The great tradition of the British holiday panto has thrived in Columbia County since 2000 for good reason. It is about the most fun you can have at the theatre with the whole family – a funny, musical nod to fairy tales familiar and unfamiliar, with a little cross-dressing and a lot of spoofery thrown in.
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 2009 In April of 1921 popular author Elizabeth von Arnim*, then 55, widowed from her first marriage, divorced from her second, and being wooed by a handsome young man 30 years her junior, rented a medieval castello at Portofino, Italy with two other women.…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, November 2008 Fabulosity, thy name is Panto! Everyone I took with me to see the 9th annual British-American Panto at the Ghent Playhouse – this year’s incarnation is nominally Jack and the Beanstalk with a smattering of Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill and Simple Simon Met a Pieman,…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, April 2008 Alas, I must inform you that the title is the funniest part of this “satirical revue.” Frankly, when you give a show a title involving the words “brain death” and “expiring minds” you better be pretty damned sure its hilarious or you are…
“When the slapstick’s too thick and the Prince is a chick,That’s a Panto!When a guy wears a dress and not under duress,That’s a Panto!” – to the tune of That’s Amore by Harry Warren, lyrics by the PantoLoons I suppose there are some people who don’t like the Panto, but I am…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, March 2007 Tintypes is a pleasant little revue of music from the turn of the 20th century. If you have only a passing knowledge of those fascinating decades of American history between the Civil War and World War I, this show will strike you as a…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 2006 Watching Social Security is sort of like eating a meringue. All sweet fluff that dissolves quickly. As a critic it is my job to take a knife and fork and dissect the creation, and I am here to tell you that there is not much…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, March 2006 I have to say that I was disappointed to learn last month that I would not be seeing A New Brain, the show long-advertised for this slot in the Ghent season. Alas, auditions didn’t turn up enough people to produce the show properly, a…
