Lauren Yarger - Page 7

In a basement rec room in the 1950s, four guys dream of being the next big thing in rock 'n' roll and of winning the girl who has stolen their hearts in Life Could Be A Dream, a jukebox musical that has them clapping and singing along at the Ivoryton Playhouse.

If you're a Beatles fan, you'll enjoy the music-jammed two and a half hours (with an intermission). The music and vocals are good. It's the next best thing to seeing Paul, George, John and Ringo in person. Four generations were represented in the audience who sang and clapped along with the music.

Love in the newsroom, corrupt politics and a murder trial combine for screwball comedy in HIS GIRL FRIDAY over at Connecticut Repertory's Nafe Katter Theatre on the UConn campus.

Dramatic music plays, people talk in short sentences expressing their deepest feelings, video mimics what is happening on stage - or the stage action depicts what already has happened - in an atmosphere that feels depressing and foreign. We have stepped into the world premiere of Man in a Case starring former ballet-sensation-turned-actor Mikhail Baryshnikov at Hartford Stage.

A group of friends, loud music, drugs, sex, war and rebellion against parental authority. If you're thinking Spring Awakening or Hair, you're close, but just a generation or two off. This one is American Idiot, a Punk Rock musical featuring songs from Green Day and making a tour stop at the Bushnell.

The darker side of the production is offset by riveting performances by Ivey and Tighe - and that really adorable scene-stealing lamb handled by William Berloni.

The play is as much a love letter from Burns to his comedy partner and wife and a tribute to his friendship with comedian Jack Benny as it is a memoir of his career, which spanned 90 years until he turned 100.

One of A.R. Gurney's lesser known works, ANCESTRAL VOICES, is getting a run over at Music Theatre of Connecticut, where the intimate setting is just right for the nostalgic look at one family, seen through the eyes of a boy growing up in Buffalo before World War II.

The play has cool charm, blustery humor and just enough frostbite to keep it from being too sweetly romantic.

When I first saw Marie Jones's play STONES IN HIS POCKETS, I wasn't reviewing, but was working as the Front of House Manager at the Bushnell where Bronson Pinchot was starring in the tour stop there in 2002. About half of the audience left at intermission, most of them asking what the play was about. I couldn't answer. I had no idea myself.

The Beautiful Soup Theater Collective's production of the first ever revival of Arthur Bicknell's Moose Murders, the most notorious flop in the history of modern theater, celebrated its opening last night, January 30, 2013 at The Connelly Theater. BroadwayWorld was there for the festivities and you can check out full coverage from the after party below!

Humor, drama, history and passion are keys used to play a lovely chord as Roland hears music in everything he does and Tresnjak is the conductor who puts visual artistry to the emotions and plot.

It's 1956 and Carl Perkins (Connecticut native James Barry) is trying to record 'Matchbox,' the song he hopes will put him back at the top of the charts. Providing some distraction during the recording session (and adding to the music), however, are showoff Jerry Lee Lewis (Benjamin Goddard) and legends Johnny Cash (David Elkins) and Elvis Presley (Billy Woodward).

Kready, dressed in full elf garb that incudes candy-cane tights (Margaret Charbonneau, costume design), often reclining in an ornate Santa throne decorated with a background of Christmas trees (Michael Lenaghan, set design), brings personalities to life with recreations of SantaLand moments under the direction of Rob Ruggiero, TheaterWorks' newly appointed producing artistic director.

It's amazingly sad yet funny, intense yet whimsical, deep yet obvious, revealing yet obscure -- all at the same time and both Fisher and Mays capture our imaginations as they creating characters experiencing the wide range of emotions.

The parade seen is terrifically stages with marching bands, entertaining acts and the famous Macy's balloons all depicted while Music Director Richard DeRosa and his five-man band play a score by Meredith "Music Man" Wilson that includes "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." Alexander Butler as Mara's grandson is adorable as is Grace Rundhaug, who believes in Santa when Kris is able to speak to her in her native Dutch. The real Macy's over at Waterbury's Brass Mill Mall also got involved in the production, decorating the theater lobby and providing discount cards in the program.

Right from the start, Michael Wilson's adaptation of Charles Dicken's A CHRISTMAS CAROL makes it clear that its subtitle, "A Ghost of a Christmas Story," should be taken seriously. Not only do the four ghosts we expect pay visits, but others dance, fly, float and slither across the stage in a satisfying presentation now in its 15th season at Hartford Stage.

What stands out about this production is the really terrific fight choreography by Greg Webster. Steel clashes and extended sword battles rage in some of the most thrilling, realistic looking onstage battles you'll ever see. One battle breathtakingly stops, only to resume after intermission.

In this sumptuous, eye-pleasing version of the last days of Marie Antoinette, Adjmi interjects modern thoughts into history from France's bloody Revolution to create a remarkable, thought-provoking and witty theatrical experience.