Regional Roundup: Top New Features This Week Around Our BroadwayWorld 9/28

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!

Central Pennsylvania: Contributor Rich Mehrenberg reviews TREASURE ISLAND at Fulton Theatre, writing "Fulton's executive artistic producer, Marc Robin serves as both the composer of the show and the director. Along with his partner, Curt Dale Clark, Robin has gifted Lancaster with an original show easily worthy of a Broadway run. Music, dialogue and action work seamlessly in moving the story forward. This is a show for audience members who like action. there are no tedious dance numbers and no sappy love ballads. pace is outstanding, and demonstrate how much better storytelling can be when a show's creators and directors are perfectly aligned."

Nashville: Contributor Jeffrey Ellis reviews NEWSIES writing "Wilkinson's expertise at delivering the theatrical goods pays off handsomely with Newsies: She and her artistic/creative collaborators do their usual mind meld to make certain the show is a hit, employing the tried and true to ensure audiences are riveted to every moment of the show. Utilizing every square inch of the space available to them, Wilkinson, Tarlton and company utilize the venue's intimate confines to create a pretty much immersive production that puts the audience right smack dab in the middle of the action. Never have we seen the space at The Barn used in such clever and inventive ways, with various cast members dancing quickly by in the aisles, noble characters speeding past you with nefarious no-goodniks in hot pursuit and with heartfelt evocations of "Santa Fe" being sung rapturously from the next table over - all of which is designed to draw audiences into the story, to make them a part of the tale playing out in front of and around them."

Salt Lake City: Contributor Tyler Hinton reviews THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL, writing "For the first time, the new Centre Stage in Sandy feels like the Hale Centre Theatre we knew and loved in West Valley but on a larger scale. The way in which the show is staged and the technical capacities are utilized is reminiscent of the familiar, special approach that Hale Centre Theatre is known for with a turntable that morphs and shifts into various formations. Add to that massive set pieces that fly in from the ceiling and rise from the ground, and the design team has finally found a way to fill all that space to awe-inspiring results. Congratulations are in order for set designer and technical director Kacey Udy, who seems to be growing more and more comfortable with the new space and its unique opportunities and challenges with every show."

Seattle: Contributor Jay Irwin reviews LEGALLY BLONDE, writing "This show is difficult enough with a normal rehearsal schedule so with the 40 hours of rehearsal Showtunes gets, even with books in hand, what they've accomplished is a miracle. Director Faith Bennett Russell has taken the minimal staging of a concert and kept it as minimal as "Legally Blonde" can be. Even before I went I was asking, "How on earth are they going to handle all the dance breaks?" Well with some minimal choreography for the rest of the cast and some not so minimal for Henderson and a band of four awesome dancers who kept appearing to fill out the scene, Russell and choreographer Jimmy Shields have made this concert staging feel more like a Broadway spectacle. Of course, with the orchestra led by music director Nathan Young doing the entire Broadway score it's no wonder we're feeling the entire Blonde experience."

Orlando: Contributor Aaron Wallace reviews THE COLOR PURPLE at Theater West End, writing "THE COLOR PURPLE is a crimson gem of a show, and it's a big opening statement for the Theater West End. These songs and singing voices are foils for anyone who doesn't believe that humans have souls. Unfortunately, unless they happen to extend their run a second time or stage a revival, the tickets are all gone. Performances are scheduled through Sunday, September 30, 2018."

Sweden: Contributor Annette Stolt reviews ON THE TOWN at Kulturhuset Spira, Jönköping, writing "A simple story performed by some of Sweden's best musical artists in terms of singing and dancing. Rennie Mirro, Karl Dyall and Hanna von Spreti have worked together in several musicals and are absolutely outstanding on stage when they perform together. Denny Lekström, Linda Olsson and Vera Veljovic are also very good in their roles. Hanna, Linda and Vera play three totally different girls, all are strong girls who know what they want. Veras Hidly has the strongest Will Power, and there is no escape for Chip. Åsa Arhammar plays a number of different women in the play where the vocal coach Madame Maude P Dilly comes back every now and then. She embodies them in a comical and beautiful way. In addition to these, there are another 17 people included in the ensemble. Great musical artists and dancers. AS the plot is simple the dance is the strength of this musical. The dance songs are absolutely amazing and of world class. It the dance genius, Roine Söderlundh, who is the choreograph and director. Anna Ståhl is a deputy choreographer. Together with the dancers, they have created dance numbers which enchant and are very beautiful. In combination with Camilla Thulin's beautiful clothes, it's the perfect dance act. So beautiful.

New Orleans: Contributor Jenny Bravo reviews THE MUSIC MAN at Rivertown Theaters, writing "The show is at its best during the big numbers, with impeccable choreography by Ashley Morand. The level of these dancers cannot be overstated, and your eye is drawn to the capability of Mason O'Rourke as Tommy Dijilas and Amelia Jacquat as Zaneeta Shinn. With the stacked dance interludes in "Marian the Librarian," "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Shipoopi," the scenes are nothing short of impressive."

Regional Editor Spotlight:

Jenny Bravo
New Orleans Contributor

Jenny Bravo is a professional balancing act. She works full time in insurance, then writes novels and theatre reviews in her spare time. Additionally, she runs a successful blog for aspiring writers and novelists. When she's not working, she's practicing yoga and memorizing Hamilton raps.

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