Cock Manbites Dog Theater Through Oct. 19 “You have to make a decision.” That’s the refrain everyone offers to John (Phil Watson), the cripplingly indecisive protagonist of Mike Bartlett’s Cock, now playing in a production directed by Jeff Storer at Manbites Dog Theater. The decision facing John, the play’s only named character, is the choice […]
Tom Elrod
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William Gibson’s unapologetically sweet The Miracle Worker
The Miracle Worker Cary Arts Center Through Feb. 10 William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker is the best-known telling of Helen Keller, the deaf and blind girl who learned to speak. Currently running in a Cary Players production directed by Tina Vance, the play focuses on the first few years of Helen’s life, as her teacher […]
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Nerds, a new musical about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, premieres in Raleigh
Photo by Curtis Brown PhotographyDiana DeGarmo and other performers in Nerds Half a dozen nerds cross the stage at the A.J. Fletcher Theater holding their homemade computers, hoping to launch their careers and, more importantly, make friends. Behind them, a computer motherboard acts as a backdrop, with dozens of LED screens providing commentary. Director Marc […]
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NC Theatre’s Oliver! is catchy and charismatic, but lacks realist edge
Photo by Curtis Brown PhotographyNicholas Kraft as the Artful Dodger in NC Theatre’s Oliver! OLIVER!* * * stars (out of five)NC TheatreThrough July 22 @ Memorial Auditorium, Raleigh It’s not really a surprise that Charles Dickens’ larger-than-life characters, comic settings and twist-filled plots would make for good musical theater, though it is a bit odd […]
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Homage to 1920s British musical comedies in The Boy Friend
The Boy Friend Raleigh Little Theatre Through June 24 Raleigh Little Theatre’s The Boy Friend, directed by Haskell Fitz-Simons, promises to be a spoof of British musical comedies of the 1920s. It’s more homage than spoof: young lovers cavorting in southern France, old flames comically reunited, wealthy Englishmen parading around on the beach and at […]
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Light on the Horizon short on answers, long on questions and regret
Light on the Horizon Justice Theater Project Through June 24 The Justice Theater Project’s Light on the Horizon is a reflective play, offering little in terms of answers but a lot in terms of questions and regret. Though focusing mostly on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, it is as much a look at […]
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The downwardly mobile in Burning Coal’s musical Jude the Obscure, Part II
Jude the Obscure, Part II At Burning Coal Theatre Through May 5 “Do not do an immoral thing for a moral reason,” Jude Fawley says toward the end of Jude the Obscure, Part II, the conclusion of Burning Coal Theatre Company’s original musical adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s final novel. It’s a plea from Jude to […]
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NC Theatre’s Steel Magnolias, a classic weepie about relationships
Steel Magnolias NC Theatre At Fletcher Opera Theater Through April 29 I know the 1989 film Steel Magnolias only by its reputation as the emblematic “chick flick.” Was there ever a more derogatory and misleading description of a genre? If the 1987 stage version, now playing at the Progress Energy Center from in a production […]
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Bare Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing Bare Theatre At Common Ground Theatre Closed At Raleigh Ensemble Players Nov. 5-13 Bare Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing is a competent and accessible production of one of Shakespeare’s best comedies, but in its central characters, it seems to lack something critical. The play focuses on wit, love and misunderstandings, contrasting […]
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Raleigh Little Theatre’s The Woman in Black
The Woman in Black Raleigh Little Theatre Through Oct. 23 Arriving in time for Halloween, The Woman in Black brings one of London’s longest-running productions to the Raleigh Little Theatre. The play tells the story of Arthur Kips, an English lawyer assigned to handle the estate of the late Mrs. Drablow, a recluse who lived […]