by Colin Thomas | Dec 1, 2024 | Review
Perhaps the kindest way to start is to say that, artistically, Miracle on 34th Street is a tough sell in 2024. (And the realistic way to start is to say that this Arts Club production fails to sell it.) Miracle on 34th Street is thin, sentimental, and painfully...
by Colin Thomas | Dec 1, 2024 | Review
Childhood poverty and abuse, adult addiction: this is my kind of holiday show. Seriously. At this time of year when so much entertainment is brainless and weightless, In the Belly of the Carp offers a more satisfying experience. And the staging of this production from...
by Colin Thomas | Nov 24, 2024 | Review
East Van Panto: Robin Hood is not the best East Van Panto ever, but it’s still fun and it’s still a win. Jivesh Parasram and Christine Quintana wrote the script, as they did last year. In their story, Robin Hood is a little critter who lives with his band of...
by Colin Thomas | Nov 23, 2024 | Review
Well, that was a journey. In Act 1, I admired the performances but was so uninterested in the storytelling that I wrote in my notebook, “Why am I here?” But, by the emotional climax of Act 2, tears were streaming down my face and, when they stopped, I felt cleansed....
by Colin Thomas | Nov 17, 2024 | Review
Playwright Adam Rapp’s The Sound Inside is an ambitious, literate mystery. For me, it’s about art and reality, loneliness and responsibility. But one of the beauties of the play is that it will be interpreted differently depending on what individual audience members...
by Colin Thomas | Nov 15, 2024 | Review
In The Hobbit, novelist JRR Tolkein creates a textured, credible, and high-stakes fantasy world, but all of that is missing in Kim Selody’s stage adaptation and there’s not much to replace it. Just two actors perform the whole thing. Tim Carlson’s core character — and...
