Category: Reviews

“What’s the Word For” at Illusion Theater

Illusion Theater has renewed their collaborative relationship with local playwright Jeffrey Hatcher in a commissioned work that also honors producing directors Michael Robins (who directs this production) and Bonnie Morris for their commitment to developing and producing new plays. The…

The Birthday Party at the Jungle Theater

Pinteresque.  The word has permanently entered the English lexicon.  It refers to something seemingly straightforward – a word, a gesture, a simple prop, a mere pause – that implies that we live atop a miasmic sea of horror and nastiness. …

Million Dollar Quartet at the State Theatre

I did a scientific analysis of the audience at Million Dollar Quartet (at the State Theatre, through April 1) (I looked around).  I immediately perceived that a person with the Rogaine concession would clean up.  The show seems geared largely…

“Werther and Lotte” produced by The Moving Company at The Lab Theater

We’ve learned to expect imaginative surprises from The Moving Company. The members of this relatively new company of familiar local theater artists just see theater differently. Werther and Lotte, the Passion and the Sorrow, created by company members Nathan Keepers…

Kingdom Undone at the Southern Theater

Kingdom Undone (Southern Theater, through April 8, 2012) tells the story of the passion of Christ.  Ostensibly looking to celebrate Passover, Jesus makes his entrance into a Jerusalem awash in revolutionary fervor.  Zealots appear quite willing to employ terrorism in…

Hay Fever at the Guthrie Theater

Hay Fever (at the Guthrie, through April 22) belongs to the designers.  Enter the Wurtele Thrust and behold – “Wow.” – Janet Bird‘s sumptuous, perfectly painted, gorgeously lit (by Philip S. Rosenberg) set.  Paintings compete with rough drawings and eccentric…

Memphis at the Ordway

Beale Street. Few places figure so centrally in American musical culture.  A case could be made for Congo Square in New Orleans, for the now-disappeared jazz clubs along 52nd Street, Laurel Canyon in the 1960s, the Grand Ole Opry.  But…

T Bone N Weasel at Theatre Pro Rata, performing at the Gremlin

T Bone N Weasel (Theatre Pro Rata, through March 18, performing at the Gremlin Theatre) is showing its age.  First produced in 1986 (and dozens of times since), playwright Jon Klein‘s endlessly amusing tale of the two hapless doofuses bouncing…