Review: Forum
A review by Bradley J Troll
Ricky Graham in "Forum"
With Stephen Sondheim's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," Tulane's Summer Lyric Theatre makes a big promise: something for everyone and comedy tonight. And though many of the characters' deceits create chaotic and colorful confusion, the promise to the audience is not only kept, it is exceeded.
Review: Zombie Town
The cast of Zombie Town
A review by Bradley J Troll
With all the vampire brouhaha lately, isn't it about time someone took a serious look at the real undead dilemma? In the first production presented by the new collaboration of Southern Rep @ Le Chat Noir, Tim Bauer's "Zombie Town: A Documentary Play" reminds audiences that "zombie attacks are all fun and games ... till it happens to you."
Review: Our Town
A review by Bradley J. Troll
Greta Zehner and Michael Alexander in Our Town
Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” has long been held in the canon of classic American drama for its universal themes and its snapshot of a gone by. Anthony Bean Community Theater’s re-imagining of the drama, however, undermines that universality, introducing a instead a place that never existed.
Review: Mame
Elizabeth Argus in Mame
A Review by Bradley Troll
"Mame, " the beloved 1966 musical adaptation by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, "lives, lives, lives!" once again as the kick-off to the Tulane Summer Lyric Theater's 43rd season.Based on the novel, play and later movie "Auntie Mame, " the story focuses on the recently orphaned Patrick Dennis as he leaves Iowa to live with his aunt in the wild, booze-filled world of 1920s New York City. Instantly bonding with his "best girl, " his aunt, Patrick learns to be a man.
Review: The Piano Teacher
Michael Aaron Santos, Veronica Russell, and Peggy Walton-Walker. Photo by John Barrois
A review by Bradley Troll
It's sometimes jarring to be suddenly reminded of what theatre can do. A few suspicious piano cords stalked by a sinister violin unnerve you as a single actor speaks. And suddenly suspense. Just words--a little music, a little light, sure... but words. Stories. Lessons. Music. But the music is in the language of Julia Cho's The Piano Teacher, and this melody is one of foreboding, infused with startling minor cords and an ever-present, though still hidden, sense of horror.
Review: Grey Gardens
A review by Bradley Troll
Leslie Castay and Janet Shea. Photo by John Barrois
"That's Grey Gardens for you," says George Gould Strong, Edith Beale's accompanist and sycophant, "Those on the outside clamoring to get in-those on the inside dying to get out." The world of this East Hampton estate centers around nothing more than those who come, those who go, and those who remain. But nearly forty years after the the world was shocked to discover the fate of Grey Gardens and its inhabitants, we continue to clamor for a peak inside one of America's most fascinating homes and families.
Review: I Am My Own Wife
A review by Bradley Troll
A light touch of her pearls, a soft swish of the matronly black apron over the black lace of a modest skirt. She turns a squeaky crank and delicately places the needle to the record as the soft static of an Edison phonograph prepares to tell its symphonic story. Behind her--antiques. Clocks, record players, sideboards... looming just behind the lace scrim screens. And on a table, small representations of these things, lingering memories of the grandeur of her famous museum in Bernlin-Mahlsdorf.
Review: The Rocky Horror Show
A review by Bradley Troll
I was a Sophomore in college the first time I watched the movie version. My best friend Julie brought over this VHS with a big pair of lips on the cover, and she promised that my life would never again be the same. I settled in and watched--determined to find the meaning, understand the symbolism and waited for that moment when every odd thing I was watching would suddenly be explained, make sense. I didn't heed Frank-N-Furter's advice; I didn't simply "give myself over to absolute pleasure." When it ended, I was perplexed. I watched it again the next week, didn't think too hard, and something finally soaked in. Julie was right; my life was never the same.
Review: Viagra Falls
A review by Bradley Troll
No chemical enhancement was needed to rouse the audience during JPAS's season opener of Viagra Falls by Joao Machado and Lou Cutell. With one-liner after one-liner, there is barely time to marvel at the amount of puns that can be made from the most taboo topic of the male anatomy. Though somewhat gimmicky, the actors sustain the two-hour play, and the surprising sentiment beneath the humor keeps the show from going flaccid.
Review: Opus
A review by Bradley Troll
"At it's best, it's like making love... at it's worst, it's like swallowing Drano." This analogy is used to describe a quartet making music. However, Southern Rep's performance of Opus by Michael Hollinger takes this sentiment beyond the lines of a staff and onto the boards of a stage. A true act of creation, Opus is love, music, and theatre in harrowing harmony.