Monthly Archives: September 2013
Spamalot is Ham-a-Lot. A Successful Fete’
By Lazlo Collins
Recommended
In this black box version of a big box office musical, this comedy is put to the test in NightBlue’s “Spamalot”.
The scaled down version of “Spamalot” has a big heart, and some great theatrical innovations. The execution of cast members taking on two or three roles is great. The musical numbers fill the small stage at 773 with frenetic dancing. The actors seem to be having a great time throughout the show. It crosses over to the audience in so many ways. Using every inch of the space provided, this show has an intimacy of a comedy club.
Read MoreThe Curvature of a Circle
9 Circles – Sideshow
Private Daniel Reeves (played by Andrew Goetten) is a troubled youth who joined the ranks of the United States Army to seek a change in his life. Cain’s 9 Circles, journeys us through the life of Private Reeves, post honorable discharge from the war in Iraq, as he awaits his judgment due to hideous war crimes.
The best way to visualize 9 Circles, and I apologize a head of time for the reference, is to think of a parabola. Yes, I do mean a parabola, as in calculus. A parabola is a two-dimensional curve, which is typically U-shaped. In conjunction to the parabola, Goetten and the Lieutenant, played by the physically intimidating Jude Roche, start the show off on a high note with the discharge of Pvt. Reeves. Roche and Goetten have such ease with the dialogue and precision with their characters, the both of them give the show a strong start.
Read MoreIf Gothic Theatre Is Your Thing
Trap Door Theatre’s The Balcony
At The Trap Door Theatre’s production of The Balcony, you are greeted by two young women in Victorian style undergarments and corsets. They check your reservation and you are guided into the small theatre space by another woman with a red brazier underneath her suit jacket and pencil skirt. In the space, a woman in dark but elegant late 18th century dress paces the space and often stops and stares intently at an invisible disturbance just behind you. This is a wonderful start to this production, creating the beautiful but strange and disturbing tone that is carried throughout the play. The Balcony is about the characters at a brothel during the final moments of a revolution. Jean Genet, who was a controversial French playwright of the first have of the 19th century, originally wrote the play. This production was translated by Bernard Frechtman and directed by Max Truax.
Double Trouble: More than a two person musical.
Double Trouble – Porchlight Theatre
Reviewed by Dan Haymes
Double Trouble is a musical farce about two brothers, Jimmy and Bobby Martin, who just moved to Hollywood to start writing songs for MMG Studios; a spoof of MGM studios. After the brothers are given only a few hours to write a hit song, the complication of a mutual love interest adds to the equation. Putting their new song writing career on the edge of destruction.
Double Trouble is the definition of an ensemble show, but without an ensemble. The show is headlined by two true triple threat brothers, Adrian and Alex Aguilar, who display incredible vocal variety, impeccable comedic timing, dancing with enough grace Gene Kelly is weeping, and so much charm that it’s practically seeping out of their pores.
Read MoreRough and Gritty Relationships start off Profiles Theatre’s season with “In God’s Hat”
In God’s Hat – Profiles Theatre
By Cat Wilson
Profiles Theatre opens their 2013-2014 season strong with an explosive and emotional tale of family loyalty and hatred. “In God’s Hat”, written by Rhett Rossi, portrays the delicate balance of love among brothers with a dark past.
After not seeing each other for ten years, Roy, played by the very talented Darrell W. Cox, picks up his older brother Mitch, played by an equally talented Larry Neumann, Jr. They spend a tense night together in a little motel down the road where they begin to open up old wounds, and Roy struggles with what his brother did. But when a fellow recently-released inmate shows up, Roy is forced to decide between his anger towards his brother and his family loyalty.
Read MoreRECOMMENDED SITES
