Email Author Jim Tommaney

2013 Stories by Jim Tommaney

• Improv at Station Theater: Nerves of Steel and a Boatload of Courage

  published Jun 18, 2013

  The set-up: Improvisational theater, usually shortened to "improv", is a theater performance where actors work without a prepared script, creating characters and situations spontaneously, often on ... More >>

• Get out the greasepaint; It's summer in the Berkshires

  published Jun 13, 2013

  When the temperature heads toward the three-digit mark, my thoughts turn to the Berkshires in Massachusetts, where the arts flourish each summer, as prevalent as dandelions. The Berkshire Mountains we... More >>

• Flashdance, The Musical Proves There's Only so Much You Can Do With Pole Dancing

  published Jun 06, 2013

  The set-up: Flashdance was originally conceived as a stage production, but Paramount asked the producers to develop a screenplay, and produced it as a film in 1983. The film starred Jennifer Beals and... More >>

• Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club

  published May 30, 2013

  The set-up: In Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club, playwright Jeffrey Archer has borrowed his central character, Sherlock Holmes, from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and much of his plot f... More >>

• Close Up Space Misfires In a Comedy With Too Few Laughs

  published May 28, 2013

  The set-up: In Close Up Space, the senior editor of a publishing house, an office tyrant, has kept his rebellious teen-age daughter in a series of academic institutions, thousands of miles away. Exp... More >>

• Chinglish Has Good Acting But Goes in Three Directions at Once

  published May 13, 2013

  The setup: In Chinglish, Victor Cavanaugh, a businessman from Cleveland, travels to the city of Guiyang in China seeking a contract to create the signage for a Chinese cultural center. Cavanaugh spea... More >>

• Warrior Class: Political Theater That Goes From Idle Chatter to Intense Negotiations

  published May 09, 2013

  The set-up: In Warrior Class, a Republican assemblyman from New York, Chinese-American, has given an inspirational talk that has gone viral and brought him to the attention of some political kingmak... More >>

• The Wheels Fall Off in Act Two of Ravenscroft

  published May 06, 2013

  raThe set-up: Once again we are in a British country manor home, this one remote, as a mystery is probed by a police inspector, interrogating the five women in the all-female household of Ravenscroft.... More >>

• Tribute Tells the Story of A Show-Biz Vet Facing Not-So-Hot Medical News

  published May 06, 2013

  The set-up: In Tribute,Scotty Templeton, an over-the hill actor and producer who has failed as a family man, is visited by his semi-estranged son, Jud, as they struggle to build a relationship. The k... More >>

• UHD Renders Julius Caesar in the Original English of Shakespeare's Time

  published May 03, 2013

  The set-up: The plays of William Shakespeare are prime sources for updating in time, and for change of locale, often well-served since many patrons may have seen several straightforward versions of, f... More >>

• A Lot of Comedy Enlivens the Stage in Artifice at Theatre Suburbia

  published Apr 30, 2013

  The set-up: In the Houston premiere of Artifice, playwright Anne Flanagan hews closely to the conventions of the comedic mystery genre, providing eight vivid and very varied characters invited to a p... More >>

• As You Like It Combines the Bard and Body Language for Comic Riches

  published Apr 22, 2013

  The Setup: As You Like It is one of William Shakespeare's most pastoral comedies, with most of the scenes played in the Forest of Arden and with not one, not two, but four intense courtships proceedi... More >>

• The 2013 Tommy Tune Award Winners

  published Apr 17, 2013

  The hills were alive with music last night - or at least the Hobby Center was - as the TUTS (Theatre Under the Stars) 11th Annual Tommy Tune Awards were graced by the presence and performance of none ... More >>

• The Night of the Iguana at Theatre Southwest Is Complex But Exciting

  published Apr 15, 2013

  The setup: The Night of the Iguana in 1961 was Tennessee Williams's last real success on Broadway, starring Patrick O'Neal as a lascivious, disgraced minister, Bette Davis as the lusty owner of a c... More >>

• Mauritius: A Thriller with Manipulation and Rare Stamps at Rice University

  published Apr 08, 2013

  The setup: Two half-sisters dispute the ownership of a collection of rare stamps, as they sort through the belongings of their deceased mother. Mauritius is not a nuanced study of character, but a t... More >>

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  Dollhouse at Stages Updates Ibsen with Brilliant Direction and Outstanding Acting

  published Apr 08, 2013

  The setup: Henrik Ibsen's 1879 play A Doll's House is the world's most produced play, and it is easy to see why: strongly-etched characters, a vibrant female lead who breaks with convention, decept... More >>

• Waiting for Godot Provides Another Successful Outing for The Catastrophic Theatre UPDATED W/ Extended Run

  published Mar 25, 2013

  Update: Catastrophic Theatre has announced a one-week extension through April 20. The setup: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett is a mid-20th century masterpiece, hailed by critics and audience ... More >>

• Broke-ology Makes Its Way to a Predictable Ending, But Actors Joe "Joe P" Palmore and L.D. Green Shine as Brothers

  published Mar 22, 2013

  The setup: In Broke-ology, a father, a widower, has medical problems, and his two sons attempt to cope with his increasing need for care while pursuing their own lives and interests. Playwright Natha... More >>

• The Spoof Evil in Justiceberg Tests the Limits of Superhero Spandex

  published Mar 21, 2013

  There may be funnier spoofs than Evil in Justiceberg, but I doubt if there have ever been more form-fitting costumes. They seem to be made of a gold fabric, probably spandex, that fits like a second s... More >>

• Man of Destiny and Dark Lady of the Sonnets: Really, Really Good in Parts, and Sometimes Not

  published Mar 11, 2013

  The set-up: I looked forward to seeing Man of Destiny and Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw, two comedies I had read several times and admired extravagantly, but had never seen produc... More >>

• A Few Good Men: A Fast-Paced, Thought-Provoking Look at Power, the Military, and Cover-ups

  published Mar 08, 2013

  Check out our interview with Gregory Boyd about this revival of A Few Good Men. The set-up: Aaron Sorkin blazed across Broadway's theatrical sky with his 1989 drama A Few Good Men, a play inspired... More >>

• How to Write a Hit Musical On the Anniversary of Always...Patsy Cline at Stages

  published Mar 04, 2013

  There are as many ways to write a hit musical as there are playwrights. Cole Porter sometimes gathered collaborators for a world cruise - he wrote Begin the Beguine on the Cunard liner Franconia in 19... More >>

• Paradise Hotel: A Classic Farce With Seduction, An Escape Ladder and A Surprise Ending

  published Feb 25, 2013

  The set-up: In Paradise Hotel, a classic farce by the master of the genre, Georges Feydeau, co-authored by Maurice Desvallieres. A successful engineer seeks to seduce the wife of his business partn... More >>

• First Church of Texaco: An Unlikely Play With Gifted Actors

  published Feb 19, 2013

  The set-up: A highly successful corporate tycoon returns to the abandoned Texaco gas station in Blessing, Texas, in which he grew up, and hires the local librarian to be his secretary, while fighting... More >>

• The Language Archive: A Modern Fable of Language Lost and Found

  published Feb 18, 2013

  Check out our interview with director Sally Edmundson. The set-up: An academic, a linguist immersed in the problem of languages disappearing as people cease to speak them, seeks to record one tha... More >>