Broome Arts Mirror
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.
Christopher Bill Quartet highlights lively horn sounds from the movies and more
By Katherine Karlson It was three years in the making, but, on April 2, the Binghamton Philharmonic will finally host one of the city’s most popular and acclaimed musical sons as he showcases his trombone talent. Christopher Bill, the most subscribed-to brass musician on YouTube, has given some school [...]
Skilled BLAST cast rises above tonal issues in ‘Over the Pub’
Reviewed by George Basler Over the Pub is a strange little play indeed. Billed as “a warm and hilarious look at family, growing up and God,” it has long moments that defy this description. Instead, the play veers into the darker territory of a troubled family in real crisis. [...]
Irish comedy opens St. Patrick’s Day at Cider Mill Stage
By Nancy Oliveri If the community enjoyed the Irish "appetizer" of Parade Day earlier this month in Binghamton, they’ll love the "entrée" opening on St. Patrick’s Day (tomorrow, March 17) in Endicott. BLAST (Bold Local Artists of the Southern Tier) will present Over the Pub by Buffalo playwright [...]
Cherish the Ladies to bring Irish joy to Binghamton this weekend
By George Basler Members of Cherish the Ladies have two goals in mind when they take the stage, according to their leader, Joanie Madden: Play traditional Irish music in a way that respects its history and give audience members a rousing good time. “We have a lot of laughs [...]
Congratulations to 2022 UCF grant recipients
Twenty-one local artists, arts organizations and community non-profits will share in the $261,059 awarded this month in 2022 United Cultural Funds (UCF). This is, said BCAC Executive Director Nancy Barno Reynolds in a press release, a “substantial increase from the number of awards granted in 2021.” Applicant statistics in [...]
STAR’s March offering is ‘Too True to Be Good’
By Nancy Oliveri George Bernard Shaw's Too True to be Good, which is receiving a reading this weekend by Southern Tier Actors Read (S.T.A.R.), was first published in 1932 but, according to director Chris Nickerson, has a lot of timely content nearly 90 years later, from airborne illness to [...]
Ti-Ahwaga Players make murder fun
Reviewed by George Basler Here’s a piece of advice: If you get invited to a dinner party at Boddy Manor, skip it. That’s the main message of the comedy/mystery Clue: On Stage, which opened this past weekend (March 4-6) at the Ti-Ahwaga Performing Arts Center in Owego and will [...]
BU dance program delights in dusk-to-dawn celebration of life
Reviewed by Katherine Karlson A dusty, deserted street in the Australian outback seems an unlikely venue for an exuberant celebration of youth and life, but Sunset Mirage is just that through a thoughtful dance mash-up by Binghamton University director David Wynen and assistant choreographer Neva Kenny. Their ensemble taps, [...]
Ti-Ahwaga Players’ ‘Clue’ to blend mirth and murder
By Katherine Karlson A dark and stormy night provides the ominous backdrop for six mysterious strangers who arrive at a spooky mansion where “a murder is announced.” Welcome to the controlled chaos of Clue, a zany one-act stage adaptation of the popular 1985 film that itself is based on [...]
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 [...]
