If you didn’t know, Theatre Lawrence’s new production of “Wrong Window” was a Hitchcock spoof when you walked into the show, don’t worry; they’ll make sure you do. The playwrights, actors and director all try way too hard to make the play Hitchcockian rather than relying on the natural laughs ...
Making alterations to a classic is a dicey business and one many artists relish. Ric Averill’s “A Kansas Nutcracker”, which adapts the beloved Tchaikovsky ballet to early Kansas history, is hit and miss but when it succeeds, it’s fine family holiday fare. The show is set at Christmas 1861. The ...
Under ordinary circumstances, a friend being forcibly checked into a mental hospital wouldn’t be funny. Ordinary circumstances do not exist in a Richard Greenberg comedy, and “The Maderati” presented by Kansas University Theatre is no exception. Misunderstanding, false accusations and hilarity ensue when a group of self-absorbed yuppies gets word ...
You can’t do a show about an ogre small. At least Theatre Lawrence doesn’t seem to think so, as it pulls out all the stops for its lavish, extravagant production of “Shrek: The Musical”, which opened Friday night. Big, boisterous and over the top, “Shrek” pleases on many levels. David ...
Ask Jeanne Tiehen why she returned to graduate school, and she doesn’t talk about herself. “I love teaching because it really reminds me why I love theater,” says the second-year doctoral student. “Seeing undergraduate actors grow has always been rewarding for me.” Tiehen gets another chance with “The Maderati,” which ...
Occasionally, a piece of experimental theater comes along that hits all the right notes. The story, the performances and the execution combine seamlessly to create a poignant and thought-provoking piece of art. University Theatre’s new staging of “Adding Machine: A Musical” is such a production. An intriguing script, modern score, ...
Mark Reaney is marrying the future and the past to make a point about the present. The KU professor of theater is designing the set and lighting for University Theatre’s new production of “Adding Machine: A Musical,” which opens Friday. The show opened off Broadway in 2008, but it’s an ...
“Sweeney Todd” is one of those shows that is very easy to make a mess of. The music is difficult – a typical Stephen Sondheim score with amelodic songs featuring tongue-twister, machine-gun-style lyrics. The characters are over the top and larger than life. And the story – about a bloody-minded ...
Prisons come in many guises. And while you are inside, there is no escape. KU University Theatre’s production of Naomi Wallace’s “And I and Silence” explores several such confinements through the lives of its two characters, Jamie and Dee. Told cunningly by alternating between the past and the present, the ...
Sometimes a good idea can last a long time. “Mark Twain Tonight” – Hal Holbrook’s one-man play in which he assumes the persona of the famous author – qualifies. http://www.lawrence.com/users/photos/2013/oct/25/263618/ Holbrook, who has also played Abraham Lincoln in three different films and who was the mysterious Deep Throat in the ...
