Spotlight on Reviews

Four Stars! Highly Recommended!  “Grandma’s Jukebox” is a charm! The point of this cute story is that a grandmother’s legacy can live long beyond her death: not just in the characters’ memories of her but in how they subsequently choose to lead their lives. The genre of this show is what’s known as a “jukebox musical.” The songs within it are all popular hits that have been previously recorded by major artists; these are then recreated and assembled around a story, invented at a later date. Playwright and director Michelle Reneé Bester has done just this, using her own grandmother as her inspiration. The plot is centered on the concept of a (physical) jukebox as a means of tying the music, characters, and action together.

5 Stars! Very Highly Recommended!

3 Stars, Recommended  Annabel Armour beautifully portrays Joan Didion in this one-woman show “The Year of Magical Thinking.” The story is about an established New York author and how her world is immediately turned upside down when her husband John dies unexpectedly, followed shortly by the death of her chronically ill daughter Quintana. Based on the book of the same name, this 100-minute running narrative (with no intermission) consists of excerpts that have been taken directly from the text and is replete with detailed autobiography and poignant reflections.

4 Stars, Highly Recommended!  “Notes and Letters” is a four-character musical, centered around the lives of two couples who live in Chicago between 1916 and 1918. This world premiere presentation is nicely written by Annabelle Lee Revak and is a combination romantic comedy/drama that is based in part on a true story, having to do with a small downtown shop, called Williams’ Custom Pianos.