2015 unfolded as a stunner of a thespian year, from classics to new work, dynamic paradigm-shifters to re-invigorated audience favorites, ensemble achievements to compelling solo work. Youth to senior artists. And music? Glorious music! Performance art in our region thrives with energy, respect, initiative and genuine variety. Dedicated, impassioned creative people form the backbone … Continue reading
Tagged with Len Pfluger …
Magnificently Grand: GRAND HOTEL at Lyric Stage
Grand Hotel isn’t just grand. It’s magnificent. Normally discussion of a show’s music jumps first off the page in a review of a work staged by a regional leading musical theatre presenter. In the case of Luther Davis, Robert Wright and George Forrest’s Grand Hotel, with additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, running though … Continue reading
Jason Kane’s Tevye Tradition: On to Lyric Stage!
If you see Jason Kane slap his face while singing “If I Were A Rich Man” in Fiddler on the Roof, he’s not just expressing his character’s emotion. He may be paying tribute to a performance that ignited his love for the theatre twenty-five years ago. Kane plays Tevye in Lyric Stage’s fully orchestrated production … Continue reading
Your Enchanted Evening in the South Pacific, via Oklahoma City
Care to experience a toe-tapping musical theatre classic with a first-rate professional cast and a 38-piece orchestra playing the show’s fully orchestrated rhythms of the Big Band Era in faithful detail? Bebop on up to Oklahoma City April 24 – 27 to enjoy Oklahoma City Rep and Oklahoma City University’s co-production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s … Continue reading
Vintage Perfection: Lyric Stage & The Most Happy Fella
A most happy audience files out of Carpenter Hall at Irving Arts Center, after experiencing the visually resplendent, musically rich performance of Frank Loesser’s genre-defying “The Most Happy Fella”, under the auspices of the Dallas-Fort Worth region’s champion of musical theatre classics, Lyric Stage. Once again, Jay Dias conducts from a unique, fully orchestrated score, … Continue reading
No Average Bump & Grind: Lyric Stage’s “Gypsy”
Everything does seem to be “coming up roses” for Irving’s Lyric Stage these days, where mounting one fully orchestrated classic musical theatre production after another gives regional and national artists and audiences alike the chance to experience the shows in fully restored auditory splendor. The current offering, Gypsy, (music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen … Continue reading
criticalrant.com Alexandra Bonifield 