RENT

RENT

KENT STATE UNIVERSITY--E. TURNER STUMP THEATRE

February 16-25, 2024

330-672-2787

Dr. Yuko Kurahashi

Kent State University School of Theatre and Dance’s production of Rent written and composed by Jonathan Larson and directed by Amy Fritsche is one of the most revealing, moving, and compelling works. We worry about if the current generation can grasp the breadth of this musical written and set in the 1990s. KSU School of Theatre and Dance’s cast nailed the show by their true understanding of the script and genuine compassion for each character.

To see a full review of this show, read Yuko's posts here.

 

MIDDLETOWN

MIDDLETOWN

Cleveland Play House (CWRU/CPH MFA ACTING PROGRAM)

The Helen Theatre

February 21-March 2, 2024

216-400-7000

Howard Gollop

A simple drama about small-town life turns out to be anything but warm escapism in Will Eno's "Middletown." Some striking and ominous visual effects by Ben Needham (sets) and Adam Ditzes (lights) help coax the audience into accepting the extraordinary emanating out of the ordinary. But what really propels the subtext is the nuanced performances of the members of the Case Western University and Cleveland Play House joint MFA program, so insightfully honed by director Donald Carrier.

To see a full review of this show, read Howard Gollop's review here.

Dr. Yuko Kurahashi

Set in Middletown, a small town where everybody knows everyone—but not quite, Will Eno’s Middletown is a nervous Our Town, minus Emily and umbrellas. Eno includes possible bits and pieces of references, renditions, and metaphors from Angels in America, Endgame, The Trueman Show, Expecting Isabel, many stories by Philip Roth, and Carl Sagan’s Murmurs of Earth. 

To see a full review of this show, read Yuko's posts here.

Funny Girl @ Playhouse Square

Through March 10, 2024

https://www.playhousesquare.org/

(216) 241-6000

 

Roy Berko

FUNNY GIRL is a throwback to the traditional musical.  From the sprightly overture, to the sequential story line, to an I want song (“Who are You Now!), that sets the show’s storyline in action, to the big score which is nicely woven into the storyline, to several hit songs (“People” and Don’t Rain on My Parade”), it is meant to entertain audiences and, in spite of what some will think is a misinterpretation of the role of Fanny, entertain it does. 

To see a full review of this show, read Roy Berko's blog here.

Howard Gollop

The question becomes, does Katerina McCrimmon, a Cuban discovery from Miami, sound enough like the Streisand? Does she sound too much like Streisand to the point of imitation? How about comparisons to Lea Michelle, the star from TV's "Glee" who took over the struggling musical revival and reportedly enabled it to turn a profit last year? Well, good news: McCrimmon is a powerful interpretive singer in her own right, and she even manages a convincing Jewish accent that brings back Fanny Brice into focus as well. As for the rest of the musical, it's a joy to hear the complete original score by Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics) in Isobel Lennard's original book (script), tweaked for the latest Broadway revival by Harvey Fierstein.

To see a full review of this show, read Howard Gollop's review here.

Sheri Gross

This is a revival that needed to happen. And although it got off to a rocky start on Broadway, Katerina McCrimmon, along with the rest of the talented ensemble, is just the actor to land this version of “Funny Girl” into a brand new spotlight of its own.

To see a full review of this show, read Sheri Gross' review here.

Mark Horning

In the proud tradition of the Broadway musical, this show has it all and then some. Brassy Ziegfeld Folly numbers, heartfelt romantic ballads, superb dancing numbers with exciting tap routines, flashy costumes, fantastic sets and superb acting makes this must see Broadway musical theater. Don’t let the weather rain (or snow) on your parade. Come on down for an evening of fun and find out what happy people do (hint, they see touring Broadway musicals).

To see a full review of this show, read Mark Horning's Review here.

Chris Howey

With a few wrinkles, this touring show at Playhouse Square provied a glimpse of what star power looked like about a century ago.

To see a full review of this show, read Chris Howey's Review here.

Laura Kennelly

Funny Girl, now at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace, celebrates vaudeville star Fanny Brice’s rise to fame via the Ziegfeld Follies in the early 1900s. If you have seen the Barbara Streisand film version, you already know the plot and probably have favorite songs.

To see a full review of this show, read Laura's post here or at Cool Cleveland.

Joey Morona

“Funny Girl” is one of those shows whose success hinges on its central performance. The role of Fanny Brice is so powerful that it turned Barbra Streisand into a star and uncanceled Lea Michele. Newcomer McCrimmon absolutely shines on tour, capturing the essence of the character while making it her own with vibrant energy, a powerful singing voice and the comedic timing of a seasoned pro.

To see a full review of this show, read Joey's posts here.

 

The Play That Goes Wrong @ Cleveland Play House

Through March 3, 2024

https://www.clevelandplayhouse.com/ 

(216) 241-6000

Howard Gollop

If ever a case can be made for less is more, "The Play that Goes Wrong" is the right show to prove that axiom. For the Cleveland Play House production, brilliantly (and self-destructively) mounted by scenic designer Czerton Lim, the performers needlessly punctuate the slapstick and intentional overacting of the amateur British company (billed as the Cornley University Drama Society) putting on the mystery "The Murder of Faversham Manor" to the point of turning the evening into a circus clown show. Then again, a clown show, expertly choreographed by fight and stunt director Jason Paul Tate, was all many escapism-hungry audience members needed on a cold, rainy night on Playhouse Square. Considering the show is still a hit off-Broadway (perhaps slightly more reigned in), even New York audiences would concur.
To see a full review of this show, read Howard Gollop's review here.

Mark Horning

Even if you have seen this work before, it is well worth seeing the Cleveland Play House version of this comic classic. The production values are top-notch, the comedy is spot on and the physical funny aspects are a work of art. It is a comic farce that will have you laughing all the way home. Share in the delight and silliness!

To see a full review of this show, read Mark Horning's Review here.

Chris Howey

"In sum, The Play That Goes Wrong will make many in the audience laugh till their sides ache, while others may feel like they've attended a limply amusing theatrical mugging."

To see a full review of this show, read Chris Howey's Review here.

Laura Kennelly

Whoops! If everything goes wrong in the Cleveland Play House’s current show, that means everything is going right! The Play That Goes Wrong, now at Playhouse Square’s Allen Theatre, shows farce at its best. One testimony to that is that the run of this play within a play has been extended to March 10, a week longer than planned, due to ticket demand.

Maybe it’s schadenfreude, but I think Clevelanders know how easy it is for things to go wrong and how cool it is to be able to not only make the best of it, but also to laugh about it. “River on fire? Bah, not stopping us,” etc. 

To see a full review of this show, read here or see Laura's posts at Cool Cleveland.

Mother Courage and Her Children @ Ensemble Theatre

MOTHER COURAGE

Ensemble

February 9-25, 2024

ensembletheatrecle.org or 216-321-2930

 

Roy Berko

Theatre lovers, rejoice!  At 2 hours and 30 minutes MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN is a long sit, but a well-worth investment of time when realizing that you are seeing one of the epics of Western culture’s theatrical cannon which is getting an impressive staging.

To see a full review of this show, read Roy Berko's blog here.

Howard Gollop
No review yet.
To see a full review of this show, read Howard Gollop's review here.

Sheri Gross
No review yet.
To see a full review of this show, read Sheri Gross' review here.

Mark Horning

To say that this production is not one of my favorites would be an understatement. Perhaps it was an off night. If so, humor me, buy a ticket and see for yourself. For me there was no mother's love.

To see a full review of this show, read Mark Horning's Review here.

Chris Howey

"Mother Courage illustrates the fragility of human values, the ones we cherish and hold onto in the grim hope they will save us. And this trenchant production reveals them for what they are."

To see a full review of this show, read Chris Howey's Review here.

Kate Klotzbach

No review yet.
To see a full review of this show, read Kate's posts here.

Dr. Yuko Kurahashi

Ensemble Theatre’s Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht, translated (adapted) by Tony Kushner with music composition by Duke Special, and directed by Ian Wolfgang Hinz and Rebecca Moseley, is a powerful work that addresses multiple issues around war, business, and people. Although the play is set in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), these themes are universal, relevant to “any war, anywhere, at anytime” as the program states. The central character Anna Frierling, Mother Courage, is a middle-aged woman who pushes her wagon with her children, crossing the war-torn fields. They sell what they can sell—pots, pans, schnapps, soups, and sometimes, ammunition—to survive. The play is about survival, “war as a business,” sacrifice, bravery, courage, hypocrisy, and the devastation of human lives. 

To see a full review of this show, read Yuko's posts here.

Joey Morona
No review yet.
To see a full review of this show, read Joey's posts here.

 

ALTER

ALTER

Cleveland Public Theatre

February 8-24, 2024

cptonline.org or 216-631-2727 Ext 501

 Roy Berko

It is always interesting to see a new script in its first full production.  With ALTER, the viewer not only gets to see the birth, but also experience a fine staging values.  Congrats to Tania Benites for developing a meaningful play and to Cleveland Public Theatre for giving the audience a fine experience. 

To see a full review of this show, read Roy Berko's blog here.

Howard Gollop
No review yet.
To see a full review of this show, read Howard Gollop's review here.

Sheri Gross
No review yet.
To see a full review of this show, read Sheri Gross' review here.

Mark Horning

What happens when we simultaneously become our biggest asset and worst enemy through the miracle of self-help aids. This is the twisted tale of two personalities inhabiting a single body. We cheer when Marie stands up to her over dominating co-working but agonize at the price she eventually pays. Come see this intriguing play.  

To see a full review of this show, read Mark Horning's Review here.

Chris Howey

"It's always exciting to see an original play hit a local stage, especially when it's written by a person raised in the northeast Ohio theater community. With Alter by Tania Benites, Cleveland Public Theatre and Teatro Publico de Cleveland join forces to present a work that, while flawed, has a neat twist in the storytelling that captures your imagination."

To see a full review of this show, read Chris Howey's Review here.

Kate Klotzbach

No review yet.
To see a full review of this show, read Kate's posts here.

Dr. Yuko Kurahashi
Tania Benites’s ALTER, directed by Barclay, is a contemporary Faust, Dr. Jekyll & Hyde, or Frankenstein story. One wishes to become or want somebody ideal, and their wishes come true—and then it is too late to realize that they have sold their soul to a devil. Alter challenges the self-help industry and the “let’s transform” ethos in today's context. We are bombarded daily with numerous workshops, trainings, classes, and self-books, which all try to promote a “more assertive, powerful, productive, influential and happier” you.  It is funny that I just got an invitation to attend a Live Webinar training called “Assertive Speaking Skills for Professionals: How to Ask for What You Want and Get It!” Maybe I will attend it to see if I will meet with my alter ego—a better and more assertive version of me.

To see a full review of this show, read Yuko's posts here.

Joey Morona
No review yet.
To see a full review of this show, read Joey's posts here.

 

Ride The Cyclone - The Musical @ Beck Center For The Arts

RIDE THE CYCLONE

BECK CENTER FOR THE ARTS

FEBRUARY 9-25, 2024

216-521-2540 or beckcenter.org

Roy Berko

The strong directing, performances and production qualities of RIDE THE CYCLONE THE MUSICAL overcome the less than stellar book and music to make this is definitely worthy of a trip to Beck Center where the audience gets to appreciate and wonder at the talents of the students enrolled in the BW Musical Theatre program.

 To see a full review of this show, read Roy Berko's blog here.

Howard Gollop

It's hard to avoid the pun, but Beck Center for the Art's "Ride the Cyclone" is indeed a transcendental joyride of all things musical and ethereal about teens grappling with the afterlife after a tragic accident on a carnival rollercoaster. It's an amazing cerebral flip-side to those teen-tragedy "Final Destination" movies -- made all that more compelling by a magnificent production-lighting design by Trad A. Burns and Jack Anthony Ina and the rest of the magnificent cast and crew joining the Beck Center from the celebrated Baldwin Wallace University Music Theater Program.

To see a full review of this show, read Howard Gollop's review here.

Mark Horning

This is one of those little gems of theater that if you blink will race by before you know it. The marriage of Beck Center’s technical staff with the enormous talent found in the BWU Music Theater Program gives us an extraordinary evening of musical entertainment. This show has it all: heart, courage, love and music. This is a highly recommended show to see.

To see a full review of this show, read Mark Horning's Review here.

Laura Kennelly

If all your favorite musicals had a love child, Ride the Cyclone might be it. Funny, touching, philosophical and musical — above all musical — this Beck Center and Baldwin Wallace collaboration is a delightful, witty creation.

Directed by Victoria Bussert and written by Canadians Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell, this regional première features a small, but mighty troupe. (It is double cast; I saw the Raptor team.)

To see a full review of this show, go here or read Laura's posts at Cool Cleveland.

Dr. Yuko Kurahashi

Set in the amusement park in a small town called Uranium City—to ominously suggest a post-apocalyptic world—five high school students who belong to the choir group get on the rollercoaster ride, “The Cyclone.” During the ride, they were thrown out of their seats to the ground due to a mechanical failure.

Each student--Ocean O’Connell Rosenberg, Constance Blackwood, Noel Gruber, Ricky Potts, and Mischa Bachinski--has their distinctive personalities, histories, and dreams—which would not be materialized. That’s why the stories they share in their “last playground” become meaningful and profound to the extent that their shared stories would determine who they really “were” rather than they would be remembered by others. Many familiar themes and story and narrative devices/structures that remind the audience of those in SIX, The Wizard of Oz, Spring Awakening, and A Chorus Line make the show even more appealing.

To see a full review of this show, read Yuko's posts here.

Murder On The Orient Express @ Great Lakes Theater

Through March 3, 2024

https://www.greatlakestheater.org/ 

(216) 241-6000

 

Roy Berko

Agatha Christie’s MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS gets a wonderful staging at GLT.  It challenges the imagination, it delights, it makes for a special evening of theatre.  Yes, if you want a couple of hours out of the time we are all spending in this stressful world, this is an absolute GO SEE!

To see a full review of this show, read Roy Berko's blog here.

Howard Gollop

After two major film versions and TV versions of Agatha Christie's iconic mystery novel "Murder on the Orient Express," it might be hard to propel Ken ("Lend Me a Tenor") Ludwig the 2017 stage version on the basis of its actual mystery. Instead, the Great Lakes Theater's production propels "Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express" with a train. Under the embracing direction of Charles Fee, the cast members deliver all the European color, flare and mystery of their potentially duplicitous characters, but nothing gets this production moving like the stage crew, dressed as conductors, who literally push the whodunnit drama forward on its tracks. The audience eagerly hops aboard.

To see a full review of this show, read Howard Gollop's review here. 

Sheri Gross

All aboard the luxurious Orient Express for a fabulous, fast-paced farce full of murder, mystery, and mayhem, with a talented cast that will keep you guessing from curtain up to curtain call.  

To see a full review of this show, read Sheri Gross' review here.

Mark Horning

Even those who are familiar with the movie version (and thus the “surprise ending”) will still fall in love with the characters and the way the plot and characters are developed. It is an evening of superb theater that is guaranteed to sell out with each performance. Get your tickets NOW! It’s everything that is great about theater.

To see a full review of this show, read Mark Horning's Review here.

Chris Howey

"Of course, the ending is what makes this play  so enduring, as it tosses the concepts of punishment and justice into a cocked (and oh-so-decorous) hat. After all the splendid speeches and visual delights, it will leave you to mull the appropriateness of the outcome yourself. And that's a tasty ending to a luscious theatrical package."

To see a full review of this show, read Chris Howey's Review here.

Laura Kennelly

A shotgun wedding — an Agatha Christie thriller combined with playwright Ken Ludwig’s sense of the ridiculous — makes for a mystery-packed comedy production of Murder on the Orient Express at Great Lakes Theater.

While it may sound lovely to ride on an elegantly decorated express train from Istanbul to Paris, our story makes it obvious it is a mistake to ride anywhere with mystery writer Christie’s Detective Hercule Poirot. Trouble is bound to follow, at least in this well-paced play directed by Charles Fee.

To see a full review of this show, go here or read Laura's posts at Cool Cleveland.

Dr. Yuko Kurahashi

Ken Ludwig’s adaptation/dramatization makes the story simpler, more hilarious, and entertaining for the American audience.  According to the program note, Ludwig reduced the number of suspects from 12 to 8, making it possible for the audience to follow the characters and their relationships with the murder of Daisy. This murder case, which ties all the eight passengers together, reminds the audience of the kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. in 1932. Ludwig’s script ominously foretells the approaching Hitler’s invasion of the territories that the Orient Express traverses. And that unsettling atmosphere is implied—so I felt—by the sound effects similar to bombings in the last scene.    

To see a full review of this show, read Yuko's posts here.

Joey Morona

The official description calls “Alter” a workplace dramedy, but the playwright sees it as more of a dark comedy with thriller and horror elements.

To see a full review of this show, read Joey's posts here.

 

Breakfast At The Bookstore @ Karamu House

Through February 18, 2024

http://www.karamuhouse.org

(216) 795-7070        

 

Roy Berko

 According to the program notes, Dot, the fulcrum around which the plot circulates, “represents the next generation of freedom fighters who refuse to be restricted by binaries and demand that we acknowledge their full humanity in all its complexity.”  Oh, if that were only true, and the playwright made this clearer in her writing.  As is, I doubt whether that erudite message was what many in the audience garnered from the presentation.

To see a full review of this show, read Roy Berko's blog here.

Mark Horning

If you are looking for a bit of something different with hard hitting social commentary, look no further. This is an entertaining two hours with a profound message and a magnifying microcosm of the Black/White situation in Cleveland and the world both past and present. Come to the show and be enlightened. 

To see a full review of this show, read Mark Horning's Review here.

Chris Howey

The Breakfast at the Bookstore, carries a powerful message about the ways people in Cleveland's Black community were seeking sustenance—physically, mentally and spiritually—back in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

To see a full review of this show, read Chris Howey's Review here.

Yuko Kurahashi

Though The Breakfast at the Bookstore is packed with so many ideas—feminism, transgenderism, Black nationalism, Afrofuturism, and today’s activism, what comes back at the end of the show is “Free Breakfast.” A free breakfast program was started by the Black nationalist party in the late 1960s to nourish children—both their bodies and souls.  The “bookstore” was the venue that the Black activists used to educate and solidify their followers. Many Black-owned bookstore owners became the targets of the police and FBI harassment.    

To see a full review of this show, read Yuko Kurahashi's review here.