Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 1/18

BroadwayWorld presents a comprehensive weekly roundup of regional stories around our Broadway World, which include videos, editor spotlights, regional reviews and more. This week, we feature ...

Check out our top features from around the BroadwayWorld below! Want more great global content? Check out our "Around The World" section!

Chicago: Contributor Misha Davenport reviews THE LIGHTNING THIEF, writing "RMcCarrell is absolutely flawless as the show's titular hero. His Percy is awkward and engaging; a teen who wields snark as a shield and can't understand why things never seem to go his way. His emotionally raw delivery of "Good Kid" is the type of song likely to become a teen anthem. You'll be awed by his talent. He's that good."

Tampa/St. Petersburg: Contributor Peter Nason reviews COLUMBINUS, writing "COLUMBINUS is an important piece of theatre that covers the Before, During and After of this horrifying tragedy. We see the events from a variety of angles, entertainingly put together like a puzzle that maybe we're too scared to solve. The show opens with the characters stripping off their clothes to go to bed; in some ways this acts as a metaphor for the way these characters will eventually strip off the layers of their personalities so that we can get a glimpse of their real selves. The show then takes us on this fatal road--from everyday life at school to the worst day of all, where two boys decide to play God and kill the world. It's like The Breakfast Club meets Natural Born Killers."

UK / West End: Contributor Liz Cearns reviews War Horse at The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, writing "One of the most instantly noticeable things about War Horse is the diversity of its audience's ages: a children's book if enjoyed by many a parent or independent adult turned into a play and attended by schoolchildren, twenty-somethings and those, like Michael Morpurgo himself, who spent childhoods playing in the bomb sites created by the Second World War."

UK / West End: Contributor Tim Wright reviews MOTOWN THE MUSICAL at Bristol Hippodrome, writing "Having the entire Motown back catalogue to work with must be a dream starting point for any jukebox musical. There are decades worth of hit after hit to cram in. And cram them in Motown The Musical certainly does. 66 of them to be precise. It's a whistle-stop tour of all of Motown's greatest artists."

UK / West End: Contributor Cindy Marcolina reviews ORIGINAL DEATH RABBIT at the Jermyn Street Theatre, writing "Jermyn Street Theatre opens 2019 with a bang dressing the mental health discourse in a pink fluffy bunny suit. Original Death Rabbit is Rose Heiney's new play which details the downfall and eventual becoming of an unnamed 31-year-old who found sudden fame as a meme (played by BAFTA winner Kimberley Nixon). On the eve of her 32nd birthday, she turns on her laptop wearing her "bunny" and starts telling her internet audience how she got there."

UK / West End: Contributor Sophia Lambton reviews THE QUEEN OF SPADES at the Royal Opera House, writing "Most lyrical of all is mezzo-soprano Felicity Palmer, the only singer here to execute piano and diminuendi with both grace and subtle gradations of volume. Her nostalgic aria, "Je crains de lui parler la nuit", effuses both portentousness in her dark, cavernous register and the rickety frailty and intermittent breathlessness of a woman of the Countess's age. At last there surfaces a trace of sentiment in the production; something tangible rather than literal smoke and mirrors."

Costa Mesa: Contributor Michael Quintos reviews DEAR EVAN HANSEN at OC's Segerstrom Center, writing "A powerful, emotionally-riveting, dynamically-staged original stage musical, DEAR EVAN HANSEN is a truly incredible, phenomenal show that I happily admit-in just a few years of its existence-has quickly become one of my favorite Broadway musicals of all time. Not only does it feature gorgeous, memorable songs from Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, it also has a simple but notably layered and impactful book by Steven Levenson that encourages deeper, meaningful discourse long after the end of the show. Even more remarkable is that the show presents a troubled but empathetic title character that demands so much from the extraordinary Ben Levi Ross-the actor tasked to bring him to life-that you are left in awe at his performance's sheer tenacity and brilliance. Thankfully, it has finally arrived at Orange County's Segerstrom Center for the Arts, where the Tony Award-winning musical's first national tour continues its much-too-brief two-week engagement through January 13, 2019 in Costa Mesa."

Regional Editor Spotlight:

Michael Quintos
Costa Mesa Contributor

A So. Cal. Contributing Editor since 2009, Michael Lawrence Quintos is a talented, mild-mannered Designer by day. But as night falls, he regularly performs on various stages everywhere as a Countertenor soloist, actor, and dancer for MenAlive since 2002. He sings everything from Broadway, Jazz, R&B, Classical, Gospel and Pop, and has shared the stage with Bernadette Peters, Debbie Reynolds, Michael Feinstein, and Liza Minnelli. His musical theater roots started early, performing in various stage productions and a couple of nationally-televised programs. The performing bug eventually brought him a brief championship run in the Philippines' version of "Star Search" before moving to Las Vegas at age 11. College brought him out to Orange County, California, where he earned a BFA in Graphic Design and a BA in Film Screenwriting. He has spent several years as a designer and art director for various media companies, while spending his free time performing in or critiquing shows.

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