Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2004 I knew that I had reviewed a previous production of The King and I at the Mac-Haydn many years ago, and that I had had some problems with it. Looking back at my review from 1998, I see that it was the first show I…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2004 Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) was 60 years old when Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus made its debut. At the time, it was the largest circus venture in American history. Shortly thereafter Barnum coined the phrase “The greatest show on earth,”…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July 2004 And now, ladies and gentlemen, I have the pleasure of announcing that a star is born! I have been saying all season that Renée Brna is star material, and here in Show Boat, cast in the leading role of Magnolia, she finally gets her…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July 2004 “To thine own self be true.” – William Shakespeare In this day and age too many of us are under the ad-induced delusion that the only self worth being true to is a perfect one. We have no problem letting down the old,…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, July 2004 Swing! is the kind of show that I am on record as disliking. It is all song and dance – no script, no plot. I just panned Honky Tonk Angels last week as being a bad example of this mindless genre. But I am happy to…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2004 Gypsy is a great big, old-fashioned musical. Big is the operative word here. It calls for a big cast and endless scenery and costume changes as it spans a couple of decades and tries to tell the interlocking stories of several people’s lives. Someone…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2004 You must excuse me because I know way too much about The Pirates of Penzance. I have known every note of the score since I was eleven years old and appeared in the policeman’s chorus as a pathetically adolescent member of the constabulary. Tarantara.…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May, 2004 The Mac-Haydn has billed its 2004 season as “Fantastic Fun” and has launched it with a bang with an hilarious and energetic production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. My companion for the evening, who had never…
