Popularity doesn’t always go hand-in-hand with quality. Consider Mamma Mia!, which ran nearly 14 years on Broadway, the ninth longest running show in the commercial theater. But this lazy jukebox musical is built from songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA that only occasionally coincide with the show’s credibility-stretching plot. Still, did I mention that it ran nearly … [Read more...]
Wick’s ‘Pirates of Penzance’ comes together in winning topsy-turvy style
The year was 1980, when director Wilfred Leach and choreographer Graciela Daniele took the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance and gave it a comic, anything-for-a-laugh spin, captivating audiences in Central Park and later on Broadway. Surely the Wick Theatre’s Norb Joerder was taking notes, for he has recreated that Hellzapoppin’-style production, right … [Read more...]