esteban Carmona & Juan Amador“Do we lay down and take what the world has given us?Or do we break down the cycle, the system, and tell new stories?Can we live the story not yet told and the possibility not yet imagined?Or are we fated?”Ten years ago, Magic Theatre staged the world premiere of … [Read more...] about “Oedipus El Rey”
“Kiss My Aztec!”
Kiss My Aztec!John Leguizamo and Tony Taccone (Book)Benjamin Velez (Music and Arrangements)David Kemp, Benjamin Velez & John Leguizamo (Lyrics)Berkeley Repertory Theater KC de la Cruz, Chad Carastarphen & Angelica BeliardElectricity sparks through the air as the arriving audience is already in full abuzz. After all, big red balloons are bouncing off their … [Read more...] about “Kiss My Aztec!”
