Michael Rabice - Page 4

When a big musical takes to a small space there may be cause for concern. But fear not, The Second Generation Theatre Company ‘s production of THE SECRET GARDEN fits perfectly in the cozy Shea’s Smith Theatre and transforms the space into a magical garden.

THE PROM concludes it's National tour in Buffalo this week as the big show with lots of heart took to the Shea's Buffalo stage. The first production of the 2022-23 M & T Bank Broadway Season is not an instantly recognizable name to theatre goers, despite having had a one year run on the Great White Way and a Hollywood A-List Netflix movie starring Meryl Streep.

Storytelling for the sake of enlightenment and teaching is what many think of when they hear of parables. Allegories intimate there is something deeper to be found under the surface. And many a Sunday preacher has used the pulpit to convey an everyday lesson to live by.  John Patrick Shanley’s DOUBT, A PARABLE has been a smash on Broadway in 2004 winning the Pulitzer prize and TONY Awards  for Best Play and Best Lead Actress by the fabulous Cherry Jones. In 2008 it was made into a remarkable film starring Meryl Streep. And now Buffalo gets to sit attentively as the Irish Classical Theatre presents it’s gripping production as the season opener. 

Shea's 710 Theatre was reborn last night as it  solely produced it's first ever musical on the former Studio Arena stage. An embarrassment of riches assembled onstage as some of Buffalo's own brightest talent mixed with some out of town pros  presented a rousing production of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND.

What at first sounds like an evening of gratuitous nudity for the pleasure of gay men actually turns into quite the opposite. In one of it’s final performances this summer, Robert Chesley’s play JERKER proved to be a perfect fit for The Provincetown  Theater’s mission of presenting previously unseen works to it’s audiences.

A breezy comedy of manners, as only Oscar Wilde could pen, is a welcome way to return to Niagara-on-the Lake's SHAW FESTIVAL. For it's 60th anniversary audiences are in for a familiar treat as THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST returns to the stage in all it's witty charm. Hints of covid still pervade the air as a notice of two understudies stepping into two leading roles greeted us. But fear not, their polished presence assured there was never any cause for concern.

A Victorian thriller melded with a dash of 21st century female fortitude makes up the fabric of the Shaw Festival's gripping new production of GASLIGHT. Over the years the Festival has mastered presenting these chilling stories in it's quaint jewel box  Royal George Theatre. Memories of REBECCA and AND THEN THERE WERE NONE always pervade my memories in that theatre. Even at first glance, the dimly lit set primes the audience for an afternoon of intrigue and escapism to another era.

Another wholly dysfunctional family has entered the literary realm in a new play by Bryan Delaney and Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre gets to show them off in all of their wretchedness. Dublin-born playwright Delaney has been named ICTC's Playwright in Residence and is best known to Buffalo audiences for his plays the The COBBLER and THE SEEDBED. His newest play, THE ONION GAME,  is a wicked black comedy set in rural North County Dublin and the results are mostly satisfying for it's revelatory nature and unexpected twists.

Americana and the Golden Age of the Broadway musical has happily landed at the Shaw Festival in their knock it out of the park production of DAMN YANKEES. After years without a staged musical at the Festival Theatre and repeated cancellations of it's production of GYPSY (thanks Covid!), the magic of the American musical comedy can be seen once again.

The evolution of the American musical has morphed from operetta to Vaudevillian musical revue to the classic  integrated musical comedy. The advent of the jukebox musical began as MAMMA  MIA and ALL SHOOK UP shoehorned popular music into a script to showcase Abba or Elvis Presley’s music into paper-thin plots. Now, for better or worse, the bio-concert emerges, as the slick new touring production of AIN’T TOO PROUD : The Life and Times of THE TEMPTATIONS opened at Shea’s Buffalo Theatre. The music of the Motown wonder group THE TEMPTATIONS is one of the  latest properties to take to the Broadway stage. And since it's debut, other biographical musicals are being given similar treatment, telling the stories of Cher, Tina Turner and Michael Jackson.

Romance, Russian espionage and a bad case of amnesia in short order sum up the plot of the latest Broadway tour to land in Buffalo as ANASTASIA took to the stage at Shea's last night. Inspired by the animated 1997 musical film of the same name and endless other films and books, the story of a Russian countess somehow surviving assassination continues to entice.

A modern day farce is unfolding, and I'm not speaking of the 2022  political  scene or a worldwide pandemic. but rather onstage in  Sarah Ruhl's comic play STAGE KISS. Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre is presenting this Off-Broadway play that has become quite popular among regional theatres. The Brits seem to have mastered this genre of comedic story telling style better than anyone, succeeding greatly in hits like NOISES OFF, and more recently THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG. Coincidentally, all of these successful plays deal with troupes of amateur theatre actor's shenanigans as they work through the 'creative process.'  Audiences are merely asked to suspend disbelief and go along for a rollicking ride of silliness.

In typical form, Road Less Traveled Productions in Buffalo presents a play to challenge and stimulate the senses in it's gripping production of TRIBES by Nina Raines. Never a company to shy away from forthright complex topics, TRIBES has been in the works for over 2 years, derailed by the Covid pandemic. Happily the production was worth the wait as it grapples with one dysfunctional family's life, that behind closed doors  often plays out with angst and venom masquerading as love

How to turn a classic play into a classic musical? Find the best of the best, of course. But even the powerhouse duo of Rodger's and Hammerstein couldn't figure out to to turn George Bernard Shaw's comic masterpiece PYGMALION into a musical. They attempted but ultimately passed. Happily another talented pair, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe, decided to take a stab, and the result was the brilliant MY FAIR LADY. Beloved by many thanks to an Academy Award winning motion picture, the most recent Broadway revival at Lincoln Center has landed on the Shea's Buffalo stage and the sumptuous production is a knockout.

In March of 1943, the audience that poured into New York’s St. James Theatre had no idea they were witnessing the the birth of the musical comedy as we know it today. The maiden production of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA! would change the face of Broadway forever. Flash forward 80 years and audiences once again had no idea what they would encounter in Director Daniel Fish’s dark disjointed OKLAHOMA!

After a near two year absence, live audiences have returned to Irish Classical Theatre. And the production that inaugurated the company is back again, nestled into it's home stage, which may never have been dreamt of 30 years ago. Irishman Samuel Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT is on the boards and audiences can once again ponder it's genius and complexity. Written in French in 1953 and later translated into English by Beckett himself, GODOT is undoubtedly one of his most produced and debated pieces.

HAMILTON and it's brilliant company have taken up residence at Shea's Buffalo Theatre  through January 2nd and the phenomenon deserves to be seen by one and all. The ingenuity that pervades the entire production combines a modern day sensibility and color blind casting that always seems befitting without feeling gimmicky. What best can be described

Welcome to the 1980's where acid wash jeans, big hair, shoulder pads and the music of Bryan Adams pervades the air. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere were starring in the rom-com blockbuster 'Pretty Woman'  and audiences were enthralled. Flash forward 30 or so years and everything old is new again as  PRETTY WOMAN- THE MUSICAL takes to the Broadway stage and now  has set up shop in Buffalo for a week as the National tour hits Shea's Buffalo stage.

A visiting Egyptian band loses their way and a small town is forever changed. It seems that THE BAND'S VISIT is the TONY Award winning musical that no one has heard of. But that changed last night when the luminous National tour opened at Shea's Buffalo Theatre. It was evident that most audience members had no idea what they were in for when the lights dimmed and the hour and four five minute, intermissionless production cast it's spell.