Perry Tannenbaum

While Marc Shaiman's score often sounds effortful in striving to make SOME LIKE IT HOT what it was in the first place—a musical with cherry-picked hits for Marilyn Monroe to sing—the book by Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin helps the story and its main characters diversify and evolve. Director Casey Nicholaw's high-heel tap choreography further assures high energy all evening long.

What did our critic think of & JULIET at Belk Theater?

At Belk Theater, with a house twice as large as the venues where GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY played London and Broadway, the touring musical seems more like a distant mirage than a precious rolling stone by a dream team.The Belk's wretched sound further hamstrings Conor McPherson's book and Bob Dylan's music and lyrics.

Wiancko is more about theming each of the 11 concerts in the chamber series, more about the Zen of each program. Nuttall was laid-back and West Coast in his attitude: If you want to applaud between movements, go right ahead. A couple of times, Wiancko took what seemed like a Far Eastern approach, requesting that we withhold applause between works.

What did our critic think of HADESTOWN at Belk Theater?

Pardon me a second, but I seem to be noticing stretch marks on my suspension of disbelief. Three nights before the curtain rose on the touring version of MRS. DOUBTFIRE that rolled into Belk Theater, I saw a rather fine production of Twelfth Night across town at Central Piedmont College. Since both of the brief runs include at least one matinee between now and Sunday, my experience of seeing two wives who fail to identify their true husbands can be intensified, compressed into the space eight hours, if you wish, after my relatively relaxed 75-hour exercise.

Yes, a grand opera was inserted at Belk Theater as the clock or calendar was winding down! Around the world, Callas, Nilsson, and Sutherland are among the divas who have graced the powerhouse role of TURANDOT, and Franco Zeffirelli's production at the Met is as revered for its stateliness and splendor as the Notre Dame Cathedral. Grand? Monumental.

Injecting diversity, switching genders pell-mell, and even gifting us with a gay couple, Marianne Elliott's overhaul of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY isn't more illuminating or revelatory than the 1970 original. But the horseplay and the gay wedding-day shenanigans are wildly entertaining - and the superb score still transcends the George Furth book.

They haven't fixed the clunky storytelling or finally used actual Fanny Brice material, but FUNNY GIRL still scores big when it comes equipped with an electrifying lead and a top-notch cast.

What did our critic think of SIX THE MUSICAL at Blumenthal Performing Arts?

Within a restrictive two-hander format, Lauren Gunderson hatches a surprise beyond my imagination in I AND YOU, parlaying the pleasures of Walt Whitman, John Coltrane, and Jerry Lee Lewis along the way.

Starring Anthony Roth Costanzo and Justin Vivian Bond, ONLY AN OCTAVE demonstrates how much we've changed - and how much we haven't - since Carol Burnett and Beverly Sills first sang the song in 1976, one year before Spoleto arrived in Charleston. But what about 2011, when Taylor Mac strutted onstage and proclaimed, 'This is my festival bitches!'?

Kiki walks the walk in reacting to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, offering healing to both survivors and perpetrators while building anew in the ruins.

David O'Hare's AN ILIAD can be taken as one man's distillation of Homer's ancient oral epic, or as one of many, many possible Iliads that could be written about the wars that plague mankind.

Written for a streamed production in 2021, Keli Goff’s CROWNS, KINKS AND CURLS needed some alterations for a live staged presentation, and Three Bone Theatre has solved most of those tailoring problems admirably. When Goff comes to Charlotte for a talkback, she'll see the rousing ambiance she has created - and perhaps consider trims and updates.

The new Charlotte Ballet production of PETER PAN, choreographed by Christopher Stuart, is the most inclusive and politically correct I've seen, retaining sets and costumes from previous editions while completely changing the music. Plenty of delightful surprises and only one SOS: it's a no-fly zone.

With deft direction that plumbs the depths of silliness in turning a Parker Brothers board game to farce, Jill Bloede weds the flimsiness of the 1985 film's plot with a divinely flimsy set populated by precision actors scurrying around amid flawless transitions and scene changes, lifting Sandy Rustin's stage adaptation to heights of delight, ridiculous story and all.

The new Broadway revival of INTO THE WOODS, now touring with a significant portion of the New York cast, dispels the too-clever-by-half aftertaste I've experienced in previous productions and bares Stephen Sondheim's heart in an affecting tribute to the late master.

Scott Brown and Anthony Brown's stage adaptation may be hit-and-miss, and Eddie Perfect's score may be a punkish bust, but thanks to a design and tech dream team, BEETLEJUICE fanatics won't be disappointed with the touring Broadway version.

A meteor named Mei-Ann Chen had an impact on Charlotte Symphony and its subscribers that was simply electrifying.