Review: "Kiss" at Yale Rep
Review: "Kiss" at Yale Rep

When I was asked to review “Kiss,” Guillermo Calderón’s Rubik’s cube of a political play now appearing at the Yale Repertory Theatre, I assumed that the most difficult part would be having to type out the piece one-handed due to a pesky finger injury. As it turns out, my bum knuckle is the least of my problems. “Kiss” is a fascinating play. It’s an ambitious and inventive work with a lot on its mind. It’s the kind of play I’d love to discuss and analyze at length, but “Kiss” contains a myriad of twists and turns I have been asked to not talk about. It’s probably for the better. The surprises in store at the Yale Rep are among the key pleasures of seeing “Kiss.” So, forgive me if I seem like I’m skirting the matters at hand. I am.

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ConnecticutChristopher PetersonNoah Golden, Yale Repertory Theatre
Review: "Maggie & Pierre" at Tarragon Theatre
Review: "Maggie & Pierre" at Tarragon Theatre

In this one woman show, Kaitlyn Riordan plays Henry, a reporter who investigates the global fascination around one of Canada’s most iconic prime ministers and his flower child wife.  She then segues fluidly and naturally between two radically challenging performances as a bombastic and pompous Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his insecure and, at times, unstable wife, Margaret Sinclair.

I never saw Maggie & Pierre with Linda Griffiths when It premiered in Toronto years ago. I did not want to miss this opportunity again.

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Toronto, CanadaChristopher PetersonJoseph Szekeres
Review: "The Addams Family" at Rooftop Productions
Review: "The Addams Family" at Rooftop Productions

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Addams Family the Musical at The Center for the Arts in Manassas, Virginia. The musical, as expected, is based on the old Addams Family TV show and the 1990’s films. The show, put up by Rooftop Productions, follows an older Wednesday Addams who believes she has fallen in love with a young man, Lucas. Lucas and his family come from Ohio, which is a stark contrast to the Addams’s interesting lifestyle. Trouble in sues when Wednesday asks her father, Gomez, to keep the couples potential marriage a secret from Morticia, Gomez’s wife and Wednesday’s mother. This causes a rift in the family and all relationships involved.

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VirginiaChristopher PetersonChristian Jost
Broadway Review: Valor Rules Supreme in “Three Tall Women”
Broadway Review: Valor Rules Supreme in “Three Tall Women”

What if the seven “characters” in Jacques the melancholy’s monologue in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” could “meet” and share with one another the experiences they had in their particular “stage of life?” What if “the lean and slipper'd pantaloon” could let the “soldier” know how his life would change, or if both could warn the “infant” of the pitfalls of adolescence and adulthood? And then what if “second childishness and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything” could communicate to all his “stages” the importance of humor and perspective? The protagonist in “Three Tall Women,” currently running at the John Golden Theatre, manages that achievement with grace and charming caprice.

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BroadwayChristopher PetersonDavid Roberts
Review: "SCHOOL OF ROCK" is now in Session
Review: "SCHOOL OF ROCK" is now in Session

It’s been a while since I’ve walked out of a theatre humming a song from a musical. After seeing School of Rock on opening night, I found myself not only humming, but singing “Stick it to the Man” while driving home. The next day, I sang it again while doing chores around the house. Not only is this song catchy, it had the audience up and out of their seats at the end of the show.

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Los AngelesChristopher PetersonJill Weinlein, Pantages Theatre
Review: Singing about the "Blues in the Night" at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
Review: Singing about the "Blues in the Night" at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Listening to some of the best jazz and blues music from the 1920’s and 30’s, Blues in the Night features four exquisite singers and six soulful musicians transporting the audience on a historical journey while performing 27 songs by the great Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Benny Goodman and Johnny Mercer.

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Los AngelesChristopher PetersonJill Weinlein, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
Review: “Randy Writes A Novel” at Theatre Row
Review: “Randy Writes A Novel” at Theatre Row

It’s Friday night, and as I am most days, I am spending my night at the theater. This time, rather than a show that involved the usual dialogue of sorts between humans, I was off to see a PUPPET SHOW! I have to say, although I knew from the beginning that tonight’s show I’d be reviewing would be a bit different, it turned out to be more different – and more hysterical – than I’d honestly been expecting from Randy Writes a Novel.

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Off Broadway, New YorkChristopher PetersonAnthony J Piccione
Review: “The Spring Fling Chemistry” at F*It Club
Review: “The Spring Fling Chemistry” at F*It Club

As anyone who has ever attended or been part of a night of short one-act plays knows, these things can often be a mixed bag. Only occasionally do all of them shine. That’s been my own personal experience with these types of events, anyway. However, when I had the chance to see The Spring Fling, F*It Club’s annual series of one-act plays, I was thankfully treated to one of the better short play events that I’ve reviewed.

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New YorkChristopher PetersonAnthony J Piccione
U.K. Review: "The River" at Wildgoose Theatre
U.K. Review: "The River" at Wildgoose Theatre

In recent years, Jez Butterworth’s plays, particularly Jerusalem and The Ferryman, have been causing a real stir in British theatre and cementing his status as a true stalwart of contemporary drama. Sitting in between these two plays is his dark, haunting drama The River, and luckily, I got the opportunity to review York-based company Wildgoose Theatre’s latest production of it.

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United KingdomChristopher PetersonAdam Bruce
Off-Broadway Review: Sensibility Reigns in “Summer and Smoke” at Classic Stage Company
Off-Broadway Review: Sensibility Reigns in “Summer and Smoke” at Classic Stage Company

Begun in 1945, and first produced in 1947, Tennessee Williams called “Summer and Smoke” a “drama of sensibility.” Rich in allegory, yet grounded in realism, the play explores the deep conflicts between body and soul and between the sacred and the profane and examines the themes of the marginalized and the results of having a poorly integrated sexuality. Currently running at Classic Stage Company, this revival of “Summer and Smoke” is presented by both Classic Stage Company and the Transport Group and is directed by Transport’s Jack Cummings III.

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Off BroadwayChristopher PetersonDavid Roberts, Classic Stage Company
Review: "The Will Rogers Follies" at Goodspeed Musicals
Review: "The Will Rogers Follies" at Goodspeed Musicals

Goodspeed Musicals’ sparkly The Will Rogers Follies pays heavy homage to the titular cultural icon, plastering its stage with black-and-white photos and bombarding the audience with sequins and glitter. For all its self-awareness, however, this production feels like a recreation of early 20th century entertainment rather than a 21st-century spin, resulting in a revue that feels dated and wildly out of touch.

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ConnecticutChristopher PetersonMaegan Clearwood, Goodspeed Musicals
Review: “Impossible But True” at Franklin 820
Review: “Impossible But True” at Franklin 820

It’s Monday. You just got off work, after a stressful day. Maybe you need to do something to help you relax a bit, to help you get through the rest of your day. What do you do? Well, there are three things you can treat yourself to: A good drink, some musical theatre, and a trip back to the late 18th-century. Or at least, that would appear to be the suggestion of writer/composer Dan Furman, whose entertaining musical Impossible But True is now being revived in Brooklyn – and in quite a unique fashion – over the next month.

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New YorkChristopher PetersonAnthony J Piccione
Review: "Crowns" at Long Wharf Theatre
Review: "Crowns" at Long Wharf Theatre

There is something about gospel music that I find irresistible: It’s uplifting and redeeming; it moves you to tap your foot or clap your hands.  Mix that with blues and hip hop and you have the multi-generational musical story, Crowns.  Inspired by the book, Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats, Regina Taylor creates and directs a musical jubilee that brings to life the portraits of six African-American women through triumphant song, movement, story, and, of course, hats. First performed in 2002, the Long Wharf production is a revision of the original, updated in conjunction with Emily Mann’s McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton where Crowns was first produced.

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ConnecticutChristopher PetersonTara Kennedy, Long Wharf Theatre
Review: The Phantom Stages A Comeback in the Perplexing “LOVE NEVER DIES” at Segerstrom Center
Review: The Phantom Stages A Comeback in the Perplexing “LOVE NEVER DIES” at Segerstrom Center

First, let's get some pleasantries out of the way.

There are many, very obvious spectacular things that stand out while watching “LOVE NEVER DIES,” Andrew Lloyd Webber's infamously, uh, troubled 2010 musical follow-up to his long-running global hit “THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA,” now continuing its two-week engagement at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through May 5, 2018.

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National Tour, Los AngelesChristopher PetersonMichael L. Quintos, Love Never Dies, The Phantom of the Opera, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Review: “The Fan” and “The Diplomat” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival
Review: “The Fan” and “The Diplomat” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival

So here we are: My last night of reviewing at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, (at least, until I provide my OnScreen review of the short films premiering at the beginning of May) and I once again found myself being treated to two shows for the price of one, so to speak. Both plays had relatively simple titles – The Fan and The Diplomat – but at least one of them proved to be a very deep and thought-provoking work of contemporary drama, and the other proved to be mildly entertaining – if not somewhat cliché – as well.

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New YorkChristopher PetersonAnthony J Piccione, Downtown Urban Arts Festival
Review: “Trash Talk” and “Sailing Stones” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival
Review: “Trash Talk” and “Sailing Stones” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival

By the time I reached my next to last day of covering the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, I had seen a good mix of plays that were phenomenally good; plays which had potential, but perhaps needed further development; and at least one play that was straight-up bad. It truly was an eclectic mix here, as it is at many festivals, and I was left guessing what I’d be in for, as I awaited two more shows in the same time slot that night.

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New YorkChristopher PetersonAnthony J Piccione
Review: The Lipstick Project's "Cabaret" at the Darien Arts Center
Review: The Lipstick Project's "Cabaret" at the Darien Arts Center

History was made on April 27th, 2018 in Darien, CT as twenty-two woman took the stage for the first-ever performance of Kander & Ebb's Cabaret, with an all-female cast. Under the direction of Carin Zakes and choreography by Caitlin Roberts, this was a strong production with every bit the risque and reflection you'd want out of this material. 

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ConnecticutChristopher PetersonChris Peterson, The Lipstick Project
Review: “Blood Orange” and “Mirrors” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival
Review: “Blood Orange” and “Mirrors” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival

It was my fourth day of reviewing shows at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, and once again, I was treated to not one, but two, shows during the same performance slot. Not unlike the last time I was here, there was one play that was clearly better than the other, but that was not the only difference that I noticed on this night.

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New YorkChristopher PetersonAnthony J Piccione, Downtown Urban Arts Festival