Non-Registered Critics: Anita Harris
Matthew Bourne’s ‘Cinderella’
To convey such powerful feelings as love, loss and hope through only music and dance is a skill that Bourne commands and this production realizes. It’s not the standard Cinderella story of your childhood– the cinders here are from the death and destruction of war– but Cinderella nonetheless offers a delightfully dreamy, gorgeously grown up, fun and frisky, occasionally devastating yet purely joyful experience.
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE FINAL PROBLEM (OLD TIME RADIO STYLE)
The talented LBSC crew makes the story’s international cat-and-mouse game nearly as intriguing as a fully-staged production. Under the tight direction of Joe Montanari, who also plays Holmes’s sidekick, Dr. Watson, the story unfolds in about an hour, complete with delightful commercial breaks supporting local establishments.
ELF the Musical
Choreography by director Peggy Hickey is spectacular, with a variety of dance styles, all carried off enthusiastically by the entire cast, including the 16-member ensemble playing North Pole elves and New Yorkers.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
An adept and well-directed cast brings Austen’s intricate novel to life, playing up the humor while portraying how gender and class differences might be overcome by love and a sharp wit.
The 39 Steps
Playing the police and countless other combinations of characters of different ages and even genders are the formidably talented Bo Foxworth and Louis A. Lotorto (who has appeared in five previous productions of this play). Each scene requires all four actors to manipulate furniture, ladders, trunks, wheels and the like as they recite fast-paced, synchronized, witty lines and perform physical stunts that include: shaking as if on a moving train and car, climbing out pretend windows while being blown by winds and running, walking, jumping and crawling around various other obstacles, including each other.
Cardboard Piano
Guided by the highly capable hand of director Caryn Desai (who was recently named California State University Long Beach’s 2018 Distinguished Alumna), the four actors engage this riveting story with pitch-perfect emotion.
Daddy Long Legs
Seamlessly directed by DuPrey, with music direction by Bill Wolfe (who also plays piano richly and assuredly), the whole production is a pleasure to experience…While the story of Daddy Long Legs has been adapted into a number of films over the years (including versions with Shirley Temple and Fred Astaire), this production highlights its poignant sentiments. Artistic direction and the actors’ talents combine to create an immersive, unusual and riveting emotional experience that will carry you away on its long legs.
Home
In International City Theatre’s current production of Home, we glide through Cephus’s life on a magic carpet of words with three actors who brilliantly embody their characters… That only three actors carry this wide-ranging story is remarkable, a testament to their talents and direction by Gregg T. Daniel.
Silent Sky
All five performers have been perfectly cast, and are well directed by Todd Nielsen in their respective roles, clearly invested in the story they are telling.
In Kings & Fools
In Kings and Fools will at times leave you breathless with its suspense while chuckling aloud at its humor. Its ultimate tender poignancy will make you wish you had a tissue to dab your eyes. With such strong writing and performing, you won’t want to miss this powerful production of a truly American story.
Uncanny Valley
Uncanny Valley, at International City Theatre through May 7, offers a riveting and cerebral experience of what it means to create artificial life. This timely drama engages the essential questions of what constitutes humanness when the unsettling possibility of a non-human human becomes reality.
Forever Plaid
Forever Plaid is not a deep play, but it’s certainly entertaining, amusing and heartwarming. Even if you don’t know all the songs, you will surely enjoy these four young men sweetly crooning the notes of a bygone time, forever relived here.
