Michael Rabice - Page 10

The Shaw Festival is known for dusting off old chestnuts and breathing new life into them. Unfortunately, its new production of Moss Hart's LIGHT UP THE SKY is  a chestnut better left in the attic to continue gathering dust.  Compared to his successful plays, like THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER  (with 739 Broadway performances) and YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (838 performances), LIGHT UP THE SKY is a second string comedy that seems stale and dated. It's initial run on Broadway was only a modest success, running 200 performances, and revivals have not fared much better.

Whether you grew up with Mary Martin , Sandy Duncan or Cathy Rigby flying on your TV screen or on a stage near you, children and adults alike still love escaping with the boy who never grew up. Neverland and it's inhabitants of Lost Boys, Indians and Pirates is usually a sure fire chance for a light hearted evening. Happily Artpark's 2015 polished musical offering of PETER PAN is flying high, and for all the right reasons.

Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields iconic 1960's musical SWEET CHARITY is playing on the stage of the Festival Theatre as this year's musical offering at the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario. Visually stunning and often energetically infectious, this musical, with book by Neil Simon, comes at a time when everything mod is new again. The 'MAD MEN' era has made a resurgence in clothing and home furnishings, so this nod to the past seems perfectly placed. Coleman's score includes such standards as 'Big Spender' and 'If My Friends Could See Me Now.'

The 2015 Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario is shaping up to be a great mix of Shavian classics, an American musical, Canadian premieres and cutting edge modern day drama. Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell will be leaving after the 2016 Season and is working hard to program an uniquely balanced season, while also hoping to fulfill all of her artistic desires before her tenure ends. The company mandate is: ' The Shaw Festival is a theatre company inspired by the work of Bernard Shaw. We produce plays from and about his era and contemporary plays that share Shaw's provocative exploration of society and celebration of humanity.'

Dark and disturbing is the best way to sum up Irish Classical Theatre's polished new production of THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF LEENANE.

Sparse CAROUSEL Takes to the Stage

2015 brings a lavish new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'The Phantom of The Opera' that opened at Shea's Buffalo Theatre on Wednesday and it has received glorious new sets by Paul Brown, while retaining most of Maria Bjornson's Tony Award winning costume designs.

A battle of the classes is playing out in The Irish Classical Theatre's brilliant new production of 'After Miss Julie,' that opened last night. Based on Strindberg's 1888 psycho-drama 'Miss Julie,' this version by Patrick Marber updates the action to a 1945 English Manor house on the eve of the British Labour Party's election victory.

As with any good laboratory, hypothesis and conjecture are needed to lead to breakthroughs and new discoveries. Buffalo Laboratory Theatre's production of MYSTERY OF THE SILVER CHALICE currently playing at 710 Main Street often succeeds in finding humor in new found audience driven technology, while keeping the actors on their toes.

When brainstorming concepts for new shows, the idea of making a musical about Berry Gordy--not necessarily a household name, may have seemed like an odd choice. So let's look at Plan B....a musical about the careers of Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye. Well, essentially the two are all the same musical. The slick production of MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL that opened on Tuesday night at Shea's tells the story of producer Berry Gordy and his start up record label, 'Motown.'

Just when you thought your family had issues with each other and holidays were unbearable.. or when you thought the dining room scene in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY was the epitome of family dysfunction, meet Henry II of England, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and their three sons.

Broadway's Leading Ladies Head to Buffalo