Pit & Balcony News
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham 4 actors, a minimalist set, and snowy backdrops create the environment for Pit and Balcony’s newest production of Almost, Maine. Set in an area of Maine called Almost (it’s not a town because the citizens have not been organized), Almost, Maine tells the story of love; love lost, love found, joy and happiness found in love, and heartbreak when love is denied. Through a series of vignettes, we see the actors navigate the ins and outs of love as couples. We feel […]
Reviewer: Beth Detloff There are a few things that are guaranteed in life; taxes, that other thing, and that Pit and Balcony’s holiday show will pull you out of the seasonal funk. Maybe you have shopped too much, or had one too many cookies. Maybe you have yet to put up your tree or hang one stocking. Pit and Balcony has the fix for what ails you, and that is getting a ticket with a friend for their seasonal show of A […]
Reviewer: Mark DeWolf-Ott (If you don’t already know; POTUS is an acronym for President of the United States.) It’s playing at Pit and Balcony Theatre, Saginaw November 1 and 2, this Friday and Saturday. POTUS is an After Dark Production because it contains strong adult language and situations. The play takes place in the Capital of course. It may not be a story of the current administration, but it could be a composite of several administrations since Ronald Reagan. It’s also timely […]
Reviewer: Beth Detloff Pull out your shoulder pads and tune up your keyboard ties, everyone’s favorite decade hits the stage in Saginaw. Season ninety-three at our local Pit and Balcony Theatre opens up with a heartbreaker. Over the next few hours that heartbreaker turns to a heartwarming happy ending for all. If you are already feeling the seasonal sadness pull you in as the sun sets early, pick up a ticket to The Wedding Singer and the laughs will pick up […]
Reviewer: Mark DeWolf-Ott After doing my research before going to the play; I didn’t expect much. I was surprised. I went into the theater with the idea that nothing is as funny as the articles say it is. I thought that I wouldn’t laugh. I was wrong. Many reviews compared the play to skits by Monty Python or maybe even Saturday Night Live. I would also compare it to The Honeymooners, I love Lucy, The Muppets, Adam Sandler, Weird Al Yankovic, […]
Reviewer: Elizabeth Detloff Occasionally one might find themselves scrolling on Facebook and suddenly come across a photo of an old high school friend. One might discover their friend is cast in Pit and Balcony’s After Dark holiday show called The Eight Reindeer Monologues. One may grab another high school friend and tickets to the Saturday show and head to their first After Dark production. I have been a long time fan of Pit and Balcony and have been to many Friday night […]
Reviewer: Elizabeth Detloff Season ninety-two aptly themed desires & disasters proved with the opening play that it would be delivering both. Seats in our lovely community theater filled in the fading summer warmth. Did the audience know it would be taken on an emotional journey that would leave them questioning if clapping was the correct response to the scenes witnessed. The audience is dropped right into the storyline, making you feel as if you might be missing information. It does not […]
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham Pit and Balcony Theatre opened the final show if their 91st season last evening, with a powerful and emotionally charged performance of Theresa Rebeck’s two-act play, Sunday on the Rocks. The play was presented in Black Box format, seating the audience directly on the stage, within a few feet of the actors. It felt as if one was a fly on the wall, intimately observing the characters as they moved through their daily activities, unobserved but impacted by the emotions […]
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham Casey (Heather Koch) and Aaron (Justin Russell) are meeting for the first time. Each one is hopeful that this might actually be “the one” that they have been looking for, the one who will heal all the hurts from the past, the one that will make them feel whole and complete. Pit and Balcony’s presentation of First Date, chronicles Casey and Aaron’s date from arrival to the walk home. A cast of five supporting actors, portraying a dozen or […]
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham Pit and Balcony Theatre continued its 91st season with the Regional Premier of Sweat by Lynn Nottage. The play focuses on seven people who work or have worked in a local manufacturing plant, some have worked there for years, some are newcomers, and one worked there until he was injured and let go. Each character appreciates having a job with a salary that is far above what they might find elsewhere. They can afford to live their life and have extras […]
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham Walking into the theater last night, I was thrilled to see all the people. The lobby was filled with people picking up tickets, buying snacks and moving toward the theater, ready for a performance of Ramona Quimby. There were friends and family milling about, chatting with each other about their loved one, and carrying flowers to be presented to the aforementioned loved one at the end of the show. The anticipation was palpable, and the show did not […]
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham Have you ever watched a Christmas movie and just…peed your pants from laughing so hard?!! No? Well, then, you haven’t watched Pit and Balcony’s production of Don Zolidis’, The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon. Six different Christmas movies all rolled into one production and presented in two hours of side splitting comedy and the traditional formula Christmas movie that we all know and love from that Christmas channel. Wesley Cook and Elijah Feinauer do an amazing job in their roles of […]
Reviewer: Beth Detloff Pit and Balcony Theatre opens season ninety-one with a bang, or should I say a lightning bolt from the gods! The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical is adapted from a book by Rick Riordan. As a steadfast read the book first enthusiast, I quickly downloaded the ten hour read. What is an action packed story is transformed by the Theatre’s cast, crew, and music ensemble. The dialogue is full of don’t blink or you might miss it well placed […]
Reviewer: Denyse Shannon Twenty years ago, when the play was written, the world was a different place for people facing up to their sexuality. All these years later, same-sex marriage is legal, the LGBTQ movement has marched past the doors of discrimination, and the storyline of Bare: A Pop Opera seems like lightyears in the past. Premiering Saturday, May 14th at Pit & Balcony, the musical is billed as the story of teenaged angst. There’s a smattering of the typical, from the guy who […]
Reviewer: Mark DeWolf-Ott The Greek Mythology Olympiaganza, written by Don Zolidis, is an adaption of some of the most popular ancient Greek myths. You might think “how boring.” With this youthful energetic cast, it’s anything but boring! It’s playing this and next weekend at the Pit and Balcony, Saginaw. Showing in the evening on Saturday and the afternoon on Sunday. Two arguing narrators attempt to cover all Greek mythology using audience participation, cross gender acting, and general theatrical absurdity, in […]
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham How do you prepare for love? I am here to oppose you because the path you are on is a reckless one. They’ll change the stinking world. These are just some of the more memorable lines from Pit and Balcony’s most recent production, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. The play, a regional premier, focuses on the relationship between Joanna Drayton and her new fiance’, Dr. John Prentice. John is older than Joanna, a widower, and black. The […]
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham Pit and Balcony Theater celebrated the beginning of the Christmas season with a packed house for the premier of Elf the Musical. The “Sparklejollytwinklejingley” show featured an ensemble cast including Spencer Beyerlein as Buddy the Elf, Brian Bateson as Walter, and Will Kircher as Santa. Co-directors, Judy Harper and Jeanne Gilbert, guided the cast and crew to present a show that was engaging and a true delight to witness. Beyerlein’s portrayal of Buddy was infectious and heart-warming. […]
Reviewer: Kristine Gotham Pit and Balcony Theater presents for its 90th season opener, Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express,” adapted by Ken Ludwig. The time? 1934. The location? The Orient Express train stuck in a snowbank, somewhere between Istanbul and Paris. The crime? Murder. The cast of characters include a Russian princess in exile and her assistant, an boorish business man, his secretary, an American widow/divorcee, a countess, a French army colonel, his girlfriend, the conductor/head waiter, a railway […]
Reviewer: Mark DeWolf-Ott This 2014 Pulitzer Prize winner for drama is labeled experimental theater for a reason. The seating and the projection booth are the stage, and the stage is where the audience sits. Cleaver minimal costumes, mops and brooms for props, and extra house lighting are also unique to this drama. Aside from the unusual seating arrangements, broom and dust pans, the feelings and emotions of the characters are the real subject of the play. Sam, Rose and Avery […]
Reviewer: Mark DeWolf-Ott It was great evening, just to be in the theater again! Not a huge crowd but a good crowd. Pit and Balcony Community Theatre of Saginaw continues their 89th season with Superior Donuts written by Tracy Letts, best known as the Pulitzer Prize Winner for writing August: O’Sage County. It is directed by Glecia Tatum, her first show at Pit and Balcony however, she has produced plays and performances at First Ward Community Center. Superior Donuts is […]
By: Robert E Martin With Pit & Balcony’s regional premier of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tracy Lett’s socio-comedy Superior Donuts over the weekend of March 19-21st audiences were treated to a much-needed reprieve from social isolation with a contemporary tale from the city of Chicago, where a long-standing locally owned family donut shop faces an uncertain future not only due to the appearance of a brand spanking new recently opened Starbucks across the street; but more importantly, because of the personal […]
By: Robert E Martin With Pit & Balcony Community Theatre’s production of playwright John Patrick Shanley’s newly created Pandemic inspired opus Rogues Gallery, audiences of the Great Lakes Bay Region are once again treated to a significant slice of contemporary American theatre that is as equally timely as it is poignant. Having written some major contemporary works in the theatrical world including Doubt, which went on to win. Pulitzer Prize in Drama, along with his screenplay for Moonstruck, when the […]
Reviewer: Benjamin Champagne Theatre in the Great Lakes Bay Region is back! After 11 months without a show, Rogues Gallery opened Thursday February 4th at Pit and Balcony Theatre in Saginaw, MI. The play was written by John Patrick Shanley, famous for winning a Pulitzer Prize for his amazing play Doubt. This was a novel selection by Pit and Director Jonah Conner. The rights were difficult to secure as the play was literally hot off the presses. Shanley penned this […]
Commentary by Janet I. Martineau Well, they don’t call them community theater actors for nothing. Collectively they totally know how to really sell a song, decorate a set, costume for the occasion, develop a script and relate to an audience. Doesn’t hurt to toss in a dog or two either. So it should come as no surprise that Pit and Balcony Community Theatre of Saginaw delivered a clever and fun, virtual, pre-recorded cabaret tonight, titled “Sounding Joy.” 19 songs, 10 […]
Reviewer: Janet Martineau Never thought I would ever type the following about a serious real-life issue…sexual assault. But, then, “The ‘Winkleigh Murders,” which opened Pit and Balcony’s 89th season virtually on Friday night, is not in any way a typical play. An Edwardian era estate heiress (played Amy Spadafore) had spent several hilarious moments begging the gardener’s bastard son (played by Spencer Beyerlein) to ravage her. And when he at long last made The Move, something suddenly happened that was […]
March 14, 2020 | Jason Applegate A play about a cosmic force that descends upon humanity without warning was ironically a pleasant escape considering the week we have all faced. Managing Director Amy Spadafore had a very difficult decision when she determined that the show must go on, and I commend her for making it. Spadafore decided to reward the hard work of the artists involved with a public performance, and it certainly made for a night of laughter at […]
March 14, 2020 | Jessica McFarland In a nice change of pace from it’s more youth-oriented programming, Pit and Balcony has staged 2016’s Meteor Shower, a more mature four-person comedy by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin). Of course, with the current Coronavirus fears running rampant, Pit was left with a much smaller audience than usual opening night. Still, the show must go on (although next weekend’s performances are cancelled), and I can safely say I haven’t heard such a […]
January 25, 2020 | Jessica McFarland Considered by many to be The Great American Novel, Fitzgerald’s jazz age classic gets a new interpretation at Saginaw’s Pit & Balcony Theatre. If any of you somehow missed your high school required reading, The Great Gatsby follows Midwestern naif Nick Carraway in the summer of 1922 as he moves to New York City and becomes embroiled in the loves and scandals of the West Egg upper class. Also populating the story are his […]
January 25, 2020 | Jason Applegate I must precede this review by confessing that The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald has always been one of my favorite novels. I love the poetic prose of the novel that encapsulates the Jazz era. I love the flawed characters who ironically believe the lie that their lives only have value if they are deemed successful by the very people who will do everything in their power to destroy any chance of their […]
December 1, 2019 | Dr. Jeff List “If everything is the same, there are no choices.” The stage adaptation of the essential young adult novel, The Giver, marks the second selection for Pit & Balcony’s current season. This story, set in a dystopian future, tells the story of Jonas who discovers the joys and pains of living when selected for a special role in society, the Receiver of Memory. The Giver shares his collected knowledge and memories of humanity long […]
November 30, 2019 | Jessica McFarland In a not-too-distant future, people live in planned communities where secrets must be confessed, differences must not be pointed out, and choices are forbidden. Jonas (Nick Pellegrino IV) is on the cusp of turning twelve and getting his typical job assignment for the rest of his pleasant, black and white life, until he is told that he has been given a rare and honored position as the Receiver of Memory. He meets his teacher, […]
October 10, 2019 | Todd Thomas Collaborations of any kind are challenging. Each of these area theatres has their own resources, processes and cultures and you can imagine the kind of train wreck a huge production like this could have been. Managing Director of Pit & Balcony, Amy Spadafore, Director of Theatre Programs at Midland Center for the Arts, Dexter Brigham, and Operations Manager for Bay City Players, Kathy Pawlowski, were clearly the right people to produce this show. As […]
September 21, 2019 | Todd Thomas When I saw Mamma Mia, I was seated in front of a group of sequin-clad women who had clearly pre-gamed the show, and were having a joyous time at the ABBA jukebox musical. When you see Mamma Mia! (and you really should), don’t expect the weightiness of “Hamilton,” or the societal messages of “Rent” or the brutal satire of “Book of Mormon.” In fact, don’t expect a very believable story line. But believe the […]
September 29, 2019 | Dr. Jeff List I know I’m a little late to the game when it comes to seeing Mamma Mia! at the Midland Center For The Arts, in collaboration with Bay City Players and Pit & Balcony But I’m glad I made it.. This show feels like a celebration, and is so much fun. The elements – acting, lights, costumes, and the music – work together so expertly, and I’d like to share a few of the […]
June 21, 2019 | David Rzeszutek The Cockfight Play by English playwright Mike Bartlett is the current offering from Pit and Balcony Theatre’s “After Dark” series. The play was originally named after a one syllable slang term for a man’s genitalia, but with print issues in family friendly newspapers, The Cockfight Play is often used as the title instead for advertising and review. This play revolves around the character Johna who has been in a stable relationship with his boyfriend. […]
June 21, 2019 | Todd Thomas Michael Bartlett’s play, generally referred to as “The Cockfight Play” since the actual title is not as family or print friendly (think one syllable instead of four) presents a number of challenges in every aspect of production. It is the perfect kind of show for an “After Dark” series and represents the value of having a slot in the season where edgy shows can be produced. Pit & Balcony took a risk with this […]
May 11, 2019 | Jessica McFarland It Shoulda Been You wasn’t the showiest musical when it debuted on Broadway in 2015, so you’re forgiven if you haven’t heard of it. Pit and Balcony is dedicated to delivering fresh and contemporary shows as well as regional debuts, and they should be commended for that. Written by Brian Hargrove and Barbara Anselmi, this delightful little musical is equal parts farce and romantic comedy, paying homage to the classics while maintaining a thoroughly […]
May 12, 2019 | Dr. Jeff List A theatre wedding never goes as planned. Never. Something always shakes things up. Always. The question is “who,” “what,” and “how.” I’m not going to give much away in this review because Pit & Balcony’s production of It Shoulda Been You, with book and lyrics by Brian Hargrove and music and concept by Barbara Anselmi, gives audience members everything they need for a good night at the theatre. Catchy musical numbers. Endearing characters. […]
March 16, 2019 | David Rzeszutek When push comes to shove, how much is too much? If first place in a Sales competition got you a Cadillac, second place got you a set of steak knives, and third place got you fired – in a tough economy, you’d do whatever is necessary to come out on top: you’d lie, you’d cheat, you’d do anything you could to obey the office mantra: ABC – “Always Be Closing”. Why not? It’s the […]
January 26, 2019 | Kate Fort As I write this review, the temperature outside is in the single digits. I can’t imagine a better time of year to come in from the cold to a sunny, fun piece of theatre like Pit and Balcony’s James and the Giant Peach. Peach tells the classic story of James Henry Trotter, an orphaned boy who goes on an extraordinary adventure involving magic, an abnormally large fruit, and its menagerie of inhabitants. Based on […]
January 26, 2019 | Emily Anderson If you’re a fan of Roald Dahl’s literature, James and the Giant Peach at Saginaw’s Pit and Balcony will be a delightful trip down memory lane. Whimsical music and colorful costumes accompany James on his journey across the Atlantic Ocean on his giant peach as he saves his larger than life insect friends from peril using only his imagination. Putting a show squarely on the shoulders of a young actor can be risky, but […]
December 14, 2018 | Jason Applegate What is your favorite Christmas story? Are you a traditionalist who loves the literary classics of Dickens, O Henry, and Thomas or do you harken back to the animated shows of your childhood with The Grinch, Rudolph, and Charlie Brown? Well, regardless of your preference you can bet your last dreidel that Pit and Balcony’s production Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some)! will reference your favorite holiday tale. This merry menagerie by […]
October 6, 2018 | Jessica McFarland In an ambitious move, Saginaw’s Pit and Balcony Theatre has opted to go Into The Woods for their season 87 opener. The 1986 Tony-Winning show visits several familiar fairy tales and a few new characters to weave the disparate stories together. Opening with an expository piece where each character wishes for the things that they are convinced would make their lives better, they proceed to go into a metaphorical woods to have adventures, “get […]
October 6, 2018 | Dr. Jeff List The world of fairy tales comes together in Into The Woods at Pit & Balcony for a truly enjoyable evening. The hit musical sees the worlds of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood in a re-telling that allows audience members to re-imagine the stories with which they grew up. The intelligent directing, strong acting, and creative design bring an engaging production to the Great Lakes Bay Region. Into […]
by Dexter Brigham As I was driving home from opening night of Hand to God, the latest installment in Pit and Balcony’s After Dark series, I realized it was the summer solstice: the day when the light reaches it peak, and the dark begins to eat away at it, beginning the slow march back to the depressing darkness of winter. It struck me as just about the perfect night to see this twisted comedy by Robert Askins, which explores the […]
by Jeffrey Mindock Make sure to put American Idiot at Pit and Balcony Theatre on your calendar because it is not to be missed. The entire ensemble responsible for this risk-taking endeavor deserves your support based on its execution and cultural merit. American Idiot is a visceral jukebox musical that utilizes its source material in the same vein as The Who’s Tommy. For those of you who may or may not know Green Day’s seminal 2005 Best Rock Album, it’s […]
by Thomas F. Cole “I don’t care if you don’t care!” A poignant lyric echoed by each of the three main protagonists in the current production of alternative punk rock group Green Day’s American Idiot currently running at Saginaw’s Pit and Balcony Theatre and which opened on Friday, May 11. Teenage angst? American Idiot takes you way beyond it. We’re talking about post-teenage angst, here! Set in the recent past of American suburbia (cynically called Jingletown), American Idiot is a […]
by Laura Bigham Moon Over Buffalo is a funny and extremely physical play. The author, Ken Ludwig, is a truly gifted farcical comedy writer. Farce often has several storylines that involve real people stuck in extreme situations and propelled by panic…and that panic creates a lot of laughs. The story follows a touring theatre troupe in 1953 run by, and starring, the Hay family, including: fading stars George and Charlotte Hay, their daughter Rosalinde, and their deaf mother-in-law. The family […]
by Dr. L. Todd Thomas The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett is the stage adaptation of The Diary of a Young Girl, a book compiled from three volumes of diary entries written by Anne Frank while she and her family were hiding for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Her father published these as a book in 1947, it was reprinted in English in 1952, and first presented as a stage play […]
by Thomas F. Cole “Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.”—Anne Frank, 6 June, 1944. Eight people in hiding for their very lives, and one of them has become the face of the Holocaust, the systematic murder of the Jews of Europe and Hitler’s Final Solution during WWII. That face belongs to Anne Frank, who is convincingly played by Saginaw native and the current Miss Bay County, Jaeleen Davis, in Pit […]
Written by Laura Izzo Bravo to the cast and crew of Pit and Balcony’s production of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” It is a powerful performance of a powerful masterpiece. This classic play opened Jan. 26 and the entire stage came to life as the cast embodied the persona of their characters and the dramatic lighting engaged the audience to follow the characters as they took ownership of the stage. During the concluding “talk back” session, Director Danielle Katsouls shared […]
Written By Mark De Wolf-Ott A sense of magic was in the air when Pit and Balcony opened its production of “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” on Friday night (Dec. 1). There were all kinds of characters in this C. S. Lewis imaginary snowy kingdom. A white stag, a unicorn, beavers, wolves, a faun (half man, half goat), a centaur (half man, half horse), a fox and a deer — and they all talked! How enchanting is that? […]
Written By Mark DeWolf-Ott And so it goes, heaven knows Anything Goes And it certainly did as the 86th season of Pit and Balcony Community Theater of Saginaw opened on Friday, Oct. 6, with a revival of the so-named popular Cole Porter Broadway show. Directed by Michael Wisniewski, the musical began with a few missed cues, technical glitches and opening night jitters. But it passed as Reno, played by Kaitlyn Riel, started the show with “I Get a Kick Out […]
by Janet I. Martineau Hang on, Pit and Balcony Community Theatre patrons, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. An extremely bumpy ride that may leave you feeling a little nauseous now and then. But what’s this…did I hear myself laughing at perhaps inappropriate times? Tonight P&B opens perhaps its most risky show ever, “Heathers The Musical,” based on the popular 1988 cult film. This 2014 musical adaptation literally gives new meaning to the words satire, dark comedy or black […]
Review by Janet I. Martineau Memo from Pit and Balcony Community Theater of Saginaw to the Bay City Players: back at ya, game on. There is no way these two companies could have collaborated on producing back to back two of the most grandly written ensemble plays, with rich and deep human stories, based on the playwright’s life, with brilliant acting, direction and staging. But there we have it. Wow. Last weekend Robert Harling’s “Steel Magnolias” opened in Bay City […]
Eye on Arts ReviewLoissa Elizabeth Harrison-ParksCentral Michigan University A fun, vibrant and quirky production of a classic children’s book awaits theatergoers at Saginaw’s Pit and Balcony Community Theatre. Set in the humble, rural South, Joseph Robinette’s adaptation of “Charlotte’s Web” successfully transports the audience into the heart of E.B White’s famous book about a barnyard friendship between a pig and a spider. Shall we say the cast and crew spins a beautiful rendition of this classic tale. The setting, as […]
by Janet I. Martineau A word of warning if you venture forth to see Pit and Balcony Community Theatre’s production of the musical “Legally Blonde,” running through Oct. 16. There are three scene stealers – make that show stealers – who so overshadow everything else that you go home chuckling and chortling about them and tend to dismiss all else in the show. That’s not not really a good thing in a production, given that a cast is supposed to perform […]
Thank you so much for opening up the theatre to our group from Carrollton High School. I apologize for not being able to stay for the talk-back following the show as some of our students are required to leave campus in the afternoon and needed to be back at the school. It was such a great opportunity for them to see such a well-crafted piece of local theatre. My students walked away with a wonderful appreciation of the power of […]
by Janet I. Martineau In two weeks time they’re going to be dead. Every single one of them. Due to total exhaustion. That’s my prediction for the cast, and probably the crew too, involved in Pit and Balcony Community Theatre’s production of “Noises Off” — which opens appropriately on April Fool’s Day. Saw the final dress rehearsal of the frantic farce, and it is one of the most physically demanding shows ever with the nine-member cast doing the same scene […]
By Janet Martineau Tonight (Feb. 5), Pit and Balcony Community Theater opens its production of “Eurydice” by Sarah Ruhl. Prepare yourself, it is a doozy. Charming yet wacky. Playful yet serious. Set back in the time of mythology yet totally contemporary. Off-the-wall yet intensely human. So full of color and wild costumes and inventive special effects that sometimes you miss the equally wonderful words. In a nutshell, Ruhl rule has taken the story of Orpheus, a legendary musician, poet and […]
By Sue White | For MLive.com SAGINAW, MI – When “It’s a Wonderful Life” hit the theaters in 1946, audiences didn’t immediately take to Frank Capra’s tale of a small-town banker’s life-changing redemption, calling it “sentimental.” “Some people still feel that way,” says Jessica McFarland, who’s directing the Pit and Balcony Community Theatre’s production of the now-classic play. But going back to the original script, a compilation of three different versions, she’s balancing the story of redemption with its underlying current […]
By Janet I. Martineau Perpetual, perpetual, perpetual MOTION. That word sums up the Pit and Balcony Community Theatre production of the musical “Hairspray,” opening tonight (Oct. 2). That word and a whole lot many more words which will follow in this review. We had to go home after its last dress rehearsal and take a nap… there was so much energy exuded. Recently we extolled the choreography in the Midland Center for the Arts production of “Mary Poppins.” Well, “Hairspray” […]
By Josephine Norris, Photo Editor. The hit Broadway musical “Hairspray” kicked off Pit and Balcony’s 84th season. Under the direction of Tommy Wedge, this is a larger than life musical has been dazzling and inspiring audience members to dance right out of their seats since it opened on the Great White Way in 2002. With music and lyrics by the award winning pair, Marc Shaiman and Scott Whittman, “Hairspray” is a joyful and talented performance not to be missed. The […]