Stage Write

  I've always been fascinated by the world of restaurant kitchens. The Phoenix Theatre's latest show, How to Use a Knife, takes you behind the scenes and into that frantic world. During open hours things move fast for the chef and his crew. After the restaurant is closed we're able to learn a bit more about the broken man running his employees so hard. Chef George, played by Ryan Artzberger, is an addict who has fallen from his former glory. The performance reminded me a bit of Artzberger's turn as the cynic Simon Stimson in Our Town at the Indiana Repertory Theatre. The character has the same tone of disillusion and disgust. Ansley Valentine plays Steve, a quiet dishwasher with a mysterious past. He is a tireless workers who isn't interested in small talk.   Bryan Fonseca's direction keeps the show moving at a clipped pace, keeping the audience fully engaged. The casual banter between coworkers feels natural and the set itself feels like...

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...

A musical about mental illness sounds like a tough sell, but the Pulitzer-Prize and Tony-Award-winning show Next to Normal makes the subject matter enthralling. The show is about one woman’s struggle with mental health and her fight to find a balance between spinning out of control and complete numbness. It’s a story so raw and intimate you almost feel like a voyeur watching another person’s personal hell unfold in front of you. The impact of Diana’s breakdowns on her family is startling; every aspect of their life is shaped by her disease. Their loneliness is visceral and you can’t help but feel their pain. The set is unique and jarring; angled screens hang from the ceiling and stark shades of black and white cover ever surface. The world created is a representation of Diana’s life, off-kilter and lacking in all color. The six-person cast is led by Emily Ristine. She stars as Diana, a woman with bi-polar disorder stemming from a tragedy that happened years before. He...

Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson combines American history and rock ’n’ roll in a complete unique musical about the 7th president of the United States. Straight from Broadway this raucous retelling of Andrew Jackson’s life is more in the vein of “Anchorman” than a History Channel special. The political musical is particularly timely in the midst of this election year. When candidates’ ads are yelling absurd claims at us from every direction, it’s the perfect time to reflect on past presidents and the difficult job they are entrusted with. Expertly directed by Bryan Fonseca, the 90 minute show has no intermission and features a live band, led by Tim Brinkley, on the stage. Numbers like “Ten Little Indians” and “Crisis Averted” stand out as do the fights, coordinated by IRT regular Rob Johansen. There is adult language, so leave the kids at home. Eric J. Olson plays the infamous 19th century president. His performance clearly reflects Jackson’s complex nature. Unlike many of the...

The Pulitzer-Prize-winning play, August: Osage County is on stage now at the Phoenix Theatre. Within the first few moments of the opening rambling monologue, you know you’re in for something amazing. The epic family drama tells the story of the Weston clan, an Oklahoma family with two aging parents and three adult daughters. The group is full of charismatic individuals and peculiar introverts, all of whom are broken for one reason or another. When the family’s patriarch goes missing they all return home to help sort it out. The audience is tossed right into the midst of these relationships with no preamble, but none is needed. Each antagonizing remark hints at the scores that have come before it. The family dynamics are so true to real life; parents to children, siblings and spouses all struggling to get along. The show reminds us how easy it is to slip back into the childhood roles in our families, no matter how old we are. As the family spirals out of control, t...