Brett Cullum - Page 6

You are never going to see a more definitive version of this show in Houston, and CATASTROPHIC is the company to bring it to you.

They have a mix of genders, races, and experience levels to work with. The result is what community theater is all about, a perfect blend of people coming together for a common cause. You can feel their love of the piece and each other radiating from the stage. This is why people adore and do community theater.

Callina is always a smart actress, and she mines this mythical lady for something more than simple madness. No, she finds a way to make her choices as an ultimate strategist even if she is a woman scorned. She is torn at every step of the way by the evilness of her plan, yet she knows if the wrongs are to be given to justice it all has to happen. We believe every second of her conflict, and we mourn with her when the final moments arrive.

The thing about FAR EAST is the emotional stakes are never high. Unlike MADAME BUTTERFLY where we are faced with a scorned woman and an illegitimate child, here we never see the soldier’s Japanese lover. And contrasted with FROM HERE TO ETERNITY where an affair is consummated on a wildly active beach, the soldier and his captain’s wife merely brush against each other almost politely rather than passionately.

JAGGED LITTLE PILL is half brilliant and half hackneyed, but there are moments when it is dizzyingly great.  A clever but overstuffed book married with challenging pop rock songs keeps the cast and audience on their toes, but when it hits the high it is worth it.  “You Oughta Know” and “Uninvited” are two of the most amazing pieces of musical theater acting I have seen in years.

Just a reminder, the MATCH complex in Houston has some of the best air conditioning around. And this show is pretty hot and sultry, so it’s a perfect pairing.

I teasingly have been calling this 1776 - THE FOUNDING MOTHERS EDITION all week, and it is finally here at the Hobby Center brought in by Theatre Under the Stars. This is a New York cast hitting Houston for a three night stop of a national tour. My question is, does it really make that much of a statement? The script for the show remains what it has been since 1776 debuted on Broadway back in 1969.

PRESENT LAUGHTER gets a stunning revival at Main Street Theater with a returning director and leading man remounting the show with a power packed cast. The Noel Coward classic is always an “audience pleaser” from its inception in the early forties, and this new production is like great champagne and caviar on the side. You don’t get more “sophisticated comedy” than this one, and it all holds up gorgeously.

It fuses music, fashion shows, and simply fun lively scenes that turn THE HOUSE OF PATRICK into a … well… house party! The energy is high, and the show is a ton of fun.

You see this year is all about truth and honesty, and examining what that means to Tamarie and her squad. Onstage there is a lie detector, and throughout the evening truths are revealed as are lies. And somehow highlights include dancing poop, Aristotle, an 80s PSA star, Tinkerbell, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the world’s oldest cactus, and an army of drag queens to name but a few.

Read Broadwayworld's interview with Denise O'Neal about Fade To Black.

This isn’t a play, it’s some sort of intergalactic space time hiccup that just happens at the MATCH complex to kick off your summer. It’s very hip, lively, and a great dose of WTF and OMG simultaneously. Like Janelle Monae says, “Girl, this is craziness. Let me tell you!”

Dirt Dogs’ current incarnation of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is the finest work they have done in over eight years at the MATCH, and it is easily among the best things running this year in Houston theater. This show is cast immaculately, technical design nears flawless, and direction is tight and wrought. It is operatic, it is epic, and it is a must-see for fans of excellence in theatrical arts.

SEX AND THE CITY certainly owes quite a bit to the source material for this play. Main Street Theater’s production of this work is adapted by Julie Kramer, and pushes THE BEST OF EVERYTHING into a satirical statement on the world then contrasted with the world now.

The play is performed by four actresses who portray both school girls and their nun teachers over a span of seven years in the 60s at a Catholic school. It aspires to be a simultaneously funny and heartbreaking look at what it means to lose your innocence, your faith, and your youthful optimism about who you are and who God is.

It’s a tale not told often enough about a Jewish woman who helped to decode the building blocks of life itself. It is even more poignant when we look across the scientific field and see how women are still marginalized and not given the same voices that men often take.

This is easily one of Main Street Theater’s strongest offerings this year, and it is a show that is well-thought through and exquisitely paced. Sophia Watt achieves near nirvana balancing acting with design and execution in her direction. THE OLDEST BOY is about as perfect as you can manage to get in live theater, and it offers a lot to consider.

There is a short, tight list of Houston actors who could do a show about their life and have it mean anything more than a vanity project, but she is at the top of that register. There is something about Mary Hooper that Houston loves, and if you are lucky enough to catch this one woman show called THE BOOK OF MARY you will learn why.

What did our critic think of COWBOY BOB at ALLEY THEATRE? Despite any narrative difficulties, COWBOY BOB is still something to see. It’s a celebration of what a daring musical should feel like. It asks tough questions, it presents us with gorgeous ballads, and it shows off truly Texan stage design that feels authentic. Like the real life Peggy Tallas, it’s a brave piece that moves in bold directions.

That Dirt Dogs would choose MISERY for their “season of love” makes perfect sense. As a company they have made a name for themselves by creating plays fueled by testosterone laden energy and provocative rough language. There is an intensity and violence that suggests MISERY would be a perfect project for them, and indeed this production proves that assumption mostly correct.