Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, December 2008 The last time I saw Nuncrackers, in May (yeah, in May, go figure) 2005 at the Mac-Haydn, I called it “one big Christmas turkey*.” Now I really like roast turkey, but at that time I did not use the word in a complimentary manner.…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, October 2008 Looking at Dames at Sea today, you think, “Why, this is just a poor man’s version of 42nd Street” The fact that director/choreographer Tralen Doler mounted a boffo production of the latter at the Cohoes Music Hall just last March really begs the comparison. But it…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, September 2008 This has been a summer for farce. It started on Memorial Day weekend with The Ladies Man at Shakespeare & Company, and was punctuated with A Flea in Her Ear at the Williamstown Theatre Festival at the end of July. It is now concluding with the farce…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2008 If you were born before 1955, you will just love Beehive. I base this on the fact that everyone in that age group in the audience I attended with had a great time, and my friend (born in 1958) and I (born in 1957)…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, April 2008 There is a debate about which is Rodgers and Hammerstein’s greatest work – Carousel or South Pacific. I lean towards saying that South Pacific is the better overall show, but Carousel contains their greatest music and lyrics. If you go to the production of Carousel currently running at the Cohoes Music Hall…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, March 2008 “Hear the beat of dancing feet…” – Al Dubin The joint is literally jumping in Cohoes as Tralen Doler filled has once again filled the Music Hall with a big, exuberant dance extravaganza, this time a tap-happy staging of 42nd Street. I could literally…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, January 2008 This is the best production of La Cage Aux Folles in the world. Well, okay, somewhere on this planet there is probably a production with snazzier sets. But there is not a better over-all production anywhere anyhow because only the production at the Cohoes Music…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, January 2008 “All the reviews are reactionary and more or less hostile.”– Victor-Marie Hugo, speaking of the critical reaction to his novel Les Misérables For a variety of reasons professional critics generally do not review youth theatre productions, possibly following Hugo’s thinking that critics are basically…
