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New This Week:
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| The Book of Mormon |
My take: As you probably know, this show has collected lots of critical praise and has been a huge hit with audiences. Everyone says the show is crude and funny and, as I observed in my review of the show when it played the Fox two years ago, it certainly is. But what you hear less often is how very smart and well-constructed it is. Anybody can be a smart-ass. Being a smart-ass with a little heart is more difficult, but this show pulls it off. Trey Parker and his collaborators know just how far they can push the envelope without braking it. The Peabody is less cavernous than the massive Fox, which makes it a better venue for theatre, so the show should work well there.
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| Nnenna Freelon (center) and the cast of The Clothesline Muse |
My take: Reviewing the show for Thinking Dance at it's premiere last spring, Lisa Bardadrson wrote: "The Clothesline Muse is a work so densely rich with metaphor, symbolism and reference to the African diaspora that I, a white woman from the suburbs of Seattle, likely missed much of it. But no matter; the universality of the message was crystal clear: we are all connected by the actions of our ancestors, whose humble beginnings can yield rich rewards to future generations...The Clothesline Muse is a fully realized work that I found deeply gratifying. The line, in the end, connected and closed, forming a perfect circle." This is the final season for the Ovations! series at Edison, so this may be your only opportunity to see this and the other non-traditional shows in the current lineup.
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| Shannon Marie Sullivan and Richard Prioleau in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Photo: Lon Brauer |
My take: Reviews have been very positive for this show. Writing for Broadwayworld.com, for example, Chris Gibson calls it "an engaging and thoroughly entertaining theatrical experience that I cannot recommend highly enough." "Under Seth Gordon's expert direction," writes Malcom Gay at the Riverfront Times, "the Rep's cast teases the nuances from Kreidler's adaptation, delivering a powerful, immersive performance that - if not exactly challenging to an audience already won over to its essential argument - masterfully navigates the shifting waters of race, class, familial acceptance and personal responsibility as they move to overrun the narrow cultural channels that have defined them." Other critics have been equally enthusiastic. It looks like a winner is coming to dinner.
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| Archie Coleman and Curtis Lewis in Stereo Heart |
My take: First Run performs the highly valuable service of producing new plays by area playwrights. Mr. Farwell has had a number of his scripts produced there, so he's hardly the new kid on the block. In his review for KDHX, Bob Nickles says the script is "strong and rich in symbolism." "Something special happens when a community tells stories about itself," he writes. "Space opens up to laugh at ourselves and to weep together, especially when the stories we tell are true ones. For all its uneven energy and clever lines, 'Stereo Heart' tells the truth, and I have to think our communities are the better for it."
