Herbert Paine - Page 20

At the end of every Season, the members of the creative collective known as Theatre Artists Studio put their muses to work and author, produce, direct, and act in a series of playlets. This year's installment of NEW SUMMER SHORTS, the company's 11th, includes a mix of eight 10-15 minute plays, each of which has something to satisfy one's theatrical palate. Some amusing, some inspiring, some provocative, some whimsical ~ all together, a satisfying potpourri.

Arizona Broadway Theatre's production of Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST radiates with intimacy and charm, thanks to standout performances by Jill-Christine Wiley as Belle and Tony Edgerton as Beast and a marvelous cast. A fun show for the entire family!

MY MAN GODFREY, Eric Hatch's old but still relevant screwball comedy, is kicking up the dust at Don Bluth Front Row Theatre, offering a commentary on class and manners that is as relevant today as it was in the Great Depression.

Ashley Jackson, Victoria Fairclough, and Ben Mason deliver towering, indeed royal, performances that imbue Hale Centre Theatre's production of AIDA with sustained warmth, integrity, and vitality and their characters with distinctive and relatable authenticity.

David Ira Goldstein's production of Jeffrey Hatcher's HOLMES AND WATSON a masterfully crafted cliffhanger. The play is receiving its world premiere with Arizona Theatre Company.

When a gaggle of 25 eminently talented youngsters snakes around the tables of a workhouse dining room to the tune of Food, Glorious Food, it is a sign of things to come in Andy Meyers's production of OLIVER! (on stage through May 21st at Arizona Broadway Theatre): exuberant choreography (Kurtis Overby) and a dynamic song-and-dance ensemble to match.

Gary Zaro's tightly staged and well-paced production of the play, now at Desert Stages Theatre through June 4th is an energetic enterprise and a valuable opportunity to reconnect with the story about the shameless lust for power and the casualties in its wake.

Judy Rollings and Patti Suarez are delightful as the antagonists in Theatre Artists Studio's rendition of David Lindsay-Abaire's RIPCORD, directed by David Weiss.

In iTheatre Collaborative's current revival of Eugene O'Neill's HUGHIE, Greg Lutz delivers a masterly performance as a down and out hustler, Erie Smith, who is forlorn over the death of a night clerk. It is to Hughie's replacement, played stoically by Christopher Haines, that Erie shares his lament in this brilliantly crafted production.

Phoenix Theatre's production of Kander & Ebb's SCOTTSBORO BOYS, directed by Jeff Whiting, is a tour de force, featuring performances that leave you unsettled, breathless, and inspired.

Arizona Theatre Company's production of RING OF FIRE is a a highly entertaining and upbeat tribute to the 'man in black' with a first-class cast that does its best when it is kicking up its heels and delivering every song with gusto. Featuring solid performances by Michael Monroe Goodman, Brian Mathis, Trenna Barnes, Allison Briner-Dardenne and a great band of musicians.

If, perchance, you had never read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, you'd be none the worse for the delight you'd glean from Southwest Shakespeare Company's scintillating and brainy production of PRIDE@PREJUDICE, Daniel Elihu Kramer's clever modernization of the 1813 classic.

Matthew Spangler and Benjamin Evett's ALBATROSS, now on stage in an all too short run at the Herberger Theater Center, features the gripping and riveting performance of Benjamin Evett as The Mariner. Mr. Evett is a force of nature in a tempest-tossed odyssey that reveals timely truths about the interconnectedness of all things, the ties that bind man and nature, and the consequences of mindless action.

Arizona Broadway Theatre's current production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is rousing and colorful. A revival worth seeing.

I daresay that Phoenix Theatre's current production of BULLETS OVER BROADWAY is the musical highlight of the 2016-2017 theatre season. It is vintage Michael Barnard, full directorial guns blazing with a keen eye for the best in top-notch craftsmanship and splendid theatricality. His stellar cast, featuring some of the most versatile song-and-dance performers in the Valley of the Sun is locked and loaded for a volley of high-powered performances in a series of spirited numbers that are guaranteed to create a perpetual smile.

In the directorial hands of Ron May, Stray Cat Theatre's current production of Nambi E Kelley's adaptation of Richard Wright's NATIVE SON offers an unnerving and intense portrayal of Bigger Thomas's downward spiral and the price inflicted on the soul by racism.

How momentous it is that an opera as monumental and well-crafted as Craig Bohmler's RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE can now lay claim to a rightful place in the canon of works about the American West. In its World Premiere, as part of Arizona Opera's Arizona Bold Initiative, RIDERS is literally and figuratively blazing new trails, demonstrating the relevance and value of the age old genre in a dynamic and memorable production.

Theatre Artists Studio's Carol McLeod has created a taut and well-paced interpretation of STOREFRONT CHURCH. Her cast delivers the goods, balancing wit and intensity to produce a provocative reflection on the limits of morality. The show runs through March 12th.

Ruben C. Gonzalez delivers a rock solid and emotionally potent performance in LA ESQUINITA, USA, his metaphor for neighborhoods that time and economy forgot, where the streets are now boulevards of broken dreams, and where hope is replaced by ennui and meth. (Arizona Theatre Company, in co-production with El Teatro Campesino, is presenting the Arizona premiere of his one-man/twelve character opus through February 26th at the Herberger Theater Center.)

Doug Morrione's EVERYTHING IN THE SONG IS TRUE is a beautifully crafted chronicle of four individuals whose personalities and perspectives define the American West. The film is one of the selected features at this year's Sedona International Film Festival, February 18th through the 26th.