Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2003. King Lear is so very large and powerful a play that even writing about it is a daunting task. Performing it takes rare courage and commitment, and thank God Shakespeare & Company is up to it, because there is no way to do a…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2003 “Our state fair is a great state fairDon’t miss it, don’t even be lateBet you dollars to doughnuts that our state fairIs the best state fair in our state.”– Oscar Hammerstein II Even the staunchest of fans of Hammerstein would have to admit…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2003 Like millions of young girls, Frances Hodgson Burnett was one of my favorite authors when I was growing up. I confess that I vastly preferred the plucky Sara Crewe of A Little Princess (1905) to the sour Mary Lennox of The Secret Garden (1911) but in my adult years…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2003 Main Street Stage has come up with another powerful show that neatly utilizes their narrow storefront playing area. The Beauty Queen of Leenane takes place in a claustrophobic run-of-the-mill Irish cottage in the small village of Leenane in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. The play centers…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2003 It doesn’t really matter what I say in this review because the Theater Barn’s production of Chicago will sell out (if it hasn’t already) anyway. That is because, as Artistic Director Bert Bernardi remarked in his curtain speech, America has Chicago fever. Cleverly timed to open the…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2003 I just loved this show! Of course, I know every line, lyric, and note of Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1878 operetta H.M.S. Pinafore – of which this 1945 George S. Kaufman opus is a clever parody – so I cannot imagine what entertainment value the show…