Perry Tannenbaum

Perry Tannenbaum

  Perry Tannenbaum has been covering the performing arts across the Carolinas since 1987. He has also acted onstage in productions by Children’s Theatre of Charlotte, innovative Theatre, and Charlotte Repertory Theatre. Among the diverse artists he has interviewed, Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, John Guare, Maya Angelou, Dave Brubeck, Gary Burton, Joseph Papp, and Judith Jamison were the most memorable. Beside his regular coverage of the Charlotte performing arts scene for Creative Loafing and CVNC.org, Perry has been covering Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston for over 25 years and makes yearly pilgrimages to New York for his annual roundups of Broadway, Off-Broadway, opera, and jazz. His reviews, interviews, and features have appeared in American Record Guide, Backstage, Classical Voice North America, Dance International, Early Music America, JazzTimes, Stage Directions and TheaterMania.com.






MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

Review: COMPANY at Blumenthal Performing Arts
Review: COMPANY at Blumenthal Performing Arts
November 27, 2023

Injecting diversity, switching genders pell-mell, and even gifting us with a gay couple, Marianne Elliott's overhaul of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY isn't more illuminating or revelatory than the 1970 original. But the horseplay and the gay wedding-day shenanigans are wildly entertaining - and the superb score still transcends the George Furth book.

Review: FUNNY GIRL at Blumenthal Performing Arts
Review: FUNNY GIRL at Blumenthal Performing Arts
October 20, 2023

They haven't fixed the clunky storytelling or finally used actual Fanny Brice material, but FUNNY GIRL still scores big when it comes equipped with an electrifying lead and a top-notch cast.

Review: SIX THE MUSICAL at Blumenthal Performing Arts
Review: SIX THE MUSICAL at Blumenthal Performing Arts
July 8, 2023

What did our critic think of SIX THE MUSICAL at Blumenthal Performing Arts?

Review: I AND YOU at Theatre Charlotte
Review: I AND YOU at Theatre Charlotte
June 22, 2023

Within a restrictive two-hander format, Lauren Gunderson hatches a surprise beyond my imagination in I AND YOU, parlaying the pleasures of Walt Whitman, John Coltrane, and Jerry Lee Lewis along the way.

Review: ONLY AN OCTAVE APART at Spoleto Festival USA
Review: ONLY AN OCTAVE APART at Spoleto Festival USA
June 12, 2023

Starring Anthony Roth Costanzo and Justin Vivian Bond, ONLY AN OCTAVE demonstrates how much we've changed - and how much we haven't - since Carol Burnett and Beverly Sills first sang the song in 1976, one year before Spoleto arrived in Charleston. But what about 2011, when Taylor Mac strutted onstage and proclaimed, 'This is my festival bitches!'?

Review: THE BOOK OF LIFE at Spoleto Festival USA
Review: THE BOOK OF LIFE at Spoleto Festival USA
June 3, 2023

Kiki walks the walk in reacting to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, offering healing to both survivors and perpetrators while building anew in the ruins.

Review: AN ILIAD at Spoleto Festival USA
Review: AN ILIAD at Spoleto Festival USA
June 3, 2023

David O'Hare's AN ILIAD can be taken as one man's distillation of Homer's ancient oral epic, or as one of many, many possible Iliads that could be written about the wars that plague mankind.

Review: THE GLORIOUS WORLD OF CROWNS, KINKS AND CURLS at The Arts Factory
Review: THE GLORIOUS WORLD OF CROWNS, KINKS AND CURLS at The Arts Factory
May 11, 2023

Written for a streamed production in 2021, Keli Goff’s CROWNS, KINKS AND CURLS needed some alterations for a live staged presentation, and Three Bone Theatre has solved most of those tailoring problems admirably. When Goff comes to Charlotte for a talkback, she'll see the rousing ambiance she has created - and perhaps consider trims and updates.

Review: PETER PAN at Knight Theater
Review: PETER PAN at Knight Theater
April 28, 2023

The new Charlotte Ballet production of PETER PAN, choreographed by Christopher Stuart, is the most inclusive and politically correct I've seen, retaining sets and costumes from previous editions while completely changing the music. Plenty of delightful surprises and only one SOS: it's a no-fly zone.

Review: CLUE at Matthews Playhouse
Review: CLUE at Matthews Playhouse
April 20, 2023

With deft direction that plumbs the depths of silliness in turning a Parker Brothers board game to farce, Jill Bloede weds the flimsiness of the 1985 film's plot with a divinely flimsy set populated by precision actors scurrying around amid flawless transitions and scene changes, lifting Sandy Rustin's stage adaptation to heights of delight, ridiculous story and all.

Review: INTO THE WOODS at Blumenthal Performing Arts
Review: INTO THE WOODS at Blumenthal Performing Arts
April 14, 2023

The new Broadway revival of INTO THE WOODS, now touring with a significant portion of the New York cast, dispels the too-clever-by-half aftertaste I've experienced in previous productions and bares Stephen Sondheim's heart in an affecting tribute to the late master.

Review: BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL at Blumenthal Performing Arts
Review: BEETLEJUICE THE MUSICAL at Blumenthal Performing Arts
March 31, 2023

Scott Brown and Anthony Brown's stage adaptation may be hit-and-miss, and Eddie Perfect's score may be a punkish bust, but thanks to a design and tech dream team, BEETLEJUICE fanatics won't be disappointed with the touring Broadway version.

Review: BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO at Charlotte Symphony
Review: BRUCH VIOLIN CONCERTO at Charlotte Symphony
February 26, 2023

A meteor named Mei-Ann Chen had an impact on Charlotte Symphony and its subscribers that was simply electrifying.

Review: SIBELIUS SYMPHONY NO. 5 at Charlotte Symphony
Review: SIBELIUS SYMPHONY NO. 5 at Charlotte Symphony
February 5, 2023

A worthy candidate for CSO's vacant musical directorship, Vinay Parameswaran brings a winsome personality and an eclectic modern program to the Knight Theater podium for his Charlotte debut.

Review: JAGGED LITTLE PILL at Belk Theater
Review: JAGGED LITTLE PILL at Belk Theater
December 3, 2022

Overamped at Belk Theater, with an underwhelming set of grievances in Diablo Cody's adaptation of Alanis Morissette's megahit 1995 album, JAGGED LITTLE PILL generates more fire and heat than substance until it arrives at its #MeToo moment - and finds its heart.

Review: HADESTOWN at Blumenthal Performing Arts
Review: HADESTOWN at Blumenthal Performing Arts
November 10, 2022

In a uniquely simpatico collaboration, composer-lyricist Anäis Mitchell and developer-director Rachel Chavkin have retold the Orpheus-Eurydice myth in a musical form that is slick and glitzy, with primal and profound truths lurking amid the razzle-dazzle.

Review: FALL WORKS at Charlotte Ballet
Review: FALL WORKS at Charlotte Ballet
October 18, 2022

Knight Theater should have been abuzz last Friday night. Yet somehow, a year after Charlotte Ballet's 50th-anniversary celebration - celebrated a year after the company's actual 50th anniversary - my own excitement wasn't reflected by the community at large. A night after Opera Carolina opened its 2022-23 season at Belk Theater to an empty upper balcony and a disappointing crowd, the curtain went up on Ballet's new era with a similarly sparse turnout.

Review: MEAN GIRLS at Belk Theater
Review: MEAN GIRLS at Belk Theater
September 10, 2022

Tina Fey proves she still knows high school in her musicalized version of MEAN GIRLS, but she makes rookie mistakes about what to leave out and what to leave in. Music by Fey's husband, Jeff Richmond, doesn't compensate for these deficits with Nell Benjamin's lyrics. But the deep and talented touring cast often brings redemption.

Review: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Belk Theater
Review: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Belk Theater
July 28, 2022

Amid a banquet of juicy roles doled out by Aaron Sorkin in his adaptation of Harper Lee's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Richard Thomas feasts the fullest, delivering the most powerful, staggering work I’ve seen from him in my 59+ years of watching his most memorable performances live on Broadway, live in Charlotte, and on TV.

Review: SISTER ACT at Matthews Playhouse
Review: SISTER ACT at Matthews Playhouse
July 22, 2022

We may have underestimated Cheri and Bill Steinkellner's musical adaptation of Paul Rudnick's SISTER ACT screenplay, moving the action from Vegas to Philly and making the show more character-driven. It actually works better on the smaller community theater stage at Matthews Playhouse than the big stage productions we've previously seen.



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