THE REVIEWS ARE IN.......
"It's a very, very funny show..."
boasts Gregg Stanson, The AJ News
"I laughed all the way home!"
says Mike Burns, The Phoenix Sentinal
"...it's a fabulous array of talent..."
states Ilene Stewart, Tempe Globe
"...I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard."
cries Linda Lehi, The Scottsdale Herald
"The cast is heading somewhere big."
raves David Black, The Deer Valley Chronicle
"I laughed, I cried (from laughing), it was better than Cats..."
shouts Douglas Archival, The Glendale Post
"Not only is the talent extraordinarily funny, the directors take the troupe to the ends of the earth."
harolds Carla Peterson, The Mesonian
Is What It Is turns out half-baked 'Gingerbread'
By Richard Nilsen, AZ Republic, Dec. 05, 2001
One of Simon's rare plays with serious subject matter, its main character is a former chanteuse torpedoed by alcoholism. Evy is a diva just out of rehab, come home to an empty apartment filled with the reasons for her drinking.
...the cast is so good. Bisk Consoli as the mandatory gay friend creates an oversize character without resorting to stereotypes. Billy Bolander is suitably baleful and smarmy as the unsuitable boyfriend. And, especially, Emily Marver is utterly convincing as Evy's perky, commonsensical daughter, Polly. One wishes the play had been about Polly.
Better When They're Not Trying to be Funny
by Mark S.P. Turvin, GoldfishPublishers, 12/1/01
Another season, another obscure Neil Simon piece. This time, it's the 1970 comedy/drama The Gingerbread Lady Is What It Is Theatre has brought back from the land of the forgotten. Ironically, it is not when it is trying to be funny that it works, the drama of the piece is more successful, and so it is with this production directed by Michael Peck.
In this production, Peck has been smart with his pacing and casting. In working with his actors, Peck has made some smart choices.
Janine Smith is the recovering Evy, and she is generally solid. She sometimes tosses away laugh lines, and occasionally steps on others, but she scores big points for her drinking scene, which she neither over nor underplays. A stronger performance, probably the strongest of the cast, comes from Emily Marver as Polly, who has the gift of good comic timing and an easy rapport with those around her. While sometimes irritating, Bisk Consoli gives an over-the-top performance as the flamboyant Jimmy. One thing to be said about his presentation, though, is that I have met a few actors who are the spitting image of his offering, annoying as it sometimes becomes. April Shepherd plays up her characters vanity, but it's when she's falling apart that she becomes interesting. Billy Bolander's portrayal of the weasel Lou is very well done, while some genuine comedy comes from Kane Black in his small role as a Puerto Rican grocery delivery boy.
Howard Koch's "War of the Worlds", Is What It Is Theater.
By Richard Nilsen, AZ Republic, Oct. 18, 2001
"Good Lord! They're turning into flame. . . . Citizens of the nation: I shall not try to conceal the gravity of the situation that confronts the country. . . . In the meantime, placing our faith in God, we must continue the performance of our duties, each and every one of us. . . . Apparent objective is New York City. . . . Thousands lay dead. . . . As if a giant had sliced off its highest towers with a capricious sweep of his hand. . . . "
Good Lord! When Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre presented their notorious radio version of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds in 1938, who knew how prescient it would sound in 2001?
Is What It Is Theater Company's version of the Howard Koch-scripted, Welles audioplay, runs Friday, Oct. 19 through Oct. 28 at Studio One Performing Arts Center.
Now, 63 years later, in the wake of terrorism, the "boo" seems more real than it had before.
"I wanted the audience to understand the panic that went through the country in 1938," Is What It Is artistic director Tom Leveen says of his new production.
It wasn't only the Hindenburg, but the nervous tenor of the prewar years, with Hitler as a baleful presence in Europe.
Just as then, the subtext of War of the Worlds may seem more real than the fiction.
"Theater has and always will be a reflection of the times we live in," Leveen says.
Romantic Farce is on stage in Tempe
By By Roberta Burnett, AZ Republic, May 11, 2001
Guest director Thomas Levine says his current Tempe Little Theatre production of Alan Ayckbourne's Bedroom Farce is about a kissing kind of love.
The play deals with three couples' idiosyncrasies in three bedrooms on stage, but it isn't filled with adult content. Most of the cast is from the East Valley and includes:
Billy Bolander and Dawn Drew of Mesa, Rachel McKinney and Jennifer Tellez of Tempe, and Jason Vandeventer of Gilbert. Levine is one of the founders of the Is What it Is Theater in Scottsdale, and he knows contemporary comedies like this one keep audiences coming back.
"We do a lot of improv before rehearsals start, like setting them up with some strange way to die, a '30-second death,' like getting your tongue stuck in a bottle. It's fun for the actors. I love watching their imaginations at work," Levine said.
Bedroom Farce plays May 25-26, June 1-2, 8-9, at 8 p.m., and June 3, at 2 p.m. at Tempe Performing Arts Center, 132 E. Sixth St., Tempe. Tickets are to . Information: (480) 350-8388.
This production of Our Town is brought to St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Mesa, by Don Doyle. Mr. Doyle is a renouned director, who had taught at Arizona State University for 29 years, and who is known throughout the United States as a certified Story Teller.
Mesa Youtheatre's production of "Irish Annie" is a story based on the life of a Bowling Green State University (Ohio) Professor's great-grand parents. Annie came to America from Ireland in 1907 looking for her freedom and a new lease on life. The story takes place as her journey starts on the boat over to the new land.
