Reporter at New Brunswick Today
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Theatre Review: Rehearsal for Murder in Edison

EDISON, NJ—This reviewer is directly familiar with the commitment, the toil, and the expense that’s applied to a non-equity stage production.

Those who participate in it should be commended for the time they dedicate to keep local theater alive and vital.

That being said, Edison Valley’s choice to stage "Rehearsal for Murder" may not have been the most prudent of decisions.

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Theatre Review: Lucky Stiff Opens at Edison Valley Playhouse

EDISON, NJ—"Lucky Stiff," a farcical musical comedy based on the novel, "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" comes to us from Ahrens and Flaherty, the same award-winning team that brought us such noted successes as Seussical, Once this Island and Ragtime.

Hapless and dissatisfied shoe salesman Harry Witherspoon, well played by Will Sandoval, has his luck change when his rough and tumble Uncle Anthony from Atlantic City dies leaving a fortune…conditionally.

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Review: Powerful Performances of Hair at Villagers Theatre

FRANKLIN, NJ—"Hair," the American Tribal Love Rock Musical, is nearing its fiftieth anniversary, and in that time it has run the gauntlet from shocking and controversial, to mainstream and accepted, and into its current and well-deserved status as a classic period piece.

Credit must be given to the playwrights and composers for not updating or contemporizing it in the ongoing performances at Franklin's Villagers Theatre, as so many other writers have done trying to “Keep their stage works relevant”.

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Theatre Review: Outside Mullingar at George Street Playhouse

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—The George Street Playhouse has a nice habit of bringing current plays to our area just after the fanfare of the debut productions has quieted a bit.

What the audience gets is an intimate and focused production that brings them in very close.  Outside Mullingar is no exception.

The George Street Playhouse, located in the center of the city's bustling theatre district, last night presented their take on John Patrick Shanley’s Broadway success.

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Theatre Review: Sellout Crowd Awards Ovation to Godspell at Middlebush Reform Church

FRANKLIN, NJ—Never having seen Godspell in a theater, this reviewer happily finds himself every half decade or so in a church waiting for the most recent update of Stephen Schwartz’s accounting of the first book of the New Testament.

The current 2012 version includes hip-hop, references to iPhones and a short parody of the Big Bang Theory, and is set in an abandoned New York City house of worship.  Most recently, the popular show played to sell-out crowds at Middlebush Reformed Church in Somerset.

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Review: A Streetcar Named Desire Makes a Stop at Villagers Theatre

FRANKLIN, NJ—A major issue when staging an iconic drama, such as the one that takes place at 632 Elysian Fields Avenue in New Orleans’ Faubourg Marigny, is the ghosts of every past performance, be they film or live can hijack the stage.

Director Judi Parish and a fine cast of actors exorcised those ghosts and kept them out of Villagers for opening night. Even the well-known “Stella” shout was exclusive to this performance.