Warning: Parental discretion is advised. Do not see The Birds if you are offended by sexual innuendo, some foul language, fowl in general, or suggestive sexual movements (pelvic thrusts, forearm motions, and more).

The Winslow Boy is an English 1946 play by Terence Rattigan based on an actual incident in the Edwardian era, which took place at the Royal Naval College, Osborne House. Set against the strict codes of conduct and manners of the age, The Winslow Boy is based on a father's fight to clear his son's name after the boy is expelled from Osborne Naval College for stealing a postal order. The subsequent court case takes its toll on the rest of the family.

Hurrah Players presented Annie as the opener this season at the Roper Center for the Performing Arts.  It was last performed 10 years ago with some of the same cast members you see today just in different roles.  To be honest this is a show I dread going to see just like Oklahoma but for once I actually sat back and enjoyed myself.  Why?  Because every performer, child or adult, was just having fun.  The dog (Sandy) probably not so much as 500 plus audience members look on. 

Take a play that appears to cross Frank Kafka’s The Trial and Edward Gorey’s Gorey Stories and you get Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, now showing at the 40th Street Stage.  This drama tells the tale of Katurian, a fiction writer living in a police state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories, and their similarities to a number of bizarre incidents occurring in his town.

Who hasn’t heard of Cirque du Soleil at this point? Let’s face it; they’re so “in” they’re almost “out.” But have you seen a Cirque show? Chances are that unless you’ve made a pilgrimage outside of our state the answer is “no.” That’s because Cirque du Soleil has never graced Hampton Roads with their presence. Now, thanks to an all new “arena tour,” the Cirque experience is accessible to thousands more fans. By adjusting stage size and production materials it is now possible to take the larger than life Cirque experience and ship it all around North America, stopping in several more cities for a week at a time as compared to the usual hassle of erecting Cirque’s trademark blue and gold tent village.

Long Day's Journey Into Night is a dramatic play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill, widely considered to be his masterwork - the autobiographical representations of O'Neill himself, his older brother, and their parents. The play was first published in 1956, and although his written instructions had stipulated that it not be made public until 25 years after his death, in 1956  his third wife, Carlotta arranged for this autobiographical masterpiece to be published, and produced on stage to tremendous critical acclaim, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. The Generic Theatre has mounted this production, under the direction of Linda Marley Smith and I personally feel that their version of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, albeit “long”, (running 3 hours), is definitely a trip worth taking.

Kids’ Paw Performing Arts Workshop runs a summer camp where children (rising first graders to high school students) participate in mounting a production.  This year Kids’ Paw mounted Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.  If one can only imagine about forty students learning an entire hour and a half musical in six hours a day for ten days, it causes my head to hurt.  These students deserve nothing but applause.  Ten days to learn an entire musical from auditions to performance, music, spoken dialogue and staging.  One might think this is impossible but Kathi-Lee and Rocco who run Kids’ Paw believe differently.  Better yet, they prove it. 

Fame – The Musical is based on the award-winning 1980 movie by Alan Parker; conceived and developed by David De Silva.  The story is based on De Silva’s fascination with the New York High School for Performing Arts, and follows a group of vibrant, multi-ethnic, energetic, young people pursuing their dreams of “fame”, along with the teachers who remind them that it’s going to take “Hard Work” (the opening sequence). While I thoroughly enjoyed particular elements of the show, I couldn’t help but feel that overall,  Hurrah Players' version of this piece, under the direction of Dustin Elsea, needed just a little… “More Work”. 

Now, maybe it was a result of stilted dialog (I mean real people just don’t talk that way), minimalist direction (so spare as to be invisible), or performances that ranged from way over the top to practically phoned in, but something rendered Source Theatre's production of Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms impenetrable if not downright unbelievable. Two Rooms, as presented, failed to come off the floor from lights up.

Peninsula Community Theatre opened Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat on July 27, 2007. As many may know this is Andrew Lloyd Weber’s first show and is often a hit with communities across the country. A simple biblical story set to music originally as a one act for a small school in England. The show then developed into much more than ever anticipated. PCT’s production is enjoyable but, though I attended the final dress rehearsal rather than a paid performance, I still wouldn’t necessarily use the word “amazing”. 

Greater Tuna is the first in a trilogy of comedic plays each set in the fictional town of Tuna, Texas, the "third-smallest" town in the state. The trilogy was written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard. The plays are described as being an affectionate comment on small-town, Southern life and attitudes but also a withering satire of same; and under the direction of Jeanette Rainey, who makes her directing debut with this production; this Greater Tuna reels you in from the start, and keeps you on the line for the duration of the show.

The only way I could have salvaged any enjoyment of the prose hurled at me in the Workshop Theatre Group production of Owen McCafferty’s Mojo Mickybo, was to have arrived armed with a low brow Irish slang dictionary, a flashlight and the desire to work in the dark.