EPIGONE: THE PLEASURES OF DISRUPTED REALITY
I loved being in it. Keven Kerr’s play is so unpredictable — narratively and stylistically — I never knew what was going to happen. And, working with the show’s designers, director Jonathon Young’s mounting of the piece is so immersive that watching it is like being...
NUNCRACKERS: FIZZLES
The material is irredeemably weak. Let’s zoom out for a minute. Nunsense, the musical revue that has spawned six sequels, including Nuncrackers, this Christmas-season variation, is thin at best. In Nunsense, a small group of nuns from the Little Sisters of Hoboken...
MARY JANE: EVERYWOMAN
Despite its subject matter, which might sound daunting, Mary Jane is not depressing. In fact, it’s often very funny. It’s so ambitious that it will open you up as a human being. And Mitch and Murray Productions’ presentation of the script does a superb job of...
BIG STUFF: YEP
This show is bigger than it looks and exactly as big as it feels. The set-up for Big Stuff is straightforward. Married comedians Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus tell us that, with the death of the last of their parents, they’ve found themselves with a lot of things....
TIME STANDS STILL: AND IT DID, OFTEN (IN A GOOD WAY)
As I was watching Act 1 of Curious Cats Theatre Collective’s production of Time Stands Still, my gratitude for the show was so intense it almost moved me to tears. I had more difficulty with David Margulies’s script in Act 2 but believe me when I tell you that this...
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE: YOU DESERVE THIS GIFT
The first act of this production of Sunday in the Park with George is transcendent. Truly. I have never been so moved by such a subtle combination of aesthetic pleasure and emotional resonance. To get a grip on what I’m trying to say here: there are plot shifts as we...
RED DEMON: DREAMY AND RESONANT
How often do you get to walk into a folktale? Japanese playwright Hideki Noda’s Red Demon, which premiered in Japan in 1996, feels both timeless and timely. A red creature has washed up on a beach below a Japanese village and most of the villagers, immediately...
VASCULAR NECROSIS: EAT ME (PLEASE)
Jordyn Wood can really write. In Vascular Necrosis, they take a fantastic premise and sustain their exploration of its potential for almost two hours. Halle-frickin’-lujah! Wood is a young playwright, a brand-new playwright to me, so their success is cause for...
DOGFIGHT: TAKES A WHILE
The Act 1 set-up of the musical Dogfight takes too long, the premise is off-putting, and the story doesn’t hit a persuasive groove until Act 2. On the upside, Dogfight is the inaugural production of JBM Theatre, a new local company dedicated to producing musical...
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