Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Roger Bean, who wrote and directed the hit musical The Marvelous Wonderettes and its various sequels, has done it again. He’s written another juke-box musical — but here the emphasis is on country and western songs. Read more… Rob Stevens – Haines His Way Bets Malone and Misty Cotton are two of … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw A clear sign that something has entered the zeitgeist is when people decide to mock it in song. Now that the TV series Game of Thrones has become a worldwide phenomenon, its time has come. Read more… Now running through December 20
Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw There was a time when gas was eleven cents a gallon, a new car might run you a thousand dollars, average wages were under two thousand dollars a year, and thousands of unsuspecting American citizens deemed unfit and undesirable were forcibly sterilized by the government, with the full aid … Read more
Margaret Gray – LA Times Frank Gehry’s set for “Ay, Carmela!” at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre may not make any lists of the architect’s most impressive designs. Read more… Now running through December 13.
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw Stan Rich and Ronnie Jayne’s flippant tour de force about taxation with musical representation is a charming affair, though hardly enough to shake off our rage relating to any recent adventures with the I.R.S. Rich and Jayne’s sweet musical slides by a fair way on upbeat silliness, while the straightforward … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw John Cariani’s play is, in fact, a collection of nine short sketches, mostly duologues, and mostly comic with some serious overtones. Much of Cariani’s comedy is rooted in the notion of taking figures of speech literally. In “Her Heart,” a woman (Natalie Avital) had her heart broken by her recently … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw In the 1974 Broadway comedy My Fat Friend, Lynn Redgrave played a zaftig young woman thrilled that a man has shown an interest in her. When he’s called away for a time, she resolves, with the help her friends, to lose weight, and heighten his interest in her by becoming thin … Read more