I, for one, have become rather cynical when it comes to movie-inspired musicals. Even if they’re done well, I end up comparing them to the original film or wondering: Have we really run out of new stories to tell?
it wasn’t until the cold night air hit me as I left the theater that I realized director Jason Nodler had just given me the theatrical equivalent of a flu shot.
Sometimes when a piece of theater challenges me, I look for answers in the play’s title. So soon after seeing the Mildred’s Umbrella regional premiere of Carnival Round the Central Figure, I sought meaning from carnivals.
How many dance devotées first became entranced with ballet as children, watching a swirl of human snowflakes float across the stage? How many regional theater season subscription holders had their first taste of an onstage happy ending when a gleeful Ebenezer Scrooge saves the Cratchit family through the magic of a giant turkey for Tiny Tim?
