Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May, 2003 My fourteen-year-old son Brandon was my date last Thursday for the opening of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Mac-Haydn. He is not under the same restrictions I am to keep professionally quiet and reserved throughout the show, and his comments were as…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 2003 The French find Molière and Jerry Lewis hysterically funny. I find them both mildy amusing but slightly inscrutable. Since my mother’s mother’s mother was French I have apparently inherited just enough French blood to get the jokes but not to laugh myself silly…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, March 2003 The Beauty Queen of Leenane is a deeply disturbing play. It is an alarming blend of hysterical comedy, grand melodrama, horrifying violence, and the most bleak tragedy. That being said, this production at the Ghent Playhouse is beautifully and powerfully performed and directed, and…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, January 2003 The World Goes ‘Round is a revue of the music of Kander and Ebb. The amassing of songs by a particular composer/lyricist/team or made famous by a certain star or all on a common theme seems to be a very popular form of theatrical…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, November 2002 Sometimes, comedy writers just wanna have fun. Sometimes it is good to pick up your pen and be funny just because you can, not because you have to or because you are trying to sugar coat a darker theme, but because making people…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, November 2002 The Largest Elizabeth in the World is a one-act play by Stephen Gregg about a dysfunctional family whose younger daughter grows to be 50 feet tall, although she later settles for life at a mere 17 feet. While I understood at various points where…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, November 2002 The Panto is back! Puss In Boots and the Witch of Punsit Creek is the third annual British-American pantomime production at Spencertown Academy, and, while it isn’t quite as hilariously loopy as its predecessors, it remains a highlight of the holiday season in Columbia County.…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, September 2002 Although I moved away from my hometown of New York City in 1980, I still faithfully watch the Tony Awards every June, even though the names of the nominees mean little to me these days. And I will never forget the sound that…
