by Colin Thomas | Oct 12, 2019 | Review
What country, friends, is this? For about the first three-quarters of Body Awareness, I had no idea where I was. I mean, I knew the literal location. In Annie Baker’s script, a couple named Joyce and Phyllis, are living with Joyce’s 21-year-old son Jared in a Vermont...
by Colin Thomas | Oct 5, 2019 | Review
Sometimes I think that theatre companies should offer half-price tickets to people who only want to watch Act 2. Act 1 of The Birds & the Bees is a waste of time. Admittedly, it sets up the story. Thirty-eight-year-old Sarah’s 11-year marriage has just broken up —...
by Colin Thomas | Oct 4, 2019 | Review
Luzia is by far the most sensual Cirque du Soleil show I’ve seen. Go with your body wide awake. Go with somebody you can grab onto when you’re screaming and lean into when you’re swooning. Most Cirque shows are set in magical realms, but that’s only partly true of...
by Colin Thomas | Oct 2, 2019 | Review
In What We’re Up Against, playwright Theresa Rebeck makes legitimate points, but the way she makes them is so boring! Eliza, who seems to be near the beginning of her career, has been at an architectural firm for five months. Rebeck quickly establishes that Eliza is a...
by Colin Thomas | Sep 27, 2019 | Review
I wish that more people who make theatre would pay closer attention to how plays are built. Herringbone (book by Tom Cone, music and lyrics by Skip Kennon and Ellen Fitzhugh respectively) has a lot of things going for it, but sturdy structure is not one of them. The...
by Colin Thomas | Sep 21, 2019 | Review
A furious artist once told me, “I don’t care about structure! I don’t want to hear about structure!” — or words to that effect. She should probably not read this review. In Hysteria, playwrights Jill Raymond and Lauren Martin take on a couple of enormous subjects:...
