Nathan Miller

When you hear the name Charles Dickens, you almost automatically put in your mind an image of that cute little orphan boy roaming the streets of London picking pockets, or maybe the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future guiding Scrooge on a walk down memory lane. You probably don't think of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. In picking their show for the Curtain Up celebration, the Kavinoky Theatre did, and the entire Buffalo theatre community has benefited from it.

The intimate MusicalFare Theatre on the Daemen College campus is one of Buffalo's premier theatres. MusicalFare never ceases to amaze with the way that they adapt notoriously big productions into their space. Chris Kelly's re-imagined production of Meredith Willson's The Music Man is no exception to the rule. Kelly's directorial vision reduces the set to a series of tables and chairs which can be rearranged to indicate a different location, as well as ladders, used primarily in the "Marian the Librarian" sequence. His reduced set, as well as his reduction of the cast to 16 performers, is an absolutely delectable choice. Gone is the flashiness and unnecessary spectacle of a huge production, and what remains is the heartfelt and charming tale, along with a little bit of the necessary "flashiness" from Prof. Harold Hill.

A review of Buffalo Laboratory Theatre's production of Tom Stoppard's ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD,running through 9/29.

From the opening piano riff, a driving and intense, yet somehow melodic, progression, the Irish Classical Theatre Company's production of Next to Normal is arresting, poignant, and emotionally charged.

The first installment of the four-part series Faces of Curtain Up. An interview with Amy Jakiel, who will be appearing as Marian Paroo in Music Man at Musicalfare Theatre from 9/5-10/14. I met with Amy to discuss this year's role and her career as a performer/director extraordinaire.