Seen in 2018 - First Quarter

I am back after a long absence from this blog - but not an absence from theatre attendance.  If anything too much leaving no time to reflect and comment.

Seen since the beginning of 2018 are the productions below.  Most were unmemorable but I could not resist interlineating a few comments

The Events
    A good production of a good play.  Equally impressive was the transformation of the Russian Hall into a performance venue that was a pleasure to attend.  At my last visit it was painfully hard seating, bad visibility and bad acoustice.
Above the Hospital
    A boring excursion into millennial anxiety
The Aliens
Merrily We Roll Along
    Sondheim can be very good or very bad.  Put this one in the very bad column
Buyer and Cellar
Ruined
    Some good performances.  Glad I saw it.
House of Yes
    The play is based on an interesting premise but it goes off the rails.
The Skin of our Teeth
    A 70 year old play said to suddenly be relevant to today's circumstances.  Don't believe it.  Some wonderful stagecraft wasted on a play not worth reviving.
Jitters
Pacific Overtures
    Sondheim somewhat redeemed.
Teachers
Forget About Tomorrow
Fun Home
The Star-Spangled Girl
    I always thought I liked Neil Simon but now I am beginning to wonder.
Antigone
    A brave production featuring the theatre students of Douglas College with an outstanding lead.  DC has done some good things over the years and does not get the attention it deserves.
The After After Party
    A steaming pile of self-indulgent garbage.
Institutionalized; Chimera - Four Play Program A (Studio 58)
    Always interesting to see but none of the four plays this year were up to the quartet featured two years ago
Harvey
    A staged reading that fell apart in the second act.
Sequence
    Is God really the Fibonacci sequence?
Butcher
    I found this to be a compelling drama with outstanding performances.
Freedom 56’; Ain’t: the Musical - Four Play Program B (Studio 58)
    See comments on Program A
Pull Festival 2018 – 6 Short Plays
Bar Mitzvah Boy
    A very moving piece of theatre.  I liked it very much.
Little Miss Glitz
    A very promising premise that just didn’t work.
Enron
Funny Money
Once on This Island
    Because I loved Ragtime I looked forward to another musical by Ahrens and Flaherty – and what a huge disappointment it was both in terms of the score itself and the production it was given.  One of the worst-lit shows I have ever seen.
Rent
    Again we are told it is newly relevant.  With a few great songs it has potential as a revival but it fell far short of Renegade’s previous productions of Hair and Tommy.  Their new venue needs a lot of work to make it a satisfactory performance space.
The Humans
    The play did not live up to its hype.
Blithe Spirit
    Community theatre at Deep Cove.  Adequate but not outstanding.  It is a pity that the company did not choose to do the wonderful musical version – “High Spirits”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Spirits_(musical)

I will try to be a bit more diligent about keeping the blog up to date.  If time permits I may do a similar retrospective on what was seen in 2017.