The Buffalo News: Art & Theater Stories and Reviews

Art & Theater Stories and Reviews

Theater / Capsule reviews: Updated: 01/04/09 7:10 AM; Theater capsule reviews, by The News critics, are based on a four-star rating system, and are as follows: ★★★★ Excellent / ★★★ Good / ★★ Fair / ★Poor

‘Idol’ winner Hicks gets slick with ‘Grease’: By Jon Bream

McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Updated: 01/01/09 6:13 AM; Winning “American Idol” doesn’t guarantee a successful recording career. Taylor Hicks, the 2006 champ, can’t come close to matching the CD sales of either Chris Daughtry or Kellie Pickler, whom TV viewers rejected that season. But the “Idol” title does open doors, and Hicks is proving to be a careerist.

‘Ladies’ is imperfect, but great fun: By Colin Dabkowski

NEWS STAFF REVIEWER

Updated: 12/28/08 5:41 PM; In 17th century Paris, some 340 years before the advent of Gawker.com and Perez Hilton, upwardly mobile urbanites were just as hungry for gossip as we are today.

Theater / Capsule reviews: Updated: 12/28/08 6:11 AM; Theater capsule reviews, by The News critics, are based on a four-star rating system, and are as follows: ★★★★ Excellent / ★★★ Good / ★★ Fair / ★Poor

Comic break: Updated: 12/26/08 5:37 AM; After a year like this, just about everyone could use a laugh. And maybe a drink. Ample quantities of each will be readily on hand during Saturday’s performance of the Eclectic Improv Company comedy troupe, now in its 10th year of splitting sides. The troupe performs its monthly improv comedy show at 8 p. m. Saturday in Shea’s Smith Theatre (658 Main St.). Eclectic performances — much in the vein of the erstwhile television show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” — thrive on audience suggestions and participation. The troupe — usually five members, including pianist Michael Hake — takes cues from the audience to create a series of skits, sketches and madcap games that take direct aim at your funny bone. Sometimes they hit, and sometimes they miss, but audiences usually leave smiling either way. Tickets to the show are $10 and available at the Shea’s Performing Arts Center box office or through Ticketmaster. For more information, call 901-6086 or visit www.eclecticimprov.com . — Colin Dabkowski

Modern Moliere: BY COLIN DABKOWSKI

News Arts Writer

Updated: 12/26/08 5:37 AM; After two years as a roving actor-for-hire in theaters from Wyoming to California, Niagara University grad Andrew Liegl landed back in Western New York this fall. And he brought a few ideas with him.

Three to go: BY COLIN DABKOWSKI

News Arts Writer

Updated: 12/26/08 5:37 AM; In less than a month, several worthy shows at Western New York galleries and museums will come screeching to a close. Here’s a quick look at three of the best.

Theater / Capsule reviews: Updated: 12/21/08 7:21 AM; Theater capsule reviews, by The News critics, are based on a four-star rating system, and are as follows: ★★★★ Excellent / ★★★ Good / ★★ Fair / ★Poor

‘Annie’ has much needed lesson: By Colin Dabkowski NEWS ARTS WRITER

Updated: 12/21/08 6:46 AM; “Annie,” most everyone’s favorite Depression-era musical, preaches optimism in times of dire crisis. It is a supremely hokey but entirely lovable lesson that, no matter how bad things seem, the outlook only sours with endless prognostications of catastrophe.

'Annie' brings the orphan’s journey to Shea's: By Colin Dabkowski

News Arts Writer

Updated: 12/19/08 12:44 PM; For anyone who has harbored dreams of a career onstage well into their workaday lives, David Barton has a simple message.

Shock and awe: BY COLIN DABKOWSKI

News Arts Writer

Updated: 12/19/08 6:38 AM; Now that most of the dust has settled after the epic and spectacularly crowded opening weekend at the new Burchfield Penney Art Center last month, there’s finally some elbow room to maneuver through the museum’s elegant spaces and reflect on the reason the whole place exists in the first place.

San Francisco Ballet puts its spin on ‘Nutcracker’: By John Crook

ZAP2IT

Updated: 12/16/08 6:20 AM; By almost any reckoning, “The Nutcracker” has become the most popular ballet in the current American repertory — not bad for a piece that relies on a bad case of rodent infestation for its story line.

Theater / Capsule reviews: Updated: 12/14/08 7:52 AM; Theater capsule reviews, by The News critics, are based on a four-star rating system, and are as follows: ★★★★ Excellent / ★★★ Good / ★★ Fair / ★Poor

TOY’s ‘Madeline’ enchants kids: By Ted Hadley

NEWS CONTRIBUTING REVIEWER

Updated: 12/14/08 6:32 AM; Well, she’s been described as charmingly impetuous, irrepressible and mischievous. Oh . . . and precocious.

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ broadcast is back — on the stage: BY TED HADLEY

News Contributing Reviewer

Updated: 12/12/08 11:20 AM; It’s that time of year. You’re supposed to walk in a winter wonderland, conspire by the fire, pretend you’re Parson Brown, roast chestnuts. “Have yourself a merry little Christmas,” someone, everyone, sings.