by Rebecca Rudnyk
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Many months ago, when I first heard that The Phoenix Theatre Company was doing a show about competitive air guitar, I was absolutely fascinated… and super stoked…
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Aladdin Brings Spectacular Performance to ASU Gammage
by Rebecca Rudnyk
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Disney knows how to do Broadway.
They’ve proven it again and again, arguably most successfully with The Lion King which began its run on the Great White Way in 1997 and is ranked amongst the longest running Broadway shows of all time. Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and most recently Frozen. Disney has proven that animated films built on a foundation of magical and unhappenable-happenings can be adapted for the stage and brought to live audiences. Aladdin proves it yet again…
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‘Hello Dolly!’ and the 2019 ASU Gammage Season
It’s the start of a new year. The brief reflective period when we pause, if only for a few moments, for an exercise in introspection. Contemplation of the year past. Ambitions for the months to come. Even if things are good, we imagine how they can be better. How we can be better. Yes, January is a wonderful, fleeting, hopeful month…
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The Second City’s ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me’ Slays Phoenix Theatre
It starts with a song.
by Rebecca Rudnyk
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It starts with a song.
An irreverent and discourteous song. And anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for a waggish song. This one happens to be about our social malaise and the fronts we all begrudgingly present to each other. Golden! So I was buttered up from the outset…
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Catch the Holiday Spirit with Valley Youth Theatre’s ‘A Winnie-the-Pooh Christmas Tail’
by Rebecca Rudnyk
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Much of theatre is about moments. Moments that touch us and stay with us. Sometimes it’s an impactful scene, a performance so good it lingers, a note so arresting it haunts. And sometimes it’s the moment when when a young person in our life gets bitten by the theatre bug, as we once did, and we know there is no going back…
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‘Dear Evan Hansen’ Tackles Mental Illness, Social Media, and the Insecurity In Us All
by Rebecca Rudnyk
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I’ve read the script to Dear Evan Hansen. Listened to the cast album so frequently I know nearly every lyric. I’ve seen several videos and cast performances on YouTube and broadcast television. In other words, I went in ‘knowing’ the show. Feeling like I had a grasp on what to expect. Turns out, I knew nothing…
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‘Elf: The Musical’ Delivers Heartwarming Fun at Phoenix Theatre
by Rebecca Rudnyk
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Elf: The Musical is a show based on the much-loved 2003 film, a movie that has become a holiday staple in countless households. A quotable and beloved cult classic, both film and musical alike are built on pure, adorable, laugh out loud comedy…
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Now & Then Creative Company Takes On French Avant-Garde Classic ‘Rhinoceros’
by Rebecca Rudnyk
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Now & Then Creative Company is currently taking on a classic. Rhinoceros is play by Eugène Ionesco, a powerhouse in the French avant-garde theatre movement of the twentieth century. The themes and underpinnings of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros are debated, even to this day…
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‘On Your Feet!’ The Emilio and Gloria Estefan Musical Hits Gammage
by Rebecca Rudnyk
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On Your Feet! is a jukebox musical about the life and career of Gloria Estefan and her husband, music partner and greatest advocate of 40+ years, Emilio Estefan…
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