Review: COME FROM AWAY at Keller AuditoriumMay 5, 2023This beautiful musical, based on the true story of how a small town in Newfoundland opened their doors to 7,000 stranded “plane people” when U.S. airspace was closed following the terrorist attacks, is an antidote to skepticism, nihilism, and loneliness.
Previews: GREAT WIDE OPEN at Portland PlayhouseApril 12, 2023Do you remember what it was like to be 17? Excited, angsty, passionate, confused, and hopeful all at once. And maybe you fell in love for the first time with someone who was oh-so-wrong but also perhaps oh-so-right. If any of that sounds familiar, and especially if you happened to be a teenager in the 90s, Jessica Wallenfels’ GREAT WIDE OPEN should be on your radar.
Review: HAIRSPRAY at Keller AuditoriumMarch 29, 2023You will be hard-pressed to find anything more fun than this super sassy, high-energy celebration of self-acceptance, inclusivity, and, of course, big hair.
Review: FORBIDDEN FRUIT at Shaking The TreeMarch 14, 2023This is very intimate theatre, and not just because it’s performed for small groups in small rooms. Every piece deals with an intimate subject – something we don’t like, or don’t know how, to talk about. So, buckle up. And go see it.
Review: WHERE WE BELONG at Portland Center StageMarch 8, 2023Madeline Sayet’s sweeping and poetic one-person play WHERE WE BELONG tells the story of Achokayis, a Mohegan theatre-maker, who in 2015 moves to England to get her PhD in Shakespeare. It deals with issues that we as a country have actively worked to avoid talking about, or at least to relegate them to the past, even when their impacts are ongoing.
Review: YOUNG AMERICANS at Portland Center StageMarch 2, 2023YOUNG AMERICANS a quiet contemplative sort of play. It asks you to reflect on a question -- What does it mean to be an American? -- that has no definitive answer in a way that takes a wide variety of perspectives into account.
Review: WELCOME TO ARROYO'S at Profile TheatreFebruary 16, 2023WELCOME TO ARROYO'S is a moving and must-see play about family, grief, love, art, and the importance of being open to new perspectives and experiences. But more than anything else, it’s about community.
Review: SNAPSHOTS: A MUSICAL SCRAPBOOK at Broadway RoseFebruary 1, 2023Do you remember those brilliant Kodak commercials way back when that chronicled people’s lives through photographs and seemed specifically designed to tug at every last heartstring? In all the best ways, SNAPSHOTS: A MUSICAL SCRAPBOOK, now running at Broadway Rose, is a full-length musical version of one of those.CAL SCRAPBOOK at Broadway Rose?
Review: LAUGHING WILD at 21ten TheatreOctober 19, 2022Through two unnamed characters – lonely people struggling to find purpose and connection – the play explores how fundamental empathy is to our existence. I give this production my absolute highest recommendation.