Off-Broadway Show Reviews & Critics' Ratings

What did our critic think of SPRING AWAKENING at Seacoast Repertory Theatre?

What did our critic think of CLUE: ON STAGE at Morrilton High School?

What did our critic think of SIGNIFICANT OTHER at Dobama?

What did our critic think of HOMELESS GARDEN at Avant Bard?

Every immigrant experience is unique and Guimarães’ story is a deeply engaging rumination on the power of faith and the capacity of hope to see one through.

The musicals of the 1920s-1940s are rich territory for parody since many imported the stylistic elements (vaudeville, dance hall style, revue, et al.) of popular entertainment of the era to carry the shows, often disadvantaging well-developed plot lines and complex characters.

What did our critic think of A CELEBRATION OF LIFE: JAVIER IVAN'S JOURNEY TO CLOSURE IN ‘ON YOUR FEET', WITH HIS FATHER at .?

A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER is that rarity – a new musical with a score inspired by a theatrical style of the past that will forever remain timeless. And it’s so much fun. At Arizona Broadway Theatre.

Angels in America is a landmark play.

Currently on tour across the UK, Tim Rice: My Life In Musicals is two hours of musical theatre bliss that you will never forget.

Mark sits in a white box on a red chair. He is dressed in a grey t-shirt and jeans. With the exception of sporting a red cape, he is nondescript, ordinary, normal. In the next 65 minutes, we are taken on an emotional ride through Mark's experiences of love, parenthood and devastating loss, all while he flits between being a superhero and a very average man.

Cross-dressing, guns, psychiatry, politics, incest, adultery and accidental overdoses interlace in Joe Orton's final and most subversive play. Unfortunately to a modern audience it feels dated.

September 11, 2001, is a date that is seared into the consciousness of everyone old enough to remember the events of that day. While the tragedy was overwhelming, the courage and solidarity that emerged was overflowing. Come From Away shows some of the best of humanity and leaves us with hope that human kindness will always prevail. The public agrees, as its 2017 Broadway premiere garnered seven Tony Award nominations.

The biggest challenge of pulling off a show such as Romeo and Juliet is finding new ways to keep the audience interested when we all know what happens. If you’re going to put on a production of a play that has been endlessly adapted, performed, and studied for longer than any of us have been around, it has to be fresh and exciting. Fortunately, Seattle Shakespeare’s production of the famed work does just that. Innovatively directed by Sheila Daniels, the reimagined production of Romeo and Juliet is now playing at Center Theatre at Seattle Center.

It was wonderful watching cabaret singer Jennifer Roberts return to the work of one of her favorite lyricists, Sheldon Harnick. The Tuesday April 30th show in celebration of what would have been Harnick’s 100th birthday featured selections of some of Harnick’s most well-known songs and delightful obscurities plucked from the archives.

This reviewer was overwhelmed by the tornado of talent that is Monica Passin at her May 3rd show.

Choosing to perform a Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams (1911-1983) play means genuinely committing to some of theater’s most salient aspects: in this case, a plot that must capture and then hold the audience in unfolding layers of tragedy, characters that are complex and often display less-than-desirable human characteristics, believable delivery of modified language to portray a specific region or temperament, performance of disconcerting and sometimes virulent spectacle on a human scale, and production design that rises to the needs of the story. 

In THE THANKSGIVING PLAY, four actors’ road to creating an elementary school Thanksgiving performance is paved with good intentions. But good intentions aren’t enough to save them from their “white savior” complexes. 

Lorna Luft captivated the audience at 54 Below on Friday night. The child of legendary performer Judy Garland and producer Sid Luft, Ms. Luft is no stranger to the stage, and she had the audience in the palm of her hand with this entertaining evening of music celebrating New York writers of Tin Pan Alley, the Brill Building, and beyond!

The earth moved. The current production at the Paramount Theatre is Beautiful, the Carole King Musical. This is more than a jukebox musical. It tells the amazing story of one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century and how her story evolved.