Reviews
Review: ‘Barefoot in the Park’ has ‘winning cast’
by Beki Pineda (Boulder Magazine)Written by Neil Simon; Directed by Robert Wells. All of you must remember the young and beautiful Jane Fonda and Robert Redford who brought this charming story to the public’s attention in 1967, one of their five movies together. Or maybe some of you were lucky enough to see Redford and Elizabeth Ashley in the original 1963 Broadway production. Regardless whenever you see a Neil Simon play on the callboard, you know you are in for a treat. His ability to put both heartfelt dialogue and snappy zingers together in the same speech never fails to delight. In this...
Review: Fairy tale characters in show not for kids
by Sonya Ellingboe (Littleton Independent) Fairy tale princesses have long been part and parcel of our literary and social fabric, as they were created from ancient folk tales — and have more recently evolved through Disney films and now, via “Disenchanted,” an off-Broadway hit, which shifts them into feminist folk! The composer/playwright is Dennis T. Giacino, who developed this new musical with off-Broadway director Fiely Matias, perhaps stepping on some toes along the way … As lights go up at Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton, where “Disenchanted,” directed and choreographed by the...
Review: A trip back in time with ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’
by Blythe Smith (OnStage Colorado) Littleton Town Hall mounts a solid production of the Christmas-themed show Meet Me in St. Louis, based on the classic 1944 movie starring Judy Garland, tells the story of a year in the life of the Smith family, set against the backdrop of a city preparing for the opening of the 1904 world’s fair. Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you might recognize the music — if not “The Trolley Song” (“Clang, clang, clang went the trolley!) or “The Boy Next Door,” then almost certainly “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” The play is essentially the movie,...
Review: Family fare comes to area stage for holiday happiness
by Sonya Ellingboe (Littleton Independent) With the 20th century barely under way, St. Louis residents, including the Smith family, were excited at the prospect of the 1904 World’s Fair, which ran from April 30 to Dec. 1, 1904. Also called “The Louisiana Purchase Exposition,” it celebrated the century since that nation-forming transaction was negotiated by Thomas Jefferson and others. Writer Sally Benson had published a series of “Kensington Stories” stories in 1941 in the New Yorker, which offered the framework for the movie musical, “Meet Me in St. Louis,” the background for the stage...
Review: Meet Me in St. Louis family fun
by Mona Lott (Denver Theater Perspectives) The St. Louis World fair was in 1904. The film, Meet Me in St. Louis, starring the incomparable Judy Garland, came out in 1904, and the stage musical based on the movie played in 1989. Town Hall Arts Center has currently staged it in this chaotic, turbulent era of cell phones and the internet, and it provides a stark contrast to life in 2019. That contrast may be the charm of Meet Me in St. Louis with music that is rather simplistic, like the times and a book so insipid in it’s cheerful, idealistic presentation of one family’s day to day life on the...
