by Rebecca Rudnyk – This may be wildly inappropriate. Knowingly stepping out of my lane. I write about theatre. But writers need to write, out of...
Continue reading...ASU Gammage
Unique Revival of ‘Once on This Island’ Tours Through ASU Gammage
Once on This Island originally premiered on Broadway in 1990. Based on the 1985 novel “My Love My Love” by Rosa Guy, which is ultimately based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid,” the musical is the brainchild of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty of Ragtime and Anastasia fame. The revival premiered at Circle in the Square in late 2017, winning a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and receiving several other notable nominations…
Continue reading...
Limited Run of ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ Hits ASU Gammage
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical is a jukebox show about the singer and songwriter whose extremely successful career spanned decades. First through songs she wrote for others, ultimately culminating in a solo career. Originally premiering on Broadway in January 2014, it received several Tony nominations including Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical. Beautiful played over 2,400 performances at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, launching its first national tour in 2015, and closing in October 2019…
Continue reading...
Broadway Classic ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at ASU Gammage
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical about tradition. Family. Culture. Oppression. Love. It’s about finding personal strength and making tough choices. Holding on and letting go. It is one of the most known pieces of modern art that pays homage and reverence to Jewish culture, both as a religious faith and a way of life. And it does so through the eyes and narration of one of the most endearing and generally likeable characters in theatre lore…
Continue reading...
Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
Summer: The Donna Summer Musical first appeared at the La Jolla Playhouse in late 2017, then moved to Broadway in 2018. It closed in late 2018, after 27 previews and 288 performances. The show recounts Summer’s story, starting in her childhood. Three actresses of varying ages play her in life stages. Duckling Donna is her youth. Disco Donna her early career. And Diva Donna at the top of her game, the undeniable Queen of Disco…
Continue reading...
Critic’s Picks: Best of Local Theatre 2019
by Rebecca Rudnyk
–
The decade ascends into history, and we enter 2020 anew. Another year of incredible local theatre comes to a close…
Continue reading...
Blue Man Group Leaves Audience ‘Speechless’ at ASU Gammage
My introductory encounter with the Blue Men occurred on my first trip to New York City when I was in high school. The show was unlike anything I had ever encountered. Pervasive, insightful and rather mind-blowing. When I experienced it again, over a decade later, it felt like I was essentially seeing the same show. Everything my memory retained was showcased gloriously, and I delighted in the nostalgia of it. But it didn’t feel like it had evolved. That has changed with the Speechless tour…
Continue reading...
‘Anastasia’ at ASU Gammage
Anastasia is a Broadway musical based on the animated 1997 feature film of the same name. An exploration of the long-held rumor that the Grand Duchess Anastasia survived the Bolshevik’s murder of the Raminov family, a tale DNA evidence has debunked. Twenty years after the movie was released, its newly-envisioned stage production premiered on the Great White Way. Magical characters replaced by historically-relevant ones. Slightly less focused on the fairy tale, and more with addressing the plight of the time…
Continue reading...
‘Miss Saigon’ Reveals Consequences of War at ASU Gammage
Miss Saigon is generally considered a modern classic. A cannon work in Broadway’s soaring age of powerful, post-Golden Age, works. It opened in the West End in 1989 and premiered on Broadway in 1991, winning several Tony Awards for performances, although none for technical or developmental components. Based on Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and inspired by a photograph of painful childhood separation after the Vietnam War, it was the Schonberg/Boublil collaborative work immediately following Les Misérables…
Continue reading...
‘The Book of Mormon’ Rings in Unapologetic Delight at ASU Gammage
by Rebecca Rudynk
–
The Book of Mormon is simply delightful: Unwaveringly blunt, raucously hilarious, and unapologetically offensive. It tackles the taboo and the sacred. The absurd and the heartwrenching. While it maintains the structure and cadence of a traditional Broadway musical, it is anything but. Unlike any other show out there, it is absurdly special…
Continue reading...
Pure Imagination: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Delights ASU Gammage
by Rebecca Rudnyk
–
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is a new musical based on the beloved children’s book by Roald Dahl. A story that was woven into the everlasting fabric of our zeitgeist by the 1971 film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Gene Wilder’s portrayal of the odd-but-intriguing candy man left a lasting impression on an entire generation of young people. A warmth and nostalgia that, although some have tried, has never been fully replicated…
Continue reading...
Rent Returns to ASU Gammage on 20th Anniversary Tour
It’s a tragic, recurring cycle. Every generation loses artistic visionaries too soon, and the mourning of that loss embeds itself into the fabric of popular culture. Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent, died suddenly in 1996 at the age of 35, leaving a gaping wound in the theatre-loving community upon which he had already generously bestowed his talent and vision. Although he was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize, as well as several of the most coveted Tony, Drama Desk, Obie and Outer Critics Circle awards, he passed before seeing his greatest success open on Broadway, and its subsequent meteoric rise…
Continue reading...