226 stories by "Milo Shapiro"
THE VOICE BEHIND THE VOICES Ventre Loqui: To speak from the belly. This is the etymology of the word ventriloquism, an art as old as … well, it depends who you ask. For some, there is no o…
CHAPSCHTICK It's 1944. The war is raging across the English Channel and the Germans could invade at any moment. Britain needs levity to get through these tough days. Miles (Charles Evans, Jr…
THANK GOD IT'S FREAKY FRIDAY On the weekend of her mother's everything-must-be-perfect second wedding, teenager Ellie (Rivers Harris) is in a funk: little brother Fletcher (John Perry Wishch…
TENSION, HUMOR, AND INTRIGUE IN BEGUILING WWII DRAMEDY There would be much better places to live in 1943 than on the German-occupied British island of Guernsey, especially if you are shelter…
LETTERS FROM THE LOVELORN LEAP OFF THE PAGE Dear Sugar, I have a problem. My editor assigned me to review a play that does not follow conventional theater techniques, has only one known char…
A SWEET EMBRACEABLE SHOW In 1930, a musical called Girl Crazy, with a score by George and Ira Gershwin, opened on Broadway to moderate success, running 272 performances. The rarely-revived s…
WHO DOES HE THINK SHE IS? Him…Her…Them…Zir…Hir? In the transgender and non-binary community, the struggle with pronouns almost rivals the struggle with civil rights. Hir, now …
LET THE SPIRIT MOVE YOU TO NORTH COAST REP Is it bigamy if you’re still seeing your first wife while married to your second? Does your answer change if the first wife has been dead for…
EVEN WHEN YOU'RE HAIR CAN'T HOLD UP, THIS MUSICAL CAN To say you like Hairspray really doesn’t cut it. Do you mean the 1988 John Waters film starring Devine and newcomer Ricki Lake? Or…
A FUNNY THING’S HAPPENING AT NORTH COAST REP Only in Ancient Rome! Pseudolus, the wise-cracking slave (Omri Schein), can earn his freedom if he can somehow get the pretty, bubble-heade…
THE HOLY GRAIL OF SILLY MUSICALS The tales of King Arthur and his knights of the round table stand as icons of literature, leaving them ripe for outrageous parody in Monty Python’s 197…
PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW AFTER A PLAY THIS GOOD “What’s in a name?” Juliet famously asks. A lot, if the name is Ruff Yeager. Yeager, a co-founder of Roustabouts, has be…
FROM ORANGE JUICE TO A PIE IN THE FACE "What these people really want, hidden behind obscure legal phrases, is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alterna…
SOME ENCHANTED EVENING, INDEED Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 Broadway hit South Pacific is so full of familiar, classic numbers that it almost feels like a Broadway review in itself Ã…
ONE COULD GO ON AND ON FOR OFF Half the fun of theater is in the performance; the other half is in the rehearsal. Rehearsal is the time for experimenting, bonding, and watching everything co…
JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED: A JOYFUL MESSAGE There is an ancient Chinese proverb: "The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher." In the musical Soul Do…
WOULD SHAKESPEARE BY ANY OTHER PLAYWRIGHT SMELL AS SWEET? If the title King Charles III sounds rather Shakespearean, yet you cannot recall a “Charles” among all his Henrys …
A JEWISH JOKE WAS NO LAUGHING MATTER IN THE 1950s When the nation went into Commie panic in the '40s and '50s, one of the first places to get hard hit was Hollywood. In 1947, Congress's Hous…
CYGNET DIDN’T SEND IN ANY CLOWNS ON THIS ONE Much like modern art, Steven Sondheim musicals aren’t for everyone. They are purposefully discordant in places, often dark in ton…
WELL-PLANNED IRONIES Facebook and LinkedIn have illuminated the error in the supposed six degrees of separation theory, which asserts that all living things and everything else in the world …
THREE GREAT MINDS MAKE FOR INTRIGUING THEATER There’s a game where you get to pick three famous people and go to dinner with all of them. In Mark St. Germaine’s Camping with …
THE LAST WIFE GETS IT RIGHT Historical fiction can be a dicey game, let alone a modernization of historical figures. When the results are as captivating as Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife,…
THE FULL MONTY IS WORTH BARING IN MIND When the main factory in town shuts down and only menial work, far below previous pay grade, can be found, what’s a man supposed to do? For the t…
EVIL RIGHT AT HAND What could go wrong when a newly widowed mom leads three teens in a wholesome, Lutheran, extra-curricular church class tasked with creating a Christian puppet show? Thankf…
GEORGIA MCBRIDE AIN’T NO DRAG Playwright Matthew Lopez (The Whipping Man) has created a theatrical recipe: Take one part Torch Song Trilogy, mix in some La Cage aux Folles and, for …
