Tag Archives: Todd Bruno

Laughs, Drama, Death Jointly in Cemetery Pub At Pigs Do Fly

Cemetery Pub, a play in its second production by playwright-actor Tom Dugan at Pigs Do Fly Productions, is a mash-up of multiple genres as three relatives hash out troubled pasts and an uncertain future in a blue collar New Jersey bar.

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Small Town Seniors Entertain In Pigs Do Fly’s Helen On Wheels

Few an resist feisty, foul-mouthed septuagenarians such as Helen Wheeler because, well, we do not normally expect a woman in her 70’s to tackle someone into submission, or use a blowtorch to free an inmate from jail as is depicted in Helen on Wheels, a delightfully funny and moving, sweet, but not syrupy peek into small town eccentricity.

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Helen on Wheels at Pigs Do Fly

The Helen in Helen on Wheels is Helen Wheeler, a spirited, allegedly 70-something widow who speaks her mind and challenges anyone who crosses her as she continues to mourn her husband. But Helen on Wheels, from Pigs Do Fly Productions is more than an amusing story about a feisty widow. It also looks at the devastation of losing a loved one, of moving on with your life and keeping your independence.

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Death Looking Over Your Shoulder Is Gentle Comedy

How we deal specifically with the inevitability of death, whether we let it inhibit us or inspire us, is at the heart of Michael McKeever’s comic fantasy Charlie Cox Runs With Scissors now enjoying a wryly funny production from the West Boca Theatre Company.

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Family Struggles With Autism In New City Players’ Falling

Underneath, Falling is not just about a family dealing with the complex challenge of living with an autistic adult. New City Player’s profoundly moving production seems to be as much about the scores of well-practiced routines, accommodations and coping mechanisms that make any loving relationship possible long-term.

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The Past Is Present At Island City Stage’s From White Plains

From White Plains at Island City Stage is ostensibly about bullying and responsibility, but it’s really about something simpler and deeper: The past owns us.

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Responsibility Examined In McKeever’s New ‘The Camp’

The Camp, a world premiere drama from the West Boca Theatre Company does not advance the age-old discussion how “good” people can be passively complicit in horrors, but Michael McKeever’s insightful script and a solid cast under Michael Leeds’ direction expertly provide a three-dimensional illustration that forces the audience to query their own souls about their responsibility to oppose evil.

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Mamet’s Oleanna Remains An Unsettling, Provocative Night

A quarter-century on, the temptation is to r reinterpret Oleanna, David Mamet’s incendiary screed about toxic relations between men and women. But Evening Star Productions’ rendition in 2017’s not-so-brave new red state world underscores Mamet’s original politically incorrect indictment of political correctness spun insanely out of control.

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Uneven But Unsettling “Bug:” This Is How The World Ends — With A Bang And A Whimper

Evening Star and Infinite Abyss co-produce Tracy Letts’ surreal depiction of spiraling paranoia complete with copious amount of blood in an edition that slogs too slowly too long but ratchets up into an emotional and psychological fireball of horror.

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Parade Productions’ Undo Charts Divorce By Replaying Wedding In Reverse

Undo’s premise – a Jewish divorce ceremony that rewinds a couple’s wedding day — sounds so much like a sitcom episode that you keep expecting it to slide into shallow farce. But it doesn’t. The script is shot through with mordant gallows humor, but Parade Productions’ edition keeps excavating the marrow of marital and familial relationships.

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