Posts Tagged ‘theatremania’
THE SUBJECT WAS ROSES: 70% Sweet – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET
All right, given this impressive pedigree, what’s my beef? Well, beyond the play’s passé style, I have trouble with the workmanlike use of the symbolic roses that inspire the title [...]
THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES: 89% Sweet – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET
The script has an unending flow of verbal and physical high jinks but too many sitcom-quality one-liners and a lazy reliance on popular culture for easy laughs. There also is [...]
CAROUSEL: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
BITTERSWEET
Michetti’s story-theater approach surely will be the most talked-about aspect of this production. The stage directions, meant for the production team’s eyes only, are spoken, “Our Town”-like, by the grandfatherly, [...]
CAMELOT: 73% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET
In 1960 two legendary tuners bowed in Gotham exactly seven months apart: two-planks-and-a-passion romance “The Fantasticks” (May 3) and lavish spectacle “Camelot” (Dec. 3). Fifty years later at the Pasadena [...]
FROSTY THE SNOW MANILOW: 75% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET
Costumes by Sharon McGunigle add color and sparkle to the production, nicely lighted by Christian Epps. Sherry Santillano’s multilevel village set offers opportunities for cast members to appear in open [...]
BABY, IT’S YOU!: 57% Bittersweet
BITTER
Serious book problems hamper a strong catalog of early 1960s tunes and the efforts of a talented cast in Baby It’s You!, now at the Pasadena Playhouse. The result is [...]
“Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”: 100% Sweet – UPDATED
SWEET
An ebullient synthesizer of world data, Joseph is not just alert to the fevered geopolitical madness surrounding us, he’s also endlessly inventive in finding bold theatrical metaphors to depict the [...]
“The Fantasticks”: 50% Bitter
BITTERSWEET
The show’s fragile amalgam of rueful romance, whimsy, slapstick, and metaphorical fable calls for a delicate balance of moods and styles. Unfortunately, director Jason Alexander’s reinvention of the piece favors [...]
