Director Hugo Medrano’s production is mostly conservative/traditional. His take on 17th Century Spanish aristocrats is Renaissance flashy.
In its favor, American Century Theater’s revival of Marathon ’33 is blessed with a good band, good singers and a few minutes of snappy tap dancing.
There’s comedy. There’s tragedy. There’s romance. There’s even a piquant mix of poetry, politics, psychology, anthropology and philosophy. All in about an hour and a half.
Fascination is not necessarily fascinating. The 17 characters in the misleadingly titled All the King’s Women are fascinated by Elvis Presley.
Puerto Rico !Fua! is an engaging musical review that has been playing in one place or another for the past 35 years.
Rasputin is the protagonist of Brother Russia, a new musical that is receiving its premiere production at Signature Theater.
The WSC Les Justes gives some timely insight into the psychology of terror and suicide bombing.
The actors give the impression that they are keeping their distance from their characters, as if to avoid contamination.
When the show was over on opening night the big cast got a big hand from the big audience. Everyone — those on stage and those on seats — looked happy.
Sometimes the heroic poignancy is electrifying. Sometimes the abject groveling is embarrassing. But mostly ¡Ay, Carmela! is challenging.