Man who impacted Norwalk High School musical program dies
By AARON KRA– USE Reflector Staff Writerakrause@norwalkreflector.com Jack Carstensen sang from the time he was a young boy.Recently, more than 90 years later, soft strains of music filtered into his ears while he lay in his Norwalk home, stricken with dementia and near death, under the care of Stein Hospice.Music...
Mercury finds the love story in ‘Ghost’ amid dizzying visual effects
Overdoing technical effects and visuals can bury the simple message at the heart of a show such as “Ghost.” The musical adaptation of the 1990 film is opening Mercury Theatre Company’s 2015 season with a mostly solid production of a so-so musical that stays true to the powerfully moving movie...
A Q&A with Huron Playhouse Artistic Director Jennifer Wertz as the season nears
By AARON KRA– USE Reflector Staff Writer akrause@norwalkreflector.com In less than a month, the curtain will go up on the 2015 season of Ohio’s oldest continuing summer theater. This year’s Huron Playhouse season appears to be a bit more drama-oriented than the seasons I’ve covered in past years. To view...
Your heart will go out to these recognizable characters
LAKEWOOD — The people who populate the 1995 Pulitzer-Prize Winning Play “The Young Man From Atlanta” are as recognizable to you as, well, playwright Horton Foote’s familiarity with his hometown: Wharton, Texas. And those well-acquainted with Foote’s work know how familiar that is.The renown, late Foote, is perhaps best known...
‘Fairfield’ a biting comedy about race
Scenery seamlessly glides on and off while actors are raised and lowered via an automatically opening and closing spot on the small stage of the intimate, thrust-configured Outcalt Theatre. It’s in this space that the Cleveland Play House is world-premiering a pit bull-teeth-sharp, relevant satire with belly laughs titled “Fairfield.”You...
‘Superior Donuts’ a sweet confection and vehicle to affect change
‘Superior Donuts’ a sweet confection and vehicle to affect changeCLEVELAND HEIGHTS — Put yourself in the place of donut shop owner Arthur Przybyszewski, one of the central characters in “Superior Donuts,” Tracy Letts’ sweet but not overly sentimental play with pathos, humor and heart on-stage at Dobama Theatre through May...
A play with teeth about war’s lasting effects
If you want to get metaphorical, war’s a beast.
A tempestuous experience for villains whose revenge is purgatory-like
CLEVELAND — It’s too bad the New World colonists didn’t have the technology available that’s put to great use in the riveting, engrossing Great Lakes Theatre production of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” on-stage through Sunday.
Surely the British would’ve been so disoriented, they’d swim back to England and let America become a country in peace.
Everything’s under control, it just looks like they may need CPR from hyperventilating
Call it choreographing and executing controlled chaos with comic timing.
Stunning, rousing ‘Kinky boots’ take you beyond normative problem solving
There’s much to cheer about in the high kickin’, rousing and sexy Tony Award-winning Best Musical “Kinky Boots,” a touring version of which remains at Cleveland’s Connor Palace Theatre at PlayhouseSquare through Sunday.
There’s the win-win situation involving two individuals who’d likely never meet under normal circumstances. One needs something and by getting it, he’ll save a long-time family business.
There’s irony in that the drag queen Lola shows he’s more of a man than the northern English bloke whose blue collar, macho mentality can’t conceive of a transvestite being a real man.
The musical is blessed with vivacious and varied musical numbers by famed pop singer/songwriter Cyndi Lauper. She captures the emotional hearts of the characters in her first stage writing gig.
