Category: 2024-2025
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LTVB’s “45 Seconds From Broadway” is a Reflection on the Importance of Found Family
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) As we sat down in our seats at LTVB on Friday night, the first thing we did was check how our March Madness brackets were doing (unsurprisingly, not well). The second thing we did was be amazed by the restaurant set out in front of us. My wife…
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Extraordinary Performances Create “Something Simple, Familiar, and Full of Feeling” in Generic Theater’s “Ordinary Days”
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) We walked into Generic Theater with sky-high expectations for “Ordinary Days”. Not only was this the closing show for Generic’s very successful season (the same final show slot that HRACT Award Best Play winner “Indecent” was in last year), we knew it was being fronted by four absolute…
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See Your Reflection in the Glass Ceiling in “Top Girls” at Little Theatre of Norfolk
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) In 2016, I began working in a very male-dominated field. As a Millennial woman, I truly believed that this would be a non-issue. While I wasn’t naïve enough to believe that we lived in a post-racism world or that people of the LGBTQIA+ community had achieved full equality,…
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Teamwork Brings “Working” to Life at Peninsula Community Theatre
The first thing I noticed as we walked into “Working” at Peninsula Community Theatre on Friday night was a teddy bear hanging tight to the impressively large set of scaffolding on stage. The second thing I noticed was the hand saw, intimidatingly directly next to the teddy bear. Don’t worry, I thought to myself –…
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Enjoy a Slice of Pizza with That Slice of Life at Smithfield Little Theatre’s “Italian American Reconciliation”
When you think of Little Italy, what comes to mind? Cute little restaurants? Dramatic poetry? How about passionate love? Well, in Smithfield Little Theatre’s “Italian American Reconciliation”, you do get all of those, but a much less romanticized version than is typically depicted. Our cute little restaurant is more of a soup counter, our dramatic…
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Red and Yellow and Green and Brown: Downing-Gross Brings to Life the Colorful “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
What is your definitive ranking of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals that you have seen? That was the topic of conversation in our car as we drove through the southeast community of Newport News and pulled into the Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center, where this year’s show is “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. This was also…
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Williamsburg Players’ Winter Show “Deathtrap” Brings the Chills and Thrills
In our family, we love a good “for entertainment purposes only” bet – we try to guess what configuration the stage will be at Generic Theater, place wagers on how many empty seats there will be when we go to LTVB (spoiler, it is always less than five), and try to prognosticate how the Green…
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Grab Your Moral Compass and Find Your Way Through “A Great Wilderness” at Generic Theater
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) As I walked into the Generic Theater on Sunday afternoon, I had the same thought as Daniel on stage – so, where is the shock treatment equipment? We would soon find out that Daniel, played by the fast-rising and talented Lucas Guzzo, has indeed walked into a gay…
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“Into the Breeches” at LTVB is a Love Letter to the Communities that Theatre Creates
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) “Into the Breeches” begins and ends with only the ghost light burning on stage, a time honored tradition of leaving a single light on in a playhouse when nobody else is there (legend says this is to keep the ghosts away, although its real function may be more…
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“Choir Boy” at LTN Asks if You Will Raise Your Voice or Shy Away
Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/) A forecast of snow wasn’t going to stop us from getting to the Little Theatre of Norfolk on Friday for the opening night of “Choir Boy,” a powerful story about a gay teenager at an all-boys boarding school written by Tarell Alvin McCraney (who also wrote the Oscar…
HRACT Awards 