Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July 2009 As I was leaving the Mac-Haydn after seeing their first public performance of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast I observed a child of about seven or eight leaping straight up and down in great glee exclaiming “I just loved that show! It was so exciting!”…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2009 Will I ever get out of the year 1890 this summer?? Carousel, Hello, Dolly!, and, obviously, Paris 1890, Unlaced are all set in that year. The Gay Nineties, the Gilded Age, La Belle Epoch” – whatever you call them, the last years of the 19th century were…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2009 What’s brightly colored, lots of fun, and chock-full of wonderful singing and dazzling dancing? Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Mac-Haydn. I just have four words of advice for you: Go, go, go, go! Joseph… is the earliest work by the man who…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July 2008 This is NOT Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. I mean that both ways – it isn’t the one he composed and it is nothing like his version. This version, which goes simply by the title of Phantom has a book by Arthur Kopit (what…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2007 Some old musicals are just that – old. But The Music Man is one of that handful of shows that is always fresh and fun. Written in the 1950’s but set in an amorphous and idealized 1912 (some of the topical references in the show…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2007 Only recently has there been a trend to convert movie musicals into theatrical vehicles, usually with the view of reproducing, live on stage, the moments we all treasure on celluloid. Frankly, this rarely works well. This summer the Mac-Haydn has presented three movie-to-stage…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2006 When you say the name Gigi people usually have rapturous responses linked directly to their memories of the 1958 musical film starring Leslie Caron, Hermione Gingold, and Maurice Chevalier. The music is so lovely, the Parisian scenery is so beautiful, Leslie Caron is so charming,…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2006 This production is all about the Shook sisters – Karla and Kelly – who play Miss Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide respectively. They are in the prime of their lives and are a joy to watch, alone and together, on the stage. The…
