It was hardly a laff riot prospect, but the politico-philosophical comedy TANGO, by Polish dramatist Slawomir Mrozek, was a droll reminder that well-meaning dunderheads on the left can do as much harm as their political polar opposites when flailing about to grab levers to authority. Staged by the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA theater programs and directed by Shana Gozansky, Will Austin captured the frustrations of an assertive young man who seeks order among anarchists.

Providence Performing Arts Center gave us two especially choice tastes of touring Broadway. JERSEY BOYS, which had played here two years before, once again transcended the jukebox musical genre with thoughtful characterizations. And MEMPHIS wowed us with a finger-snapping songbook, this time rock and R&B, as we watched "race music" get accepted by white radio listeners in the early '50s.

For a brains-checked-at-the-door fun time, I was most delighted at the Courthouse Center for the Arts, in West Kingston, when the puppets of AVENUE Q, the Sesame Street-on-LSD Broadway musical, burst balloons of societal puffery with bawdy abandon. As in: sorry, Junior, but if everybody is special, nobody is.

< prev  1  |  2  | 
  Topics: Theater , Edward Albee, The Merchant of Venice, Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY BILL RODRIGUEZ
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: EL RANCHO GRANDE  |  May 21, 2013
    Having a yen Mexican food and limiting yourself to tacos and burritos is like craving French food and choosing french fries.
  •   REMIXING SHAKESPEARE  |  May 13, 2013
    From music to costumes to inserted interludes of dance and mad poetry, this staging is vivacious.
  •   A CLOSE ENCOUNTER  |  May 13, 2013
    The set-up couldn't be more straightforward: two strangers are having a conversation in New York's Central Park. Correspondingly, the set couldn't be more simple: a park bench in front of tall color photographs of its bucolic backdrop.
  •   REVIEW: TRATTORIA LONGO  |  May 13, 2013
    Preparing most Italian dishes doesn't require the complexity of organic chemistry. Fresh ingredients, a good recipe, well-timed cooking, and ecco! Benissimo!
  •   SOUR AND DOUR SOULS  |  May 07, 2013
    Some people are brittle and dry as tinder, but they don't have the sense to not play with matches. The two women at the dangerous center of Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane could blaze up at any moment, and we know that one or both will by the end. Each is filled with so much pent-up hatred that spontaneous combustion seems a distinct possibility.

 See all articles by: BILL RODRIGUEZ