SOMETHING ROTTEN! Comes to the Fulton Theatre
The Fulton Theatre has announced the highly anticipated production of the uproarious musical comedy, Something Rotten! This Tony Award-nominated hit will open the Fulton’s 2023/24 Mainstage season, and is set to captivate audiences with its show-stopping musical numbers, hilarious one-liners, and energetic and colorful stage design, beginning on September 15, 2023 with previews September 13 and 14.
Review: Smart, Silly, Spectacular, SOMETHING ROTTEN! Proves a Dazzling MSMT Main Stage Finale
Dancing omelettes, a zany soothsayer, THE Bard of English theatre, and a ragtag troupe of Renaissance actors struggling to survive all share the Maine State Music Theatre stage in dizzying profusion in the final main stage production of the season: SOMETHING ROTTEN! - an outrageously funny, simultaneously urbane and plebeian send up and homage to classical theatre and that unique genre the MUSICAL.
The stylish and brilliant co-production with Lancaster’s Fulton Theatre, directed by Marc Robin, creates an entirely new imaginary universe, a world at the intersection of Elizabethan England and modern American musical theatre – part Renaissance Faire (on steroids), part Monty Python at their most hilarious. The evening, which is filled with endearing characters, showstopping song and dance numbers, comedy fueled by allusions, puns, slapstick, scatological jokes, and occasionally even poetry, is pure entertainment. No one will need to “brush up his Shakespeare” or be able to “name that tune” in order to come away from SOMETHING ROTTEN! thoroughly exhilarated and brimming with joy.
BWW Review: Wacky, Wickedly Funny, and Wonderful, MSMT's All-Star Cast Romps in 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL
Maine State Music Theatre’s new production of 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL with Dolly Parton’s pulsating score is a high energy, hilarious madcap misadventure that somehow also manages to ring uncannily true. Both a period piece and a contemporary one, this tale of women in the workplace is propelled by zany humor, but also fueled by the empathetic characters at its core. The trio of women embattled with their narcissistic boss are - as Parton, herself, phrased it “just a step on the boss man's ladder” - and yet they sing and dance their way into our hearts in an evening filled with laughter and warmth.
BWW Critic's Choices: Best of Maine 2022
After three seemingly endless years, Maine's theatrical landscape has truly begun to come to life again after the pandemic. I am thrilled to be able to pen this article, having experienced a 2022 that saw the remarkable 'comebacks' of Maine's theatres. While the year was not without continued challenges, these brave, resilient companies managed to produce first-class live theatre for grateful audiences.
These are my personal choices of the best in Maine for 2022, grouped by theatre company and show.
Review: KINKY BOOTS at Fulton Theatre
Kinky Boots is a show about acceptance, friendship, and making the best of a situation when faced with adversity. Fulton’s current production exemplifies all of those facets and makes for a great night of theater.
Resilience, Acceptance, and Change: The Healing Lessons in KINKY BOOTS
“Lola gains her strength from her resilience,” says Stephane Duret, who plays the drag queen star of MSMT’s KINKY BOOTS. “Sometimes she feels like an island, alone in this world she has created. But she survives. She’s got her Angels for support, her chosen family, and even when she gets a little slap in the face from Charlie, she comes back to their partnership. That’s her resilience.”
“And Lola challenges others to be accepting and to change their perspective,” continues MSMT Artistic Director Curt Dale Clark. “I consider it important for MSMT to present something that can cause change in a community, and this show with Stephane’s and the entire cast’s unbelievable performances is doing just that!”
His remarks draw applause from the capacity audience at MSMT’s final Peek Behind the Curtain panel discussion, moderated by Carla Maria Verdino-Süllwold, BWW’s Maine editor, on August 17 at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick.
Review: Bold, Big-Hearted Celebration of Friendship: MSMT's KINKY BOOTS
With its bold, brilliant, sassy, urbanely funny, and warmly heartfelt production of KINKY BOOTS, Maine State Music Theatre has chosen the perfect vehicle to close its main stage season. The irresistible musical by Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper is given a spectacular, big-hearted production that pulls out all the stops and showcases MSMT at its Broadway best.
Urban Stages To Present Premiere Reading Of Gary Apple's New Musical Comedy ON THE FLIP SIDE
Urban Stages Theater is presenting the premier reading of On The Flip Side, a new jukebox musical by Gary Apple as part of their 'Winter Readings Series.' Jukebox musicals about legendary superstars have packed Broadway houses over recent years, so Apple decided to create one for artists who will never have a jukebox musical of their own -- namely, One-Hit Wonders.
New York Deaf Theatre, Kaiser's Room, and Saint Francis School For The Deaf Announce Pilot Class
Beginning in January 2020 Saint Francis de Sales School for the Deaf will host an 8-week session of theatre classes for their students who are d/Deaf and have additional disabilities. The classes will follow Kaiser's Room's model of creating connection through imaginative play, but adapted by New York Deaf Theatre to specifically serve this demographic of the d/Deaf community. According to The Gallaudet Research Institute nearly 40% of individuals who are d/Deaf have additional disabilities.