Greg Kerestan - Page 6

Sure, this espionage thriller may be treading old ground, but that's just because nothing has changed.

Is it a play? Is it a movie? Is it a dance show? Who cares, it's 'Frankenstein!'

Scott P. Calhoon's dreamlike staging of the S. E. Hinton classic finds moments of beauty and adrenaline in the sometimes clumsy prose of a young adult classic.

This may be Shakespeare's dumbest play, but Alan Stanford's production is still smarter than just about anything else you'll see this year.

I had a conversation with the cast and director of a local production of Cabaret a few days ago, about how theatre changed with the advent of the Internet. The visual presentation and iconic look of shows became much more relevant, much more permanently associated with shows, once photographs and video were as easy to find as cast recordings. You'll rarely if ever see a Cabaret that doesn't exist in the shadow of the Sam Mendes production, or someday a Hamilton without some of the iconic visual and performance signifiers. I'm not even calling it design laziness or plagiarism: the shows of today simply exist in a more tangible, permanent form than they did before the late 1990s. With that said, there's something to be said for productions that take some of those iconic elements and ignore them, crafting something different instead. Split Stage's production of Next to Normal reinvents one of the central characters, and it changes the entire piece.

There are enough fresh touches in this staging of an iconic musical to keep you from getting bored, but enough familiarity to keep you forever on the verge of singing along.

Something is definitely wrong in Theresa Rebeck's claustrophobic dramedy- but who, or what, is it?

It wouldn't be Christmas without offerings for both young and old... plus one neither for the very young NOR the very old.

People get VERY worked up about their precious Les Miserables- case in point, I saw a seven-year-old boy two rows in front of me, dressed in a full Javert costume at the Benedum stop of the national tour. It is so well-known and so well-loved that even if you're not a theatre person you probably know at least a few of the best-known songs, like 'On My Own' and 'Bring Him Home' from constant media saturation. Others you'd recognize from reference and parody: nearly every send-up of musicals from the 1980s on has spoofed 'One Day More' and its increasingly complex but rousing counterpoint.

The line between parody and nostalgia has never been slimmer than in this slick, funny and beautifully sung production of America's weirdest favorite show.

None of us will likely ever get to see Starkid live, but Acade Comedy Theater's loose-limbed musical farce is the next best thing.

I can't quite explain why this is the most successful musical of all time, but I can't deny that it works.

Leave your thinking caps and your good taste at home. Just go for the hairspray-scented ride, people.

Though a part of me misses the annual summer farce usually staged at this time, it's hard to fault Gregg Brandt for staging one of the most crowd-pleasing musicals of all time

Though the actual libretto is long past its expiration date, there's no denying that this nostalgic throwback is a great musical revue if nothing else.

It's something of a cliche to compare magicians to Harry Potter, especially youthful, energetic British ones. Luckily, Billy Kidd bears no resemblance whatsoever to the fabled boy wizard; no, she's more of a female Daniel Radcliffe. (Anyone who has seen Radcliffe in ANYTHING other than his most famous role knows the kind of joyfully off-kilter blend of enthusiasm and weirdness this comparison should bring to mind.) Headlining at the Cultural Trust's Liberty Magic cabaret theatre, Billy Kidd manages to fuse sleight of hand, comedy and theatre into something unique and unforgettable.

Pasek and Paul's teen musical sensation has style, substance and a great cast, though the score is sometimes a little generic.

It's the Bard more or less as you know and love him... but with a dash of Jerry Lewis.

Henrik Ibsen's characters go HBO mumblecore in this electric reimagining of the classic melodrama.

This Frank Wildhorn crime romp is a quirky production of an imperfect show, but buoyed by solid, charismatic and untraditional performances from the central duo.