For 43 years, A Christmas Carol has inspired Omaha Community Playhouse audiences, both the newcomers catching it for the first time and those of us who’ve seen it year after year and still shed tears of joy when a reformed Scrooge hugs Tiny Tim and the lad asks God to bless us “every one.” […]
You’ll laugh out loud at The Play That Goes Wrong, the slapstick comedy running through Sunday at the Orpheum Theater. If you find it hilarious when set pieces fall off the walls you’ll laugh out loud sooner than I did. But then I arrived with a “show me” attitude after reading […]
Singin’ in the Rain wasn’t an instant hit when the film came out in 1952, but it grew into a classic ranked by some as the greatest movie musical of all time. So why did it take so long for the live version to land on the Omaha Community Playhouse […]
Funny how Wicked grew in 15 years from a fresh spin-off of “The Wizard of Oz” into the seventh longest-running Broadway musical of all time. I enjoyed it the first time a road company arrived at the Orpheum more than a decade ago, but I skipped the return engagements until Thursday night. Like […]
Poor Will has a problem in Shakespeare in Love at the Omaha Community Playhouse. He’s writing a play titled “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter.” It involves pirates because the producer wants pirates and includes a dog because Queen Elizabeth likes to see a dog. But the big problem is writer’s […]
How long did it take to fall in love with the stage version of An American in Paris? Just a little more than the few minutes it took for the lone piano on the stage to be dwarfed by the Arc de Triomphe looming in the background and for Parisians to tear down the Nazi […]
I’m still struggling three days after seeing Parade to understand why the musical at the Omaha Community Playhouse is such a troubling experience. Maybe the key to my confusion is the decision by director Jeff Horger to have his cast mill about the Howard Drew space in street clothes, talking to individuals in […]
Bear with me while I review Waitress, and please note that the first word in this sentence is more animal than vegetable. I am determined not to assail you with pie metaphors or similes and especially to spare you sordid sexual plays on pie. No, I didn’t sniff the pie aroma machine in the lobby, […]
The story of The Little Mermaid is so familiar that anticipation focuses more on how the touring company handles the problem that, like its best-known song, most of the musical takes place “Under the Sea.” You get a hint of the aquatic style while eyeing the bubbly backdrop during the overture. You expect a cast […]
To put my crush on Finding Neverland into quick perspective, I completely shared the New York Times critic’s raving enthusiasm for the darkly dysfunctional August: Osage County and I’m fanatic about Les Miserables. And now I’m madly in love with the Neverland musical which the NYT declared a sticky mess of ersatz sentimentality. So, if […]
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