Recovery

I’ve spent as much of the past 5 days as possible studying the inside of my eyelids, trying to recover from a lingering illness. I’ve emerged relatively successfully, though I am fearful of the potential for addiction to Nyquil. Dang, that stuff makes you sleep hard.

I was able to drag myself out of bed to take part in the wonderful evening that was Richmond Shakespeare's "Celebrity Sonnets" as part of its Second Tuesdays readers theater series. I'll write more on that soon. Anyway, I’ve got much to catch up on so here are scads of links:

This week’s Style is a definite picker-upper because it’s the mid-season Arts issue. Theatre-related articles in this one include Mary Burruss’s piece on “Romeo and Juliet” and my piece on Sycamore Rouge and upcoming co-productions. I’d also strongly recommend my colleague Rich Griset’s well-researched explication of the recent Virginia Opera kerfuffle.

The T-D has reviewed "Legacy of Light," "Dog Sees God" and "Jitney." Of these three, I’ve only seen “Legacy” so far and will put my two cents out there about it soon.

Mr. Porter has posted his review of “Once on this Island.” Raves all around for this one so far.

Also, one of the newer critics on the local scene – and the newest official member of the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle – is Liz Jewett who has been penning articles for Richmond.com lately. In case you missed them, here are links to her preview of “The Color Purple” and her review of “This Beautiful City.” I’ll be trying to link to her more often as I find her stuff.

The hits continue as “Romeo and Juliet” and “Godspell” open this weekend. Phew! Hardly enough time to take a breath around here!

Oh also, I snuck into rehearsal for Theatre IV’s upcoming “The BFG (Big Friendly Giant)” last night and saw the set that’s under construction. It looks like it’s going to be pretty cool. Watch for that one opening just around the corner…

Oh, and of course, the theater world has been abuzz about the reviews of the Spiderman musical hitting the papers even though the show hasn’t officially opened yet. You probably won’t be too surprised to learn that most critics have hated it. Here’s a link to a nice summary of the reviews. I especially like the cited recommendation from New York magazine’s reviewer that the show never open and just continue to be retooled forever. Intriguing idea…

UPDATE: Here's another summary that includes a link to the producers' response to the critical drubbing the show is receiving...