Critical Condition

Critical Condition

Critical Condition: Like Yours, Like Mine, Like Home

Critical Condition: Like Yours, Like Mine, Like Home

Home and family are at the heart of the shows I recently attended. Whether the home is Detroit or the shores of Cape Cod, home and family, and all the struggles that are attached to them are universal. Both tales are also largely cast with African-American performers, and there is no dearth of exquisite talent in that community, whether the show is fresh from Broadway or locally produced.

Critical Condition: All in The Family

Critical Condition: All in The Family

A sage, aging woman plans for and faces what she is sure is her imminent death. A callow youth’s growing obsession with ballet risks tearing his close-knit family apart. In this week’s column I consider two shows with two dissimilar protagonists, though both are grappling with fractured family dynamics.

Critical Condition: Working to Death

Critical Condition: Working to Death

One is a venerable golden age Broadway drama, the other a musical that was short-lived on the Great White Way yet has thrived in regional revivals ever since. Seeing the two just days apart made me appreciate how timely and timeless the subject of Americans at work really is.

Critical Condition: Annapurna, When Less is More

Critical Condition: Annapurna, When Less is More

Annapurna is the latest production by Theatre 22 at 12th Avenue Arts. It's a two-hander, one set play. It is not an epic. It may not change your life. It is not immersive theatre in the sense that the audience moves around the stage with (which is fine by me and my...

Critical Condition: Six Degrees of Stephen Sondheim

Critical Condition: Six Degrees of Stephen Sondheim

This week’s column spotlights a new Seattle staging of a classic Stephen Sondheim show, and a cast recording of a musical “fable” about the legendary leading lady of one of his early efforts, Gypsy. The profound impact of Stephen Sondheim on the Broadway musical, post...