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.
BU’s ‘Sunset Mirage’ merges theater and dance
By George Basler In David Wynen’s native Australia, young men and women get together annually in the remote outback for a tradition called the Bachelor and Spinsters Ball, a night-long party focused on having a raucous good time. While he never participated, the Binghamton University assistant professor of musical [...]
BCO premieres cello concerto this weekend
By Nancy Oliveri The Binghamton Community Orchestra's concert Saturday (Feb. 26) at Maine-Endwell Senior High School will feature the New York premiere of Pēteris Vasks' Cello Concerto No. 2, "Presence,” under the direction of BCO Maestro Evan Meccarello. Meccarello describes the guest cello soloist, Annie Jacobs-Perkins, as “outstanding,” and [...]
Picturesque and poetic: Savoyards master great Synge play
Reviewed by George Basler John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World is a play with a multitude of elements. Is it a folk comedy? Is it a farce? Is it a tragic comedy? The play is all of the above, and this complexity is one reason that, [...]
Savoyards put comedy center stage in new production of ‘Playboy of the Western World’
By Katherine Karlson In March 2020, the Summer Savoyards staged a fine production of John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World at the Bundy Museum in Binghamton. Only one weekend of the two-week run was completed before the COVID pandemic shut it down. The world has come [...]
‘Playboy’ actress does double duty as costumière
Audience members at this weekend's reprise of The Playboy of the Western World can enjoy more than Julia Adams' acting chops as she performs the role of Pegeen Mike. Her other significant talent -- as a costume designer -- also will be evident. Her ability to work in period [...]
Solid ‘Body Awareness’ cast gives voice to unspoken emotions
Reviewed by Katherine Karlson The language is spare, but the themes are anything but sparse in the KNOW Theatre’s newest production: Body Awareness by Annie Baker. Baker, who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick, focuses on human relations and how language fails us in expressing [...]
SRO’S ‘Tuck Everlasting’ is full of charm
Reviewed by George Basler The musical Tuck Everlasting touches on an age-old theme: Is immortality all one hopes it will be? Setting the theme aside, the show is a small, intimate one with charm and likeability as its main selling points. Based on a much-loved children’s novel, the musical [...]
KNOW Theatre’s ‘Body Awareness’ sure to stir emotions
By George Basler American playwright Annie Baker has already packed a lot into a relatively short career. The 40-year-old has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, was named a MacArthur fellow, and was called “a funny, emphatic genius” by New Yorker magazine. You can see why this coming weekend [...]
SRO III welcomes the spunky heroine of ‘Tuck Everlasting’ this weekend
By George Basler Scott Fisher became acquainted with the best-selling children’s novel Tuck Everlasting when, as an elementary school teacher, he read the book aloud to his pupils. He loved the story. The novel by Natalie Babbitt tells the story of Winnie Foster, 11, who encounters a fountain of [...]
Broome Arts Mirror expands coverage
For more than a decade, the volunteer staff of the Broome Arts Mirror, an online publication of the Broome County Arts Council, has reviewed local performances and productions. Our goal has been both to help presenting organizations attract audiences and to help Broome County audiences find enjoyment and entertainment. [...]
Well-made Tier-produced film set for debut
By George Basler Redouane Elghazi developed his passion for filmmaking as a teenager in his native Morocco, His father was a screenwriter, and his mother was a fan of Egyptian movies that they watched together. This passion was reinforced by watching American films of the 1980s and 1990s. “I [...]
High schools set dates for musicals
A great big "thank you!" as always to Rich Ives of the OA Music Boosters and Spare Productions for once again assembling a high school musical season poster.
TCO streaming free holiday concert
By George Basler As a holiday present to the community, Tri-Cities Opera is offering a free streaming concert for the month of December, company officials have announced. The hour-long special, billed as Gather Together: A Musical Potluck, will feature performances by TCO alumni, current resident artists and students in [...]
Lou Ligouri remembered with songs and thanks
By George Basler Friends of Lou Ligouri gathered last Saturday (Nov. 20) at the Endicott Performing Arts Center to remember the man they called “larger than life” and a welcoming presence in their lives. The evening, billed as a tribute concert, was filled with songs, reminiscences, accolades and laughs, [...]
Baroque ensemble memorably interprets Bolling’s hybrid works
Reviewed by Katherine Karlson The crossover of classical music and chamber jazz was never better developed than by the late French composer Claude Bolling. Last night (Nov. 12), a talented group of local musicians gave the audience at Endicott's Cider Mill Stage a sense of the drive, complexity and [...]
