Colin Fleming-Stumpf - Page 6

Peter Shaffer's farce Black Comedy delights based on one absurd premise. What if we could see what goes on in the obscurity of darkness? From this thought, he literally flips the light switch. The play begins in darkness with a young sculptor Brindsley Miller nervously preparing for a life changing meeting with elderly millionaire art collector George Bamberger. To impress Bamberger, he and his fiancee, Carol Melkett temporarily purloin the furniture and artwork of his flamboyant neighbor Harold Gorringe. While questioning the ethics of this nefarious decision with his fiancee, the apartment building's main fuse blows and the stage is bathed in light. It becomes clear that the motor of the play is that the audience sees when the actors don't. This topsy-turvy conveyance heightens the slapstick humor and illuminates the frenzied panic induced by unethical contrivances gone awry. Adding to this madness are love triangles, jealousy and repressed feelings.

To close out their 2018-2019 season Rochester's Geva Theatre chose a piece with deep historical, musical, and local significance. Revival: The Resurrection of Son House was commissioned by Geva in 2015 and received a staged reading that year at their festival 'Journey to the Son: A Celebration of Son House.' The fully-staged production is now getting its world premiere, and it's the perfect capstone to a season rich with history, diverse voices, and new works.

At this point-four years after it premiered on Broadway and took the world by storm, earning a record 16 Tony nominations and making Lin Manuel-Miranda a household name --it seems a superfluous task to write a review of Hamilton. What hot take can I offer on this groundbreaking, history-making musical that scores of other critics and millions of audience members from around the globe haven't offered already?

The Royale, the 2015 play by Marco Ramirez currently playing in Geva Theatre's Fielding Stage, isn't as much about boxing as it is about race, greatness, and a man who's moving faster than the world around him. It's an intimate, lyrical play, and continues Geva's recent tradition of hosting productions grown at Ithaca's Kitchen Theatre Company, another artistic gem just a couple hours down the 390.

Nothing encapsulates Native Gardens like its standout line 'Old neighbors, new neighbors.' Anyone who's ever been a new neighbor, especially in suburbia, knows the feeling of the side-eying, judgey but well-meaning older couple living next door, down the street, etc. Playwright Karen Zacaria couples that unease with sociopolitical themes and sitcom intimacy in this fun new(ish) play about the colliding of two upper-middle class worlds.

Indecent, currently playing at JCC's CenterStage Theatre, is one of the company's most ambitious productions to date because of its cultural significance, its significance in Jewish history, and the fact that this is its first time being staged in the Rochester area. And not unimportantly, it's also just a really entertaining piece of theatre.

When you think of stories that are wildly captivating, real edge-of-your-seat stuff, you probably think of heist thrillers, gangster films, warfare and the like. You recall the battle sequences of Macbeth and King Lear, or the that first rumble between the Sharks and the Jets. What you likely don't think of, is stamps. Philately, or 'the collection and study of postage stamps', is hardly the stuff of intrigue and high-drama, right? Wrong. It's unlikely that you'll find a show with more intensity than Mauritius, currently playing at Rochester's Blackfriars Theatre.

Tykes (Theatre Young Kinds Enjoy Seeing) returns to the JCC Hart Theatre for a thrilling adventure that will excite and entertain the whole family. And of course, living in the age of the constant drip-drip of superhero movies, it's one we're all familiar with. But while Superman awes and delights on the silver screen, nothing beats seeing him in person!

Rochester's Screen Plays continues what it does best with their current production of You Can't Take it With You: present Hollywood's most iconic stories in the small, intimate setting of the Multi-Use Community Cultural Center (referred to by most as 'The MuCCC'). This play, based on the Academy Award-winning 1938 romantic comedy starring Jean Arthur and Frank Capra, tells the story of what happens when two families-one prim and snobbish, the other wonderfully eccentric- collide.

The RBTL continues its 2018-2019 season with one of Broadway's most transporting musicals, equal parts soaring and beautiful and devastatingly sad. Miss Saigon has been wowing audiences for over three decades, and it's here to wow Rochesterians for just four more days.

If you see steam rising out of the top of the Auditorium Theatre over the next few days, or if East Main Street feels just a little bit hotter than usual, it's because Chicago, Broadway's longest running American musical--and certainly its sultriest-- is in town. And while you may come for the fishnets, you'll stay for the passion and intrigue that this staple of Broadway always delivers, from the opening song to the final curtain call.

If you're a child of the 1960's British Invasion, if you're an ardent fan of the Beatles/Stones/Who/etc., or if you're just one who enjoys learning about the vast annals of rock history, Rochester's JCC Center Stage Theatre has just the thing for you. For its annual Hitmakers series the JCC is currently featuring The British are Coming!, and it's a hugely fun compilation of some of the best tunes from both sides of the pond.