Rent: The Broadway Tour

The rent is late. No one’s got a job. No one can afford health insurance, and someone has contracted HIV/AIDS. The circumstances faced by the friends in Rent were as urgent in 1996 as they are now. Read more

Jesus Christ Superstar

Few actors are as identified with a single role as Ted Neeley, who has been performing the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar for nearly four decades.  The good news is that Ted Neeley still gives a star-worthy performance in this iconic role.  The better news is that Ted Neeley is surrounded by a talented cast in a first-rate touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar now making a brief visit at the Warner Theatre. Read more

A Bronx Tale

It is easy to praise Chazz Palminteri’s acting ability in bringing nearly a score of colorful characters to life in his one-man show A Bronx Tale.  Equally impressive is his ability to craft such a rich and poignant semi-autobiographical memoir.

Palminteri paints an affectionate portrait of his childhood Bronx, a place where kids grew up on the street corner nurtured by doo-wop music and their mother’s pasta sauce. Read more

The Marriage Counselor

The Marriage Counselor

Written and Directed by Tyler Perry
Produced by Tyler Perry at the Warner Theater
Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

Going to a Tyler Perry production is like going home on Spring break-you know what’s coming, but it’s comfy and reliable, and there’s absolutely no place like home.  Nobody hits the buttons, unburies the bones, dares the characters to “go there,”  and splashes over the top like Perry.  His musicals fit a winning formula– a mix of zany characters in serious life situations, good smacking the mess out of evil, the healing power of prayer and redemption, and enough gut-wrenching gospel music to qualify for Sunday service. Read more

Hairspray

Hairspray

• Book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan; Music by Marc Shaiman; Lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman.
• Derived from a movie by John Waters (New Line Cinema)
• Directed by Matt Lenz
• Produced by NETworks Presentations, LLC at the Warner Theatre
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Does life hold a role for the unlovely and the despised? Are there still dreams to be had when you’re too plump to go to the prom; or when your hopes and ambitions lie like ashes amidst the heaps of laundry you’ve taken in to help pay the mortgage?

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