Of all the television versions of Broadway shows that seem to be appearing on DVD these days, the one that more accurately reflects the experience of seeing the show as it was on stage as any I have seen is the 1958 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Cole Porter’s masterpiece, Kiss Me, Kate.
Archives for July 2011
Oklahoma!
[Editor’s note: Much has been written about the extraordinary production of Oklahoma!, now enjoying a return engagement at Arena Stage. We’ve asked our dance reviewer to look at it from her perspective.] When choreographer Parker Esse joined the creative team of Arena Stage’s Oklahoma!, he was entering sacred territory: previous choreographers of the Rodgers & Hammerstein […]
Zayed and the Dream
The people of the United Arab Emirates are proud of their heritage and diversity, both of which are richly celebrated in Zayed and the Dream. Presented by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage and Lebanon’s Caracalla Dance Theatre, Zayed and the Dream celebrates the life and accomplishments of the UAE’s founding father, Sheikh […]
A Wild Play
If you’re looking for an evening of escapism and suspension of belief, A Wild Play is not the show for you. If you’re looking for an evening of contemplation and art that challenges you to do more than sit sponge-like in your Fringe chair, welcome. Welcome to the jungle.
Table 8
Table 8 is the place no one would want to sit in the fictional restaurant dramatized in Haley Brown’s play at the Redrum theater at Fort Fringe.
Patience
Those unfamiliar with the premise of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience can imagine a smaller scale “High School Musical” production that takes place in England during the Victorian age. Complete with a fickle gang of boy-crazy mean girls, young love, love triangles and comically impressive young men in uniform who spend all their time strutting to […]
Who’s Your Baghdaddy or How I Started the Iraq War
As a Fringe reviewer, it is always nice to read something in a program that acknowledges the challenges of creating the play in question. In the words of Charlie Fink, producer of Who’s Your Baghdaddy? Or How I Started The Iraq War, talking about the original screenplay written by JT Allen:
Seed
The thing that is so key about Hip Hop is that no matter what one professes to know about it, there is always something new to take away. This is what turns that professor into the student.
Embodying Poe
In the director’s notes, director/writer/performer Michael Oliver quotes Archibald MacLeish: “A poem should not mean/but be.” I would add, “Or be performed”.
The Many Women of Troy
What do the women do while the men are at war? It is this question, asked in the midst of an all-out musical and visual spectacle, that drives director Tracey Elaine Chessum’s production of The Many Women of Troy. And I mean ‘spectacle’ in every sense of the word. After watching the first fifteen minutes, […]
iToonsical
The imaginative team behind Fringe 2010’s hit iSchool Musical returns to Fringe with a hilarious new show, iToonsical. Based on the idea of an animated movie musical (think Disney or “South Park”), the characters in the show they created when i was there was a completely improvised musical were all animals.
Hello, Hedgehogs! A Storytelling Show
I haven’t been to many Fringe shows that ended with everyone in the audience asking for a picture of the performers. Then again Hello, Hedgehogs! deviates from the norm in a bunch of ways. Its solo performer, Ellie Shinman, must not have heard the dictum “never share the stage with small children or live animals!” […]