Dear Pam Ann,
Just got in from your show tonight at the Panasonic – well, all right, first we had a drink or two, but – fabulous. Fantastic, so funny, seriously I almost dropped my popcorn. And the straight lady and her husband beside me just got more and more prune faced as the night carried on and you got filthier and funnier.
Continue reading Review: Pam Ann – Around The World (Cidcom)
My first real, coherent thought, five minutes into Beyond The Cuckoo’s Nest: “The people who made this should make more things. Things that can be appreciated by people who love the theatre.”
My next coherent thought, a couple minutes later: “Thank goodness these people make theatre for teenagers. This is the kind of thing that turns them into people who love theatre.”
Like Lady Tessie Tura, I like a gimmick, if it’s a good one. And so, when film stars take turns on stage, I have learned to hold my judgement until I see that person in that part (ever since being pleasantly startled by Laurence Fishburne as Henry in The Lion In Winter). Kathleen Turner is indeed a good one in Mirvish’s High, and she is well-used, if not quite as ably supported as I would prefer.
In the interests of full disclosure, I will state my bias plainly at the beginning of this review: I have been a huge fan of Split Britches Theatre Company, and especially of Peggy Shaw who I was privileged to work with when she was an artist-in-residence at my university, for twenty years. I totally fell for Lost Lounge, but I would have been a lot more surprised if I hadn’t.
There are many lovely things about seeing a performance by Sky Gilbert, but perhaps chief among them is: there’s no possible downside. Either it’s great and interesting, as usual, or not to your taste but still, certainly not boring. Dancing Queen, Gilbert’s latest, is squarely in the former category.