A musical tragedy about a bipolar woman might not seem appealing to some theatergoers, but Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre’s well-done, emotional production of “Next to Normal” provides a rare respite from the inane musicals and insipid comedies. Under the direction of Michael Jones, this musical doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence. The show received a Tony […]
Larry Laneer
Posted inArts & Culture
Nothin’ ‘Normal’ about it
A musical tragedy about a bipolar woman might not seem appealing to some theatergoers, but Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre’s well-done, emotional production of “Next to Normal” provides a rare respite from the inane musicals and insipid comedies. Under the direction of Michael Jones, this musical doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence. The show received a Tony […]
Posted inArts & Culture
‘Buried’ issues
Calling the Illinois farm family in Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child” dysfunctional would be the understatement of the year. Here’s how patriarch Dodge puts it: “You think just because people propagate they have to love their offspring? You never seen a bitch eat her puppies?” These are the type of people who play keep-away with a […]
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Earth to ‘Earth’
The awkwardly titled “Jerome Bixby’s The Man from Earth” include characters who are an anthropologist, an archeologist, a biologist and a “Christian literalist,” so you’d expect the play to be a roiling battle of cosmological and ontological wit. You’d be wrong. Bixby wrote short stories and screenplays, mostly science fiction, including episodes of “Star Trek” […]
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Boy bands + Jesus = weird
It’s hard to tell what the musical “Altar Boyz” is supposed to be. Funky appeal to blind faith? Toothless satire? It’s a good-natured little show, and although “Boyz” pokes fun at church customs, mainly just by referring to them, this Lyric at the Plaza production won’t have the faithful squirming in their seats. But it […]
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Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
In “Cuckoo’s Nest,” Wong takes on the topic of the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian-American women, and she does it with great charm and piquant humor. Written and performed by Wong, the show has a rhythmic ebb and flow between poignancy and comedy. A San Francisco native, Wong insists the show is […]
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‘Bally’ who?
A relative youngster among metro theater companies, Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre has opened its 10th season with Alfred Uhry’s leaden “The Last Night of Ballyhoo.” The play is an odd choice for a season opener, because it’s not the rip-roaring start that one would like to see. CityRep isn’t exactly breaking new ground. Uhry sets […]
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Pioneer woman
Surely, you saw the musical history lesson “Quilters” sometime late in the last century. Originally produced in Colorado, the show was popular in the 1980s. In case you didn’t or even if you did, Oklahoma City Theatre Company is presenting a passable production at the Freede Little Theatre. I’m glad they are, because running down […]
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Time to make the ‘Donuts’
Carpenter Square Theatre has come within one block of full circle. Its new, storefront theater on W. Main Street is one block south of the old Carpenter Paper Company warehouse, CST’s first home in 1985. But let’s not wax nostalgic. CST opens its season with Tracy Letts’ “Superior Donuts.” This play was highly anticipated when […]
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Down the ‘Rabbit Hole’
In the 2006 drama “Rabbit Hole,” playwright David Lindsay-Abaire examines a family’s grief after the accidental death of a young boy. But he doesn’t provide any more insight than have the philosophers, theologians and pop psychologists who’ve come before him. That’s because Lindsay-Abaire takes on the great unanswerable question: Why do bad things happen to […]