Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 “Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn’t want them back.”– Samuel Beckett, “Krapp’s Last Tape” I can remember the first time…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 Five minutes into the performance of “Lives of the Saints” I was holding my head in my hands. I knew that, even if the rest of the show was much, much better (and it wasn’t), nothing was going to erase the memory of…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 This summer is just deja vue all over again. First the parallels between “Glimmer Brothers” (WTF-Nikos) and “Shoot the Piano Player” (BTF-Unicorn); and now the parallels between “November” (Oldcastle) and “The Batting Cage” (BTF-MainStage). In the case of the latter two shows both playwrights started with the premise of…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 The Mac-Haydn opened their 1999 season with “The Music Man” – a rousing, old-fashioned show about a town learning to believe in itself through outside forces. This was a great success. And I am pleased to say that they are closing the season…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 The only sure thing about the existing version of “Anything Goes” is that Cole Porter wrote the music and lyrics. He didn’t write all of them for the original “Anything Goes” which opened in Broadway in 1934, but he did write them. Beyond…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 “Come on and meetThose dancing feet.On the avenueI’m takin’ you to –42nd street!”– Al Dubin This is it. The Mac-Haydn has pulled out all the stops and come up with an all singing, all dancing extravaganza. Pack up grandma, grandpa and the kiddies…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 1999 I am sorry I have not been able to attend more of Mass MoCA’s Animation Festival and other events this summer. Only “Monsters of Grace” really approached being theatre. And only the Laurie Macleod dance performance offered more than one performance, but a…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 1999 What a gosh-darned silly show this is! In case you haven’t heard “Off The Hook” – playing at Oldcastle through September 4th – is a wacky broad farce, broadly directed by Russell Kaplan. Authors Allen Lewis Rickman and Karl Tiedemann claim they “started…
