| Theater Reviews |
 | Movie premiere is close to home for local actress
12/23/2008
True to her hometown roots, former Bainbridge resident Haley Higgins, who has a speaking role in the upcoming movie "Marley and Me" starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, will watch the premiere this Christmas Day when it opens nationwide right alongs
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 | 'Boom' is world-changing comedy
12/17/2008
We're in Jules' basement lab. There's a bed surrounded by several cabinets. Jules is a marine biologist who has placed an ad in an online hookup promising "sex to change the course of the world."
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 | Video creations take off for Chagrin grad
12/10/2008
Chagrin Falls High School graduate Michael Cappetta, now a freshman at Ohio State University, is more likely to have his nose behind a camera on location than buried in a book at the library.
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 | 'The Eight' is naughty holiday alternative
12/04/2008
Eggnog laced with grain alcohol. Grotesquely misshapen sugar cookies garnished with bittersweet chocolate. These are the sorts of treats that will be left for
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| 'Wizard of Oz' is enormous task
11/26/2008
There have been several adaptations of L. Frank Baum's book "The Wizard of Oz." The most highly regarded, of course, is the 1939 movie musical that starred Judy Garland.
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| 'Raisin in Sun' is relevant as ever
11/19/2008
The Cleveland Play House decided to do "A Raisin in the Sun" long before Barack Obama was elected president. Yet the opening night performance occurred just days after Election Day.
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| One-man show is one continuous laugh
11/12/2008
Robert Dubac asks the old question that comes up from time to time. He asks, "What do women want?" And then he tells you. When you walk into the 14th Street Theatre to catch Robert Dubac's "Male Intellect: The Second Coming," don't expect to see a play. W
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| Hamburgers flip as this play flops
11/05/2008
Al spends most of his day shredding lettuce, while Matthew, the kitchen manager, flips burgers on the grill. Not so bad for starters, but playwright Cliff Hershman loses his way early and never finds his
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| Drama lacking for history on stage
10/29/2008
The Dobama Theatre is close to having a new home. Until that happens, and it will happen, the popular 50-year-old production company must continue to find places to perform.
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 | Young piper crosses gender, age barriers
10/22/2008
When Gates Mills resident Ruth Chapman had her first encounter with a bagpipe, she was just 8 years old. At the time, the bass drum, the tallest of the three drums that comprise the instrument and rest on one's shoulder, was up to her chin, she said.
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| CVLT reunion earns its ovation
10/15/2008
Is there any better escape from the heated battles between good and evil on Wall Street, in Washington and in the Middle East than an evening with the sinners and saints in the Frank Loesser musical "Guys and Dolls"?
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| 'Buried Child' is mesmerizing
10/09/2008
We are in the living room of a dilapidated Illinois farmhouse. The old man on the sofa wheezes and coughs and appears to be choking. This is the opening scene in Sam Shepard's 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Buried Child."
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| Blood, humor flow in 'Inishmore'
10/01/2008
The locals of downtown Cleveland may not even know there is a professional theater company on Euclid Avenue near Public Square. But as a matter of fact, there is. The Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company, a spinoff of the Akron company with the same name,
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| Stellar cast shines in 'Glass Menagerie'
09/24/2008
It's been some time since Tom Wingfield escaped from his cramped St. Louis apartment. He never looked back, but he hasn't been able to escape the sad memories with his shy, limping sister Laura and his overbearing mother, Amanda.
"The Glass Menagerie,"
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| 'Master Class' puts actors to tough test
09/18/2008
Before Celine Dion, Whitney Houston and Cher, there was Maria Callas -- an internationally renowned singer with diva status whose turbulent, high-profile personal life drew as much attention as her stellar on-stage performances. Ms. Callas' career as an o
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 | 'Murder' mystery is another hit in Chagrin
09/11/2008
Just minutes before curtain time Saturday at the Chagrin Valley Little Theater, where a sold-out crowd awaited the second night of the 23rd annual "Murder by the Falls," writer and director Donald Edelman joked that "the third time is a charm."
Mr. Ede
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| 'Picnic' has few bright moments
09/03/2008
The Fine Arts Association in Willoughby has brought to its stage William Inge's classic play "Picnic." Fine Arts has a reputation for good plays and excellent performers.
But something went awry on opening night this past Friday. The intent was to delive
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| Play House to warm up season
08/27/2008
Northeast Ohioans suffer each year when fall is just around the corner. We suffer, because we know what's coming. Winter.
But fear not, dear reader, for this is the time when the Cleveland Play House opens its doors to another new season. If anyt
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| Sam Shepard play isn't for squeamish
08/20/2008
Frank and Emma live a quite existence in a shabby Wisconsin farmhouse. Frank tends to his heifers, and Emma her plants. She waters them continuously. Their quiet world explodes around them from a simple knock on the door.
The Bang and Clatter Sometimes i
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| 'Freakshow' is oddly beautiful
08/13/2008
You can't help yourself. Once you've been to Convergence-Continuum and have felt part of one of its edgy, often bizarre productions, you go back again. Like it or not, you're bound to see the next offering.
"Freakshow," C-C's latest endeavor, is merely w
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| Unlikely duo 'Harold, Maude' shine on stage
08/07/2008
A rope with a noose hangs center stage. A very tall, very young man places a bench beneath the noose. He proceeds to stand on the bench, place the noose around his neck, and kick away the bench falling into the air, dead.
That's the very beginning of "Ha
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| 'Urinetown' in line for good comedy
07/30/2008
A lot of thought and hand wringing must have gone on before Chagrin Valley Little Theatre decided to go ahead and stage the wild and wacky Broadway musical "Urinetown."
What are they doing talking about urine right here in sophisticated Chagrin Falls? We
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| 'Blood Brothers' is riveting drama
07/23/2008
There are many reasons not to spend these lovely July evenings indoors. The Mercury Summer Stock Theatre trumps each and every one of them by offering a superb, must-see production of the musical �Blood Brothers.�
�Blood Brot
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