author: Charles Boyington
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Delightful! So much fun! Run and get tickets!
Peter Pan at the National Theatre through April 21st, 2024Â is surprisingly fresh and relevant. The first surprise of the evening was how excited the audience was. I honestly did not think that kids knew anything about Peter Pan anymore. However the youngsters were applauding and screaming as the overture started, and it continued to grow.
It has been 30 years since Robin Williams wowed audiences in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire. Makes certain audience members feel old, doesn’t it? However, that may be a benefit when watching Mrs. Doubtfire the musical, now on tour at the National Theatre. Those who have seen the film may have memories of specific moments, but the details are a little hazy. And of course, there is an entire generation or two that may never have seen it!
I still believe that the main purpose of a theater review is to help readers decide whether a show is actually worth seeing and whether it is worth the ticket price. King of the Yees at Signature Theatre is well worth the ticket price and definitely worth seeing. It is a clever script with a strong cast, good direction, a universal message, and several laugh-out-loud moments. It is also worth mentioning that this is Signature’s only non-musical offering this season.
Cats, Now and Forever! Do you need to see Cats? Yes. You do. You need to see a professional production of Cats in person in a live theatre. It was a terrible movie. Watching a video of the original Broadway show is underwhelming. However, when you are in a live theatre and you witness these triple threat performers working their asses off for you, it is amazing.
No Place to Go by Ethan Lipton is the antithesis of the Frank Loesser musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying—it’s about the experience of losing a job, and a sense of purpose, without trying. It is also a comedic look at our modern society that smacks you in the face with how honest and real it is, and I loved it.
The story is simple enough: George is a middle-aged man with his own small band who has been working the same day job for the last 10 years as a “permanent part time” employee.
I am pretty sure that everyone has heard of Blue Man Group. You know that they paint themselves blue, play percussive instruments, have a fondness for primary colors and making a mess, all the while never saying a word. None of this is a plot spoiler. You walk into a theatre with moody lighting and a huge Syfy tech set with lots of LED lights and tv screens apparently showing random things – heck I even noticed a game of Pong.
Most of us know the little poem about Henry the 8th wives: Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived. The idea that someone took that little poem and created an 85-minute musical seems incredulous. Add that the wives are reimagined as modern-day pop stars competing to see who had it worse just seems ridiculous. Well, we need ridiculous right now.
This delightful pop concert is the brainchild of Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss (directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage),
In name and beyond, FREESTYLE LOVE SUPREME pays homage to John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” with a nod to musical roots in jazz, soul, blues, and hip hop.
Improvisation games are a standard part of theatre and music. Not all theater has improvisation nor do all forms of music but they can be great training tools and occasionally create something that is performance worthy. The key to creating really good improvised performances is a set of rules and a set routine,