Caroline Sposto - Page 3

Years ago, when I lived in Los Angeles, I knew a character actor who was a little paunchy, had an off-kilter face and thinning hair. Though his looks were unremarkable, he exuded a certain je ne sais quoi. When I teased him about his popularity with women, he gave me a conspiratorial wink and said, 'My voice is the sexiest part of my body.' I laughed because this was absolutely true!

This exuberant stage production is like a Norman Rockwell painting brought to life. Set in Hohman, Indiana in 1940, raconteur, Jean Shepherd (Chris Carsten) reminiscences about nine-year-old Ralphie's quest for an official Red Ryder, Carbine-Action, 200-Shot Range Model Air Rifle B-B gun.

Grace is making its shining regional debut at The Circuit Playhouse. This tragicomedy centers on a naive, evangelical couple, Sam (Joel Onken) and Sara (Morgan Howard) who move from Minnesota to Florida to pursue Steve's dream of opening a chain of gospel-themed motels.

The National Theatre of Great Britain's epic WAR HORSE opened at The Memphis Orpheum on March 25th. The story is based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel of the same name. The play premiered in London in 2007, opened on Broadway in 2011, and embarked on a National Tour in 2012. It is also the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's feature film.

In Shakespeare's day, actors performed for boistrous crowds that ate, drank, cheered heroes, booed the villains and shouted occasional quips at the stage; poetic soliloquies moved the dramas forward. To my astonishment and delight, I found a modern day urban equivalent in Guilt Lies & Lust 2.

This was my first journey to Armadillo Acres and I find the community and its residents hard to aptly describe. Suffice it to say, Betsy Kelso and David Nehls wrote a campy musical melodrama with comedy broader than a double-wide, a plot lighter than an aluminum lawn chair, and stereotypes bolder than a flock of pink flamingos. To my admiration, Director/Choreographer, Courtney Oliver, Music Director, Renee Kemper and seven highly-talented performers, have managed to spin this rather flimsy material into solid, non-stop, over-the-top fun.

The University of Memphis recently welcomed the spirited Broadway and television actress Susan Blackwell as a guest artist. Her workshops, which centered on creative self-expression, were free and open to the public. I attended and found them exciting and worthwhile.

n 1995, Playhouse on the Square founded the United Professional Theater Auditions (UPTA) to give professional actors and technicians from all over the country access to quality, paying theatres, as well as to offer theatres access to quality talent that can work year-round. Between Thursday, February 6th and Monday, February 10th, more than 900 actors and production personnel came to Memphis to audition and interview for 82 theatre companies from across the U.S. and around the world. According to Associate Playhouse Producer, Michael Detroit, 'It's sort of like American Idol meets Job Fair.

Some of my smartest Memphis Callboard colleagues put their heads together and made a list of ALL the local theatre companies in Memphis. Some are community efforts, others are professional, all contribute to making our ever-growing arts community so much fun!

Yesterday evening at five, Playhouse on the Square hosted a lively reception. Amid refreshments and trivia questions with prizes, Jackie Nichols unveiled the 2014-2015 Season. It's going to be grand!

I used to believe the cyclone that dropped Dorothy's house on Munchinkland was a random disaster. Thanks to novelist Gregory Maguire, I now know better. Last night, when Director Joe Mantello brought this splendidly-imagined backstory to life on stage at the Orpheum, it once again brought down the house.

In addition to being a sacred chalice, the Holy Grail is a metaphor for an ultimate ideal or reward. If hilarity is Spamalot's Holy Grail, the current production at Playhouse on the Square most certainly found it.

Tolstoy wrote that, 'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Playwright Jon Robin Baitz extrapolated on that theory in his drama, Other Desert Cities, a 2012 Tony Award nominee for Best Play. It's an intricate script and the regional premiere at The Circuit Playhouse does it justice.

In this context, 'monkey' is slang for an obstacle. Where obstacles are, collisions follow. City collides with country, middle class collides with working class, age collides with youth, and women collide with men.

'You're in unorganized territory . . .It's not an actual town, technically . . . .See, to be in a town you gotta get organized . . . .' The New York Post aptly described 'Almost, Maine' as 'The Twilight Zone meets Thornton Wilder.'

Charles Dickens' sentimental story of a miser's reform feels particularly bittersweet this year because 85-year-old stage veteran stage veteran Barry Fuller, who portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge when the show debuted at the old Theatre Memphis in 1978, has announced that this will be his final season in the role.

In the beginning, Touchstone released a 1992 comedy starring Whoopi Goldberg. And Touchstone saw the profits and they were good . And Touchstone said, 'Let there be a sequel,' and there was a sequel. And Touchstone called the sequel 'Back in the Habit' . . . and so on. Now, twenty-one years later, Deloris Van Cartier, aspiring diva thrust into a convent for witness protection has come to the Memphis Orpheum.

The musical version of the tale of the boy who wouldn't grow up is once again alive on the Memphis stage. Lindsey Roberts reprises the title role with aplomb.

Greater Tuna plays have been a Memphis tradition since the 1990's. A Tuna Christmas, Directed by Ann Marie Hall (Singin' in the Rain), the second in this series, is a wild yuletide caper that introduces us to the eccentric residents of Tuna--Texas' third-smallest town.

he touring Broadway revival of West Side Story opened at The Orpheum Theatre, Memphis on Tuesday, November 5, 2013. This iconic musical by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim is a dynamic retelling of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet set in mid-twentiety-century New York City.