Archived Reviews of This Season's Productions

2001/2002 Season

The 2001/2002 ariZoni Recipients

The Future of Comedy in Phoenix
Mesa Community College's Benefit Performance of Rumors 8/9/02 - 8/17/02

The Return of an Out-of-Fashion Classic
Shakespeare Sedona Festival's Our Town 7/19/02 - 7/28/02

Leapin' Lizards, They're Good!
Broadway Palm West Dinner Theatre's Annie 7/18/02 - 8/31/02

Hoppin' in East Mesa
Broadway Palm West Dinner Theatre's Smokey Joe's Cafe 6/14/02 - 7/14/02

A Reader Questions the Appropriateness of My Reviewing the Food Offerings for a Dinner Theater Production, and My Response

Smug-free Experimental Theatre
Theater in my Basement's mutant: A BEARER OF SHADOWS/A Tone Text Poem to Novarina 6/14/02 - 6/30/02

The Artistic Director and Co-conspiritor of Theater in My Basement Responds to My Review

Savage in Limbo
Is What It Is Theatre's The Curious Savage 6/14/02 - 6/30/02

Sad Savage
A guest critique by local actor/playwright Jackson Fisher of Is What It Is Theatre's The Curious Savage 6/14/02 - 6/30/02

Pinter as Slapstick Farce
Nearly Naked Theatre's The HotHouse 6/7/02 - 6/30/02

An Ensemble Success Story
Tempe Little Theatre's Moon Over Buffalo 6/7/02 - 6/23/02

A Light in the Cellar
Scottsdale Center for the Arts' The Vagina Monologues 6/4/02 - 6/23/02

A Tag Team Telling of a Life in the Blues
Black Theatre Troupe's Cookin' at the Cookery 5/31/02 - 6/9/02

An Enjoyable Evening in Ellington's Harlem
Phoenix Theater's Sophisticated Ladies 5/17/02 - 6/9/02

A Triumph of Fluff
Theater Works' Triumph of Love 5/10/02 - 6/2/02

What an Amazing Show. Too Bad I Just Didn't Like It.
Arizona Theatre Company's Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright 5/10/02 - 5/26/02

Deathnap
Mesa Encore Theatre's Deathtrap 5/10/02 - 5/19/02

How To Host a Successful Marriage
Actors Theatre of Phoenix' Dinner with Friends 5/3/02 - 5/19/02

Smaller Doesn't Necessarily Mean Lesser
Scottsdale Community Players' The All Night Strut 5/3/02 - 5/26/02

An audience member of The All Night Strut questions some of my comments, and my response

A Revealing Confession
TheAter N.umB's Banging the Bishop: Latter Day Prophecy 4/26/02 - 5/5/02

The Little Dinner Theatre That Dares
Broadway Palm West Dinner Theatre's Evita 4/26/02 - 6/2/02

A Life (Affirming) Sentence
Arizona Jewish Theater Company's Visiting Mr. Green 4/20/02 - 5/5/02

Audrey II on Helium
Arizona State University Lyric Opera Theatre's Little Shop of Horrors 4/19/02 - 4/28/02

To the Globe, Alice!
Southwest Shakespeare Company's The Merry Wives of Windsor 4/12/02 - 4/21/02

A Psychological and Theatrical Grand Slam
The Algonquin Theater's All She Really Cares About are the Yankees 4/11/02 - 4/28/02

A Comedy with Errors
The Ensemble Theatre's Durang/Durang 4/11/02 - 5/5/02

A performer from The Ensemble Theatre's Durang/Durang thanks me for my review

Southern Gentry in Exile
Phoenix Theatre's The Glass Menagerie 4/5/02 - 4/21/02

The truth may set you free, but it will beat you mercilessly for over two hours before it finally lets go.
Black Theatre Troupe's Jar The Floor 3/28/02 - 4/14/02

A Forty Character Diamond
Arizona Theatre Company's Fully Committed 3/28/02 - 4/14/02

The Rite of Succession
Nearly Naked Theatre's The King of Infinite Space 3/15/02 - 4/6/02

A Colorful and Tuneful Easter Pageant
Tempe Little Theatre's Godspell 3/22/02 - 4/14/02

Shockingly Underwhelming
Arizona State University Department of Theatre's ElectroPuss 3/22/02 - 3/31/02

The Return of a Legend
Scottsdale Community Players' The Miracle Worker 3/15/02 - 3/31/02

Actors Theatre of Phoenix in its Element
Actors Theatre of Phoenix's Something in the Air 3/15/02 - 3/31/02

Amateurs Performed by those who "Act Out of Love"
Is What It Is Theatre's Amateurs 3/15/02 - 3/30/02

A performer from Is What It Is Theatre's Amateurs thanks me for my review, and my response

A Performer from Is What It Is Theatre's Amateurs reacts to my review, my response, and his followup

Readers weigh in on Anthony Henderson's reaction to my Is What It Is Theatre's Amateurs review

Joseph... Plunders Storyland
Mesa Encore Theatre's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat 3/8/02 - 3/30/02

A Light Drizzle
Broadway Palm West Dinner Theatre's Singin' in the Rain 2/28/02 - 4/20/02

A patron almost completely concurs with my review of Broadway Palm West Dinner Theatre's food offerings

A Successfully Balanced Proof
Arizona Theatre Company's Proof Tucson: 1/25/02 - 2/9/02, Phoenix: 2/14/02 - 3/3/02

No Matter the Culture, Families Will Always Be Nuts
Actors Theatre of Phoenix's Spic-O-Rama 1/25/02 - 2/10/02

Simon's Take on the Sexual Revolution
The Ensemble Theatre's Last of the Red Hot Lovers 1/11/02 - 2/3/02

A Cerebral Caesar
Southwest Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar 1/17/02 - 2/2/02

Footloose in the Forest
Broadway Palm West Dinner Theatre's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1/9/02 - 2/23/02

A Generally Loverly Evening
Arizona Theatre Company's My Fair Lady Tucson: 11/30/01 - 12/15/01, Phoenix 1/2/02 - 2/3/02

Better Late Than Never
Phoenix Theatre's Something's Afoot 1/9/02 - 1/27/02

4 Angels, 6 Shadows, and 1 Dreamer
Black Theatre Troupe's Fraternity 1/3/02 - 1/20/02

Earnest Commercialism
Phoenix Theatre's An American Holiday 12/6/01 - 12/23/01

Drat! Foiled Again!
Tempe Little Theatre's Love Rides the Rails 12/7/01 - 12/16/01

Complex Simon
Scottsdale Community Player's Lost In Yonkers 11/30/01 - 12/16/01

Better When They're Not Trying to be Funny
Is What It Is Theatre's The Gingerbread Lady 11/30/01 - 12/15/01

A Dinner Theatre is Born
Broadway Palm West Dinner Theatre's Crazy for You 11/20/01 - 12/31/01

There are Worse Things They Could Do (But Not Many)
ASU Lyric Opera Theatre's Grease 11/16/01 - 12/2/01

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead meets Rebel Without a Cause (Production Extended)
Stray Cat Theatre's Stupid Kids 11/8/01 - 12/1/01

A thank you note from an actress in Stray Cat Theatre's production of Stupid Kids

Ghosts as Presented by Proctor & Gamble
Arizona Theatre Company's Ghosts 11/8/01 - 11/25/01

A Lesson on Many Levels
Arizona Jewish Theater Company's The Chosen 11/3/01 - 11/18/01

God's Waiting Room
Mesa Encore Theatre's The Cemetery Club 11/2/01 - 11/18/01

Tales of Innocence, Tales of Experience
Actors Theater of Phoenix's The Real Thing 11/2/01 - 11/18/01

Driving Miss Daisy Home
Phoenix Theater's Driving Miss Daisy 10/24/01 - 11/11/01

Breach bIRTH
Black Theater Troupe's bIRTH 10/4/01 - 10/21/01

176 Keys, 10 Fingers, 1 Enjoyable Evening
Arizona Theatre Company's Two Pianos, Four Hands Tucson: 9/14/01 - 9/29/01, Phoenix 10/4/01 - 10/21/01

NYC: The Main Stem Does Audience Par...tici......pation
The Rocky Horror Show at Circle in the Square

"Start the car, I know a whoopee spot..."
Theater League's Chicago 9/25/01 - 10/1/01

A Seminal Moment
Actors Theatre of Phoenix' Angels in America: Millenium Approaches 9/21/01 - 10/7/01

An Even Split All Around
Tempe Little Theatre's Same Time, Next Year 9/21/01 - 10/7/01

An Uneven Dream
The Shakespeare Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream 9/12/01 - 9/29/01

Giving All They've Got and More For Not Very Much
Phoenix Theatre's Applause 9/12/01 - 9/30/01

Plautus Meets the Marx Brothers
Scottsdale Community Players' A Funny Thing Happend on the Way to the Forum 9/7/01 - 9/30/01

A Lament of Twentysomethings in the Twenty First Century TheAter N.umb's L.A. Numb 9/7/01 - 9/16/01

A Tale of Two Letters
Actors' Renaissance Theatre's An Ideal Husband 8/25/01 - 9/9/01

Mary Louise Parker's Tour de Force
proof at The Walter Kerr Theatre

Charles Busch Goes Legit
The Tale of the Allergist's Wife at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre

Justin Brooks poses yet another interesting question, this time about reviewing College theatre

A request from a 15 year-old actor

A supportive letter from Jeffrey Driskill

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