Wednesday, February 8,2012

Have knife, will travel

Splendid 'Shoes' finds humor — and horror —in the Old West

by Paul Wozniak

The stakes are higher and the situation more dire in Williamston Theatre’s world premiere of Joseph Zettelmaier’s “Dead Man’s Shoes.” By placing his character’s lives at risk, the renowned Michigan playwright creates real suspense with his latest work. At its heart, “Dead Man’s Shoes” is a comical examination of unlikely friendships and coincidental meetings.

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Thursday, February 2,2012

Lighter side of darkness

'Addams Family' haunts the Wharton Center

by Paul Wozniak

It´s yet another adaptation of the Charles Addams cartoons, this time for the Broadway stage. But this show is hardly a reanimated sellout. It is mostly funny and highly entertaining for its target audience, which would be parents who were raised on the 1960s TV show.

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Wednesday, February 1,2012

Finding her 'Courage'

Leslie Hull bids farewell to MSU by taking on Bertolt Brecht's 'Mother'

by Paul Wozniak

The Michigan State University Theatre production of Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children” utilizes the same English translation by Tony Kushner (“Angels in America”) as the 2006 Shakespeare in the Park production starring Meryl Streep (yes, that Meryl Streep).

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Wednesday, January 25,2012

Head games

'The Boy in the Bathroom' simply doesn't wash, despite sweet love story

by Paul Wozniak

Imagine the question “to be or not to be?” stretched into a 90-minute musical, and you have the essence of “The Boy in the Bathroom.”

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Wednesday, January 11,2012

Honky tonkin' around this town — one more time

Derek Smith plays Hank Williams for a Williamston Theatre fundraiser Saturday

by Paul Wozniak

Wednesday, Jan. 11 — No need to sing the blues when you can sing along to the ‘Honky Tonk Blues’ this weekend at Williamston Theatre, where Derek Smith is reprising his uncannily accurate portrayal of Hank Williams one more time to help raise revenue for the theater.

Theater: Riverwalk's 'Conspiracy' electrified

by Paul Wozniak

Community theaters, particularly in small towns, often rely on the tried and true. However, theater is far more exciting when companies take risks. New and daring works can turn into overambitious fiascos, but they can also soar higher than old standards when they succeed.

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Wednesday, December 14,2011

Nothing but a good time

Rock of Ages is a hard-rocking, hair-raising salute to 1980s excess and the power of power-ballads

by Paul Wozniak

Wednesday, Dec. 14 — Watch out, Lansing: “Rock of Ages,” now at the Wharton Center, will unapologetically rock you with all of the hairspray and bad taste it can muster. This monster-ballad mash-up may have the polish of a Broadway musical, but its heart lies purely in the adolescent bedroom of the ’80s. Like watching back-to-back hair-band music videos — with far better dancing — “Rock of Ages” is at once a winking parody and an earnest ode to some of rock’s guiltiest pleasures.

Will’s wit

Kevin McKillip ropes you in as the wisecracking, lasso-twirling Will Rogers

by Paul Wozniak

As the late humorist/cow- boy/actor and all-around celebrity, Kevin McKillip pays tribute to Rogers in his self-com- posed one-man show, Will Rogers: An American Original at Stormfield Theatre. Rogers blends puns, political commentary and rope tricks into a polished portrait of an American archetype.

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Wednesday, October 19,2011

From fascination to collaboration

Writer-director James Houska works with ‘Conspiracy’ author Loring Mandel to turn an award-winning HBO movie into Riverwalk’s world premiere stage drama

by Paul Wozniak

Based on a lone surviving document, “Conspiracy” dramatically reconstructs the 1942 Wannsee Conference, a meeting of 15 high-ranking Nazis who discussed the practical implementation of the Final Solution.

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Wednesday, October 19,2011

Meet Loring Mandel

by Paul Wozniak

Chicago native Loring Mandel never imagined his profession might be writing for television. Mandel, 83, wrote his first closedcircuit radio productions for fun when he was 6 years old; when he needed money for graduate courses in music at Northwestern University, Mandel discovered he could make a living from fun.

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