Broome Arts Mirror – Local Theatre Reviews
The Broome Arts Mirror is a group of volunteers affiliated with the Broome County Arts Council who write previews and reviews about local performances and arts shows. For inquiries, including having someone review your local production, please contact us at bamirror@broomearts.org.
Powerful acting fuels KNOW’s compelling look at a dysfunctional family
Reviewed by George Basler The dysfunctional working-class family at the heart of Edward Allan Baker’s play The Framer makes the Tyrones of Long Day’s Journey into Night look like Ozzie and Harriet. The title character, Ronnie, is dying of cirrhosis of the liver brought on by years of alcoholism. His tough-talking wife, Patsy, is [...]
Community/school production tradition continues in Whitney Point
By George Basler Whitney Point Community-School Productions will continue a community tradition this coming weekend (April 19-20) with three performances of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in the Whitney Point High School auditorium. For more than four decades, the group has offered biennial productions of classic Broadway musicals with [...]
US Karagöz Theatre Company comes to SUNY Broome
The US Karagöz Theater Company is coming to SUNY Broome Community College this weekend (April 19 and 20). Members of the community are invited to a performance of The Forest of the Witch at 1 p.m. Saturday (April 20) in the SUNY Broome Angelo Zuccolo Little Theatre. The [...]
Cider Mill Stage to screen award-winning local film
An award-winning film produced by local filmmaker Tim O’Hearn will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Friday (April 19) at the Cider Mill Stage in Endicott. The film, Showdown in Yesteryear, tells the story of Daryl, a down-on-his-luck wannabe cowboy, who stumbles upon and through a mysterious old door, unintentionally sending [...]
Savoyards set auditions for summer production
Auditions for the Summer Savoyards’ upcoming production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida will be 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, May 3, and 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, May 5, at Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church 44 Main St., Binghamton (use the Oak Street entrance). Performances of the comic operetta [...]
TCO to present classic comic opera
By George Basler Patrick Hansen uses the words “bubbly” and “fizzy” to describe Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera The Barber of Seville. “It’s not like sitting down to a huge heavy meal. It’s mostly desserts,” he said. Hansen, artistic director of Opera McGill in Canada, is the stage director [...]
Ti-Ahwaga does a solid job with provocative, if flawed, play
Reviewed by George Basler At the beginning of The Elephant Man, John Merrick lets out an anguished howl of a man who has lost all hope. As played by Parker Howland, it’s a striking moment in the play that is in the middle of a three-weekend run at the Ti-Ahwaga [...]
Comedy times two at SUNY Broome
SUNY Broome students are determined to tickle your funny bone this month. This Friday and Saturday (April 12 and 13), the SUNY Broome Theater Club will present Michael Frayn’s farcical Noises Off! (1982), about a touring theatrical production fraught with problems. Then, on April 26 and 27, the SUNY [...]
First-rate clowning sparks BLAST’s ’39 Steps’
Reviewed by George Basler If pure silliness is your cup of tea, head to the Cider Mill Stage this coming weekend to see The 39 Steps, which is being staged by BLAST (Bold Local Artists of the Southern Tier). Despite some slow moments, the production, which opened last weekend (April [...]
Bring on the ‘razzle dazzle’: EPAC is staging ‘Chicago’
By George Basler Remember the good old days of the Roaring 1920s when murder and mayhem made newspaper headlines, unethical lawyers roamed courtrooms and “sob sister” journalists pulled readers’ heart strings with phony sentimentality. These disreputable attributes will be on display in the Endicott Performing Arts Center’s production of [...]
KNOW presenting ‘tragic comedy’ about dysfunctional family
By George Basler Edward Allan Baker’s The Framer asks the provocative question: “If you had two weeks to live, who would you kill?” The question hangs over the play that will open Friday (April 12) for a three-weekend run at KNOW Theatre in downtown Binghamton. “The author calls it a [...]
Students present ‘site-specific’ musical in BU Art Museum
By George Basler Tommy Iafrate calls the musical Light in the Piazza “a wonderful story about how everyone deserves love.” He also calls it the most musically challenging show he’s ever directed. At its heart, Light in the Piazza is “a musical love story, a musical fable,” said the head of [...]
Madrigal Choir, S.T.A.R. team up for concert of hope and wonder
By George Basler Three community arts organizations are joining forces for an April 14 concert that organizers hope will provide an uplifting message in troubled times. The concert, “America Speaks,” will combine readings of great American poems by members of Southern Tier Actors Read (S.T.A.R.) with musical settings of [...]
Cruise the Mediterranean at season’s final Philharmonic symphonic concert
The Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra presents “Roman Holiday,” its final 2023-2024 M&T Bank Symphonic Series concert, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (April 6) at the Forum Theatre in downtown Binghamton. According to a Philharmonic press release, the concert will offer “a sonic panorama of the music, dance and history of Italy [...]
BLAST to present comedy thriller at Cider Mill Stage
Take a pinch of thrilling spy mystery, sprinkle in a dash of romance, add a measure of Alfred Hitchcock references and innuendos and pour in a heaping spoonful of slap-stick comedy, and you have the recipe for The 39 Steps, which opens April 5 (Friday) for a two-weekend [...]
