Author: Colin Douglas
You’re in the Band
School of Rock
Dewey Finn is a down-on-his-luck wannabe rockstar. He’s been renting a room from his lifelong friend and closet rock music aficionado, Ned Schneebly. Schneebly is a substitute teacher who shares his life with domineering girlfriend, Patty. But without a steady income, nor any inclination to find another job after being fired from his band, Dewey has turned into a freeloader in danger of losing his living quarters.
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Hopelessly Devoted to You
Grease
What can be said about a musical that might even be called a modern-day theatre classic since it’s one of the most often produced musicals in the world? Since the show first appeared at Chicago’s Kingston Mines back in 1971, and then went on to Broadway a year later, albeit more sanitized, “Grease” has truly become “The Word.” For a while it was the longest-running show on the Great White Way.
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A Home Run Hit
Damn Yankees
If you could sell your soul, what would be so important that you’d trade an eternity in hell to make it happen? Well, Joe Boyd is a middle-aged, long-suffering baseball fan. However, he’s so frustrated by his team’s losses that after Meg, his patient and loving wife retires for the night, Joe pledges an unthinkable oath to the universe. Grumbling and griping about his team’s defeat, Joe shakes his fist at the heavens and shouts that he’d sell his soul if his beloved Washington Senators could finally “beat those damn Yankees.” Suddenly, from out of a puff of smoke, a tall, debonaire gentleman appears.
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Armed With a Rock in a Sock
Is God Is
“Make your dad dead. Make him real dead. All the way dead. Lots of blood is fine.” Thus is the crystal clear command directed by a dying mother to her battle-scarred twenty-something twin daughters. The audience is in for an unsettling revenge story, peppered with gallows humor and staged upon a pristine, white stage setting that will end up splattered with blood.
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Filled With Mystery and Amour
Last Night and the Night Before
In the shadowy opening scene of Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ drama about a family, the silhouette of a man can be seen digging a large hole. We hear his heavy breathing and the scraping of his shovel before he finally dumps a burlap-wrapped body into what appears to be a makeshift grave. Then the lights change, the grave disappears and we discover Monique, a pretty, young African-American woman, with her young daughter, Sam, in tow. She’s knocking on the door of an upscale Brooklyn brownstone. In a tale that flip-flops between rural Georgia and urban New York, and the present and the past, the relationships between family members, both biological and chosen, are tested.
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Sleuthing and Self-Discovery
Galileo’s Daughter
A smart, prolific New York playwright, primarily known for her Off-Broadway dramas, opens this World Premiere by Jessica Dickey. Known only as the Writer, the playwright speaks directly to the audience, continually breaking the fourth wall. While trying to decide whether or not to sign divorce papers, the Writer heads to Italy to clear her mind and do some research for her next play. As the play jumps back and forth in time, the playwright finds herself in modern-day Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, searching for a collection of archived letters written by Maria Celeste to her father, Galileo Galilei.
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Another Jukebox Musical
Jagged Little Pill
The jukebox musical has become a staple of Broadway and London’s West End, but there are two kinds of shows. The first is the biographical musical that details the early years and growth of a particular singer or pop group through their songs. An example of this is the recent National Tour of “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical” or Broadway’s “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations.” The other kind of jukebox musical is one in which a fictional story is built around the music of several pop singers or groups, as in Broadway’s “&Juliet,” or around the best songs of one particular musician, like the ABBA musical, “Mamma Mia!”
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Humorous and Haunting
The Cherry Orchard
Robert Falls’ brilliant adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s last play, a piece that the playwright insisted was a comedy, is as humorous as it is potent and profound. This production sparkles with levity, lightness and lots of laughs, despite a story that depicts an aristocratic family that’s haunted by change. The civilization they’ve always known is slipping away from them forever, and they don’t know what to do. Coincidentally this is also Mr. Falls’ final production as Artistic Director of the Goodman Theatre, and the master once again guides his large cast, inspiring his actors toward giving stellar performances that add even more spirit and humanity to this classic.
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A Racially Charged Whodunnit
A Soldier’s Play
As the lights slowly begin coming up at the top of the show, we hear a haunting a cappella melody being sung by a shadowy group of figures. We soon come to realize that these are soldiers, lying around their barracks, passing the time. The song begins as a nostalgic, solo ballad, but ends as a rousing group anthem. It puts the audience in the right mood for the whodunit story that’s just as emotionally stirring and where far more is about to happen than initially meets the eye.
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Tomorrow Is a Latter Day
The Book of Mormon
“Hello! My name is Elder Price, and I would like to share with you the most amazing book…” Thus begins the catchy, hilarious opening number from what is decidedly one of the most successful shows in Broadway history. A group of grinning, clean-cut, singing and dancing young missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints open this musical by ringing your doorbell. When audiences first meet these optimistic Mormon teens their earnest appeal, their collective enthusiasm and their sweet innocence will immediately captivate you and never release you until after the curtain call. After all, as Elder Cunningham continually reminds us, “Tomorrow is a Latter Day!”
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