By Kathleen Allen. Originally published by The Arizona Daily Star. This is a simple fact of life: Where there are drag queens there is joy. And there is an abundance of joy on the Arizona Theatre Company stage. The Legend of Georgia McBride, ATC’s current offering, is about Casey, a failed Elvis impersonator who turns […]
ATC’s new leader is no stranger to directing — or to Arizona, for that matter. By Robert Encila-Celdran. Originally published by BroadwayWorld.com. Matt August recalls his first introduction to Arizona Theatre Company as a fortuitous occasion. The year was 2015, a theater season that culminated with a show he directed – the eccentric and lengthily titled three-hander, The Gospel According […]
By M.V. Moorhead. Originally published by Phoenix Magazine. “Keep your mind active.” We’re often told that this is a key to long term cognitive health: doing crossword puzzles or Sudoku or Wordle, reading, writing. But being a famous, award-winning critic and essayist hasn’t kept Prudence “Pru” Payne from one of the scourges of aging: dementia. […]
By Herbert Paine. Originally published by BroadwayWorld.com. Pru Payne is a lost and found story. The title character, Prudence ‘Pru’ Payne (Mimi Kennedy), is a witty and sharp-tongued critic who, while being honored by her peers, starts showing signs of dementia. Despite losing some of her memories, she makes a few new ones with Augustus ‘Gus’ […]
By Chris Curcio. Originally published on Curtain Up Phoenix. Arizona rarely sees world premiere plays and often when plays begin here they aren’t stellar. So, it is wonderful that the Arizona Theatre Company’s Pru Payne is such a remarkable piece. Steven Drukman’s play is a sensitive and touching telling of dementia’s impacts on two very […]
By Betsy Labiner. Originally published on Taming of the Review on March 16, 2023. Pru Payne, written by Steven Drukman and directed by Sean Daniels, is a hard show to categorize. It’s timeless, firmly rooted in the 1980s but inarguably current. It’s funny, but bleak. It’s gentle and caustic in turns. It’s resigned, yet hopeful. […]
By Kathleen Allen. Originally published by the Arizona Daily Star. If Elizabeth Hardwick and Dorothy Parker had a baby, it would be Pru Payne. Pru is the acerbic, acid-tongued character in Arizona Theatre Company’s Pru Payne. Like Hardwick and Parker, Pru is a critic, a towering intellectual, and can be seriously scary when she puts pen […]
Steven Drukman’s devastatingly honest play sheds light on mental illness and the invigorating power of love. By Robert Encila-Celdran. Originally published on BroadwayWorld.com. When Arizona Theatre Company redesigned its programming two years ago, a cloud of ambivalence engulfed a complacent viewing public. The company’s commitment to supporting uncharted material by a working crop of playwrights signaled ATC’s pivot […]
THE GLASS MENAGERIE delivers a solid and heartbreaking cast at Arizona Theatre Company. By Robert Encila-Celdran. Originally published on BroadwayWorld.com. We can never know how Tennessee Williams might have fared had he remained a poet. By happy chance, his lyric acuity parlayed into a singularly rare narrative form, revolutionizing the theater landscape post-World War II. If the structure […]
By Kathy Allen. Originally published by the Arizona Daily Star. The Wingfield family is back. And you do not want to miss a visit with them. The Wingfields are the dysfunctional clan at the center of Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” currently on stage at the Arizona Theatre Company. Williams’ 1944 play, which has been on ATC’s stage twice before, […]