Stage Write

A Very Phoenix Xmas celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The irreverent Christmas show has become an audience favorite as a nontraditional entertainment option during the holiday season.   Anyone familiar with the show knows not to expect sugar and spice, but there are moments of quiet reflection worked into the production that hit all the right notes. In honor of reaching the decade milestone, the show features longtime Phoenix regular Gayle Steigerwald in a unique role. Between skits she provides some behind-the-scenes tidbits and fun looks back at how the show has evolved over the years. The walk down memory lane is equally entertaining for those who have been at every show and for those attending for the first time. For those unfamiliar with the structure, imagine a theatre version of a Saturday Night Live Christmas special. Each section features a new story, song, dance, or funny skit. Regulars will recognize the sock monkeys dancing the can-can and...

When I first saw the Phoenix Theatre’s production of " The Lieutenant of Inishmore " in 2008 I loved the unique feel of the Irish black comedy. The theatre’s current show “The Cripple of Inishmaan” is by the same playwright, Martin McDonagh, and has a similar tone. Set on the Aran Islands in 1934, we see the chaos caused when a Hollywood director visits to make a film. There’s a cruelty in small towns. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. They’ve all grown up together, so there’s a comfort level that tends to ignore privacy. No one flinches in calling someone a degrading nickname or referring to an embarrassing moment in their past, because it’s all common knowledge. It’s that very familiarity that can be so claustrophobic to residents. Nathan Robbins is our title character, Cripple Billy, and he feels more suffocated than anyone. Each member of the excellent cast adds their own eccentric layer to the rich fabric of the community. Ryan O’Shea is the bras...

The Phoenix Theatre closes its 30 th season with a delightful show specifically geared towards women. Love, Loss, and What I Wore offers a string of brief vignettes about momentous events in women’s lives and the clothes they associate them. Nora Ephron’s ode to her closet and the memories each item holds is sweet and endlessly relatable. Like the films that made her famous (When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail) the play is both funny and touching. The dialogue quickly jumps from one person to the next in the five-person cast. The production could have been cliché, embracing generalizations about women and their love of shopping and clothes. Instead it focuses on the feelings that a piece of clothing can ignite in a person: nostalgia, regret, longing, excitement, etc. Any woman can identify, not because we all love clothes, but because we all have stories of love and loss that make us who we are. Men can obviously also identify with those feelings, but they might not remem...