5 Women Wearing the Same Dress at Playmakers Theater through Sept. 8 (on floor) Jaci Rai Guidry, Amy Schneida, (on bed) Erin Kate Young, Kathryn Merris Scott and Janie McNulty in 5 Women Wearing the Same Dress To the lesbians, gay men and straight folks who want to avoid the magnificent takeover of the French Quarter and environs known as Southern Decadence, I have … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards August 27, 2019
Trodding the Boards August 13, 2019
100 Years of Women in Blues at Teatro Wego! through August 25 Dorian Rush in 100 Years of Women in Blues (photo by Josh Frederick) It only seems like a 100 years since Dorian Rush has graced our local stages. So it’s a treat to have her back in her new solo show 100 Years of Women in Blues which delivers just what it promises, a marvelous overview of the women who were … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards August 13, 2019
Trodding the Boards July 30, 2019
Patrick Bowen and Sheldon Mba in Hamlet Hamlet at Tulane’s Lupin Theater Seven years ago, I ended my appraisal of the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane’s (SFT) production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead with the observation “Patrick Bowen, son of Danny [Bowen, the play’s director] and currently a high school student, was very good as Hamlet in his scenes … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards July 30, 2019
Trodding the Boards July 16, 2019
Rich Arnold and Dody Piper in She Loves Me (photo by Michael Palumbo) She Loves Me at Tulane’s Dixon Hall I wish we had a different occupant in the White House. I wish Hurricane Barry had not caused all the ruckus he did. And I wish Tulane’s Summer Lyric Theatre’s (SLT) production of She Loves Me had a longer run as this delightful and utterly captivating musical, … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards July 16, 2019
Trodding the Boards July 2, 2019
1776 at Playmakers Theater thru July 7 When 1776 opened on Broadway in 1969, it was a turbulent time. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated less than a year earlier. The Vietnam War was raging. Nixon had just been inaugurated that January. A musical dramedy about the signing of the Declaration of Independence did … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards July 2, 2019
Everybody’s Talking About Bianca
Roy Haylock in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie Surreal. That’s how it felt sitting in one of the most historic West End theaters and watching New Orleans’ own Roy Haylock perform in a hit musical. And when he entered in drag and got huge applause from the adoring sold-out house--even more surreal. Anyone who remembers when Bianca Del Rio hosted Drag Bingo at Oz … [Read more...] about Everybody’s Talking About Bianca
Trodding the Boards June 18, 2019
Much Ado About Nothing at Tulane’s Lupin Theater through June 30 If you’ve never seen Much Ado About Nothing, you might want to head to Tulane’s Lupin Theater for the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival’s opening production of their 26th season. As is often the case at NOSF, Director Burton Tedesco gives us a mostly straightforward rendering of one of the Bard’s most … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards June 18, 2019
Trodding the Boards June 4, 2019
How to Kill a Diva at Westwego Performing Arts Theatre through June 9 Chris Wecklein starred as Max Bialystok in The Producers for the Jefferson Performing Arts Society (JPAS) nearly 10 years ago, winning an Ambie Award as Best Actor in a Musical for his performance. If Max Bialystok were around today he might consider presenting How to Kill a Diva, in which Wecklein is … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards June 4, 2019
Trodding the Boards March 5, 2018
As One at Marigny Opera House After many years of four-opera seasons, New Orleans Opera has been expanding its programming, commendably, with its Chamber Opera Series. In 2016, NOO presented Brundibár, a children’s opera that had been performed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, in a memorable, fully staged production at the WWII Museum. Earlier this year at the … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards March 5, 2018
Trodding the Boards
Escape to Margaritaville at the Saenger Theatre It’s not often that we in New Orleans get to weigh in on a show before it heads to Broadway. Sure, The Bodyguard stopped by earlier this year, but that doesn’t look like it’ll ever make it to New York. Escape to Margaritaville, however, will with a planned March 15 opening at the Marquis Theatre. How long it will stay there … [Read more...] about Trodding the Boards
