Non-Registered Critics: Barry Creyton
It Shoulda Been You
As directed by original Broadway cast member Josh Grisetti, the production was so slick, its comedy so well played by all, it might’ve been rehearsed for a month and played out of town prior to the one-off at the Alex.
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Gianni Schicchi / L'enfant et les Sortilèges
The singing was uniformly powerful and persuasive, never neglecting the humor of the text in either opera. If I have a carp of any kind, it’s that the venue — a vast, cold hall at Occidental College — is more suited to dispensing diplomas than opera. The fine twenty-six member orchestra, under Joshua Horsch’s direction, was tucked in behind the set and sometimes muffled. But that qualification seems minor given a program of joyous music, splendidly executed in every department.
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Numi Opera's DER RING DES POLYKRATES
The real revelation of the evening was the music itself. Sophisticated far beyond the composer’s seventeen years, and innovative by the standards of 1914, the score reveals a mastery of orchestration which alone deserves unqualified praise. Prolific composers borrow from admired peers — here and there in Polykrates, we hear a hint of Strauss — and sometimes from themselves: In Robin Hood, we hear a succession of chords reminiscent of the opening bars of Polykrates.
To hear this neglected work by a great composer offered with the respect it deserves was a treat indeed.
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The Goodbye Girl
The Musical Theatre Guild should be proud of this fine, coherent, splendidly cast reading of The Goodbye Girl, with principals Wendy Rosoff and Will Collyer charismatically suited to their characters, in great voice, and as a couple, exuding all the essential romantic chemistry.
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Tonight only. All other dates cancelled - La Vie En Rose
Julia Migenes is one of those rare divas whose singing is superior, whose acting would pass the Stanislavsky test, and who looks like the part she’s playing. Her justly celebrated Carmen on film already proves these assertions — she sings, acts, and dances so supremely well in this, that any one of her triple threats would be worth the price of admission. The same could be said for her atonal Lulu in Berg’s titular opera (of which she gives us an amusing hint in this program), her Salome, danced with all the allure and precision of a prima ballerina, and so on and on through Puccini, musical comedy and multiple Grammy awards.
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Loot
Orton’s perfectly turned phrasing gives a Wildean resonance to even a seemingly trite aphorism, elevating it to a gem of satirical wit. And no, I’m not going to quote one here for the simple reason that they belong in the context of the play which, without too much carping, I urge you to see.
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