Cirque du Soleil will set up their temporary home in the Sanger Theatre in a couple of weeks to present Songblazers, a new, innovative, country-themed show. This dynamic theatrical production pays tribute to the legendary and modern trailblazers of country music. Charting the journey of two main characters as they forge their own path to country recognition, Songblazers premiered in  July 2024 in Nashville and arrives in the Crescent City this September for two nights only.

Original songs are partly a collaboration with Sam Williams, a contemporary country artist, and grandson of country pioneer Hank Williams. Carnival Heart, for example, is a gut-wrenching number inspired by a personal yearning for self-discovery, friendship, and hope. 

​“The title idea came to me pretty easily after becoming acquainted with Cirque du Soleil,” says Williams. “Where I come from, most people don’t get to go to the circus. We go to county fairs and carnivals, and the carnival in a small town is filled with joy, excitement, mystery, euphoria, you name it. That feeling is one you always remember, and I think the roller coaster of emotions lines up with what you want to feel seeing such an incredibly beautiful production such as Cirque’s.”

Drawing inspiration from a rich legacy of country music, Songblazers pays homage to the legendary names of the past while embracing the talents of contemporary artists. There's also, of course, the breathtaking acrobatics, awe-inspiring aerial acts, and displays of strength and dexterity form the Cirque performers. 

Click here for more information and ticketing

​Sometimes it's hard to be a Roman: Julius Caesar @ The Lupin Theater
Review by Paul Oswell

I doubt that unseasonably violent storms or spontaneously combusting men were witnessed on the night that the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival chose to stage this particular play, but you could be forgiven for believing it to be a portentous decision. Just a week before opening night, the Supreme Court declared the possibility of king-like immunity for future Presidents, a development that is strikingly on the nose given the Trumpian themes of the opening act.

We meet Caesar (played by Silas Cooper) in his pomp, on the cusp of regal authority thanks to a rising tide of plebian devotion. Two close associates, Cassius (Erin Cessna) and Brutus (Wendy Miklovic), are beginning to see Caesar as weak due to his seizures and ailments, and they fear that ascension to the crown will spell the end of the Republic. High ranking members of a political organization looking to replace a physically flawed but well-liked figurehead? Seems like Joe Biden should also brush up on his classics.

Wild weather, fiery omens and his wife’s nightmares alert Caesar to possible tragedy, while a lethal conspiracy gains traction among the political class in the dead of night. Even though the morning brings the Ides of March, JC does very much not beware them. At first, he tells the Senate that he will not attend that day, refusing to give a reason, with the Nixonian rhetoric of, “The cause is in my will.” When the president does it, that means it is not illegal. 

His hubris eventually has him change his mind and attend court, and there he is gleefully celebrated with cake and fine wine. I’m just kidding. As we all know, he is instead brutally murdered, stabbed repeatedly by almost everyone he trusted. His one true ally, Mark Antony (James Bartelle), witnesses the bloody aftermath, superficially sanctioning the assassination but as the mob departs, he vows revenge. 

If the first act is a patchwork of personal machinations and skullduggery, the second plays out the consequences on a larger scale. Caesar’s son, Octavius (Zarah Hokule’a Spalding), arrives in Rome and forms a coalition with Antony and Lepidus (Enne Samuel). Armies are raised to fight the exiled Brutus and Cassius. They are ultimately successful, Brutus committing suicide still haunted by Caesar’s ghost. 

Director Salvatore Mannino skillfully creates an evocatively dark, tempestuous world that seems fraught and ominous. Hope Bennett’s impressively coherent costume design is reminiscent of the utilitarian garb of guerilla fighters, with hints of the latest Dune movies. The lighting and video projections (a moveable video wall conjures up changing scenes and moods) work deftly with the sound design, used most pleasingly to recreate booming arena speeches - excellent work by Alexander la Vallant Freer, James Lanius III and Steven Gilliland respectively. 

Cooper’s Caesar flits convincingly between potency and paranoia, while Miklovic and Cessna are powerfully engaging, mixing stirring rhetoric and aggressive ambition. Bartelle’s Mark Antony runs on high emotion throughout, the withering subtext of his ‘honorable men’ speech at Caesar's funeral one of the most memorable scenes. Seller’s Casca is everything a conniving, consigliere-type should be, while Hokule’a Spalding makes sure that Octavius’ arrival is explosively dramatic. 

It’s a large cast, but Monica R Harris, Ryan Hayes, Justice Hues, John Jabaley, Aria Jackson, Mary Langley, Matthew Raetz, Stephen Rose Pendleton, Enne Samuel, Joe Signorelli and Kristin Witt all render beautifully well-drawn characters. The staging is at close quarters, giving it a visceral immediacy. Disorienting torches flash across the audience and death scenes are starkly intimate.

As noted, it’s a spookily topical production, the lions that stalk the capitol almost too relevant an allegory for today’s real-life political landscape. Or perhaps violent swings of power are so historically common that Julius Caesar is simply an evergreen fable. Either way, lend your ears and eyes to this fantastically entertaining production - it's no less effective a filter through which to view today's politics than the nightly news. 

Julius Caesar plays at the Lupin Theatre through July 21st. For show information and tickets, click here. 
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The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans (TWTC) will present its much-anticipated staging of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama A Streetcar Named Desire this summer at the historic Marigny Opera House. The play will be the centerpiece for the company’s 2024 season, collectively themed “Desire”. An all-local team has been assembled to bring the iconic play to life.

The play, which elevated New Orleans’ profile as a literary destination and setting for future works of drama and fiction, follows Blanche DuBois over the course of a long summer in which she arrives in the Big Easy amid the hardest of circumstances. She seeks shelter in the home of her sister Stella, which is shared with Stella’s husband Stanley. Blanche and Stanley could not be more different—or so it seems—and the tiny two-room apartment becomes unbearably hostile to the genteel and fraught Blanche.

She seeks solace in a kind stranger named Mitch, whom she hopes will carry her off into a new chapter of her life, but other forces at play create pressure on all sides of the archetypal Southern heroine. Vice and desire press in on her from all sides, and audiences will be able to peer in on the most private moments in Blanche’s tribulations.

The production is helmed by director Augustin J Correro, TWTC Production Manager Maddie Taliancich & Production Stage Manager Ryan Darby. “We are excited to bring this fresh production of Streetcar to the stage,” says Correro, “In it, we’ll be bringing many of Blanche’s interior struggles into the setting around her, which we hope will be a visual feast for our audience, but we also want to carefully honor the material and the history it has in and about the city of New Orleans. This take on the show will have familiar notes but a number of surprises.”

WHO: The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans | www.twtheatrenola.com
WHERE: The Marigny Opera House. 725 St. Ferdinand St. New Orleans, LA 70117
WHEN:  July 18 - August 2024  (7/18 Preview Performance. 7/19 Opening Night)
TICKETS: $40 - $55 / twtheatrenola.com / 504-264-2580

Clue @ The Saenger Theatre
Review by Dorian Hatchett

Based on a boardgame from 1943, and then a hit movie from 1985, the plot of the chaotic scramble that is Clue: A New Comedy was no surprise to most of the audience tonight at the premiere of the New Orleans leg of the national tour.

There is very little truly new under the sun in the world of the theatre. We attend the theatre to be transported, for a few minutes, to somewhere outside of ourselves. To exist in a place where the story and the movement are magic, even if we already know them by heart. In that goal, I am absolutely delighted to report that this show is a complete success.  

The ensemble cast with their code names were all consummate character actors. In this production, there is no such thing as over the top, and from accented affectation to acrobat-level physical comedy, the the bodies on stage (both alive and deceased) roused the audience to spontaneous laughter and applause in a seemingly endless series of crescendos. From the very first moment of dialogue between Wadsworth and Yvette, the tone is set with a cartoonish approach to comedy and a flawless delivery of witty banter with perfect timing.  

The set was a real star in this show. A series of shifting walls and doors turned the relatively small stage of the Saenger Theater into an entire victorian mansion with a seamless suspension of disbelief.  The raging thunderstorm beyond the windows of the foyer was a constant companion to the drama within.  

The actors know this set, and interact with it with a comfort and familiarity that rarely shines in traveling productions, and I found myself impressed again and again with the movement of the action as it flowed through walls and around corners with grace and sophistication. All the while, I was laughing at the Benny Hill-esque chase scenes and madcap buffoonery that really highlighted the expertise of the actors and their mastery of the material.

Sometimes the simplest of physical gags can be the hardest to pull off, but this ensemble made it look easy and fun. Instead of attempting to redo the performances of previous actors in these roles, each actor made their character completely their own, in a new approach to a classic story.  

Be delighted, be impressed, be amused, and be part of the audience of a show that is at its root, just fun for fun’s sake.  

Clue: A New Comedy at the Saenger Theater July 18-23 
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​First night review: The Importance of Being Earnest @ Le Petit Theatre 
review by Aura Bishop

The Importance of Being Earnest is many young English Literature students’ introduction to the work of Oscar Wilde. As a theater student at Grace King High School in 1997, it was also my introduction to Le Petit Théâtre. Prior to this, all of the plays I’d seen were in other schools, colleges, or the occasional church. It was exciting - I was finally going to see a play from a local theater company, in the French Quarter, in a cool, old (possibly haunted?!) theater. 

It's hard to believe that was almost exactly 27 years ago. Everything old is new again.

Earnest is probably one of Wilde’s most accessible works - a farce of mistaken identities about the expectations of 'proper society' and how we are all different people in different social situations. Its sharp, witty lines are still quoted to this day. The humor is equally of its time and ahead of its time, with some surprises and plot twists, which is why this play is still fun to read and watch even though it was written almost 130 years ago. 

I wasn't sure what I would remember or what I would forget from the plot of the show. Thankfully, I remembered just enough to anticipate some favorite bits and I forgot just enough to enjoy it as if it were fresh. In many ways, this production brought me back to my first visit to this theater and everything that thrilled me about it. The lush period costumes (designed by Kaci Thomassie) and the elaborate set (scenic designer Joan Long) were a great escape to another place and time - both my own youth and to Oscar Wilde’s 19th Century England.

Rohan Padmakumar has perfected the sly smile and confident mischief of rakish playboy and musician Algernon Moncrieff. Noah Hazzard is delightful as hopeless romantic and slightly more responsible friend Jack. Yvette Bourgeois is hilarious as the book-tossing, manic pixie dream ward Cecily. Bethany Lee is the picture of the perfect ingenue/mistaken love rival Gwendolyn. 

Tracey E. Collins is the endlessly quotable society aunt Lady Bracknell, who knows how to slice everyone, much like the cucumber sandwiches she always seems to be in search of: “Hesitation of any kind is a sign of mental decay in the young, of physical weakness in the old.” This may be one of the best performances of the role I've seen. 

David W. Hoover raises eyebrows and maybe some hair as the overly jolly Rev. Canon Chasuble. Queen Shereen Macklin has her performance of absent-minded intellectual governess Miss Prism in the bag, and Kyle Daigrepont is punchy and hits his punchlines in the dual roles of Lane and Merriman. 

All of this is adeptly directed by A.J. Allegra. It's his first time directing a show at LPT since he took on the role of Artistic Director of the theater company last year, delivering a show that's well-paced, with note-perfect comic timing. 

The Importance of Being Earnest is at Le Petit Théâtre through June 23rd. Click here for show and ticketing information. 

Home's Kitchen at NOCCA
review by Paul Oswell

There are two kitchen-and-food-based plays running in New Orleans with a focus on the LGBTQ+ community right now. The Cake is a colorful comedic romp, while new play Home’s Kitchen (written and directed by Maeve Chapman - read our interview here), although it has amusing moments, skews more dramatically. 

Mari (played by Sam Drust) lives alone in her New York apartment, listless and unmoored in life. She writes obituaries for a living, obsessively watches a cooking show (the titular Home’s Kitchen) and hangs out with her queer best friend, Liam (Matthew Raetz). As Mari loses her job and spirals into depression, Liam announces that he wants to study in California, unsettling their dynamic. 

Meanwhile, we’re privy to behind-the-scenes drama in the TV show kitchen. Chef and star Richard (Stephen Ladow) is losing his producer Paul (Michael Vaughn-Kennedy), who is suddenly being particularly flirty and wants Richard to present an episode raising money for LGBTQ+ causes. Richard is newly divorced from his wife, estranged from his family, and seems to be still working out his sexuality. 

The two plots take place at either end of a runway-style stage, often at the same time, with Mari being able to mute the TV, Richard occasionally miming his way through until she turns it up again. This is one of the more daring aspects of the production, another being a kind of ‘split screen’ effect as conversations from each end of the stage intertwine. 

There’s also the high-wire artistic decision to have the characters eat spaghetti live on stage, a sometimes messy choice delivering a relatable serving of quotidian reality. The actors must be relieved they’re not breaking into a plate of lobsters, at least. 

Consumed with ennui, Mari delves into her past passion of cooking (she’s a graduate of the CIA - that’s the Culinary Institute of America) to reboot her career opportunities, while Richard wrestles his personal and professional lives with increasing anxiety. Slowly, the leads' worlds slowly edge towards each other in an unexpected way. 

There’s good use of visual effects to project text messages and Twitter updates, as well as voiceovers as characters take phone calls. Drust and Ladow carry the main storyline empathetically, while Raetz and Vaughn-Kennedy provide expressive, compelling support. 

The cast deftly navigate a logistically-challenging play, and Chapman’s direction employs clever blocking to imbue the two static scenes with some dynamism. Liam Corley’s lighting and multimedia effects, as well as Chris Rodriguez’s set design make the most of a visual economy, with impressively believable staging. 

Set against the backdrop of the legalization of gay marriage in the United States in 2015, and dealing with the legacy of the AIDS crisis, there’s a feelgood ending with a dash of bittersweet sentiment. Our lives’ menus are subject to shifting tastes, and with often unexpected changes, and in Home's Kitchen, it’s all about what you do with the new ingredients.  

Home's Kitchen runs at NOCCA through Sunday 9th June. Click here for show information and ticketing

​The Cake @ Marquette Theatre at Loyola University
Review by Paul Oswell

The Great British Bake Off, in which amateur bakers make increasingly elaborate confections in a massive tent, has become a cultural juggernaut over its fourteen (count ‘em!) seasons. Despite the main action sequences consisting of people glaring at rising dough through an oven window before being lambasted by someone called Paul Hollywood (the culinary equivalent of Alex Jones), it’s an undeniable sensation. 

The show somewhat informs this gateau-centric play, written by Bekah Brunstette. The Cake is also inspired by events from the infamous court case in which a baker refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. The set up sounds incendiary, but it’s a relatively fluffy 90 minutes, without any dry legal wranglings; more a comedic vanilla sponge than a challenging ethical soufflé.

We open on Della Brady (played by Lara Grice), a bakery owner in everytown North Carolina. She loves cakes but hates self-expression. When she talks about the necessity of mindlessly following instructions, it’s not a tough philosophical jump to infer that as a brainwashed fundamentalist Christian, this is her ethos about all aspects of life, not just baking. Stick to the rules, don’t be different, especially regarding sexuality. 

Conflict arrives in the shape of Jen (Joy Donze), and Macy (Lorene Chesley), two women in town to make wedding arrangements and seek out Della’s confectionary skills. Jen is the daughter of Della’s recently-deceased friend, and though she’s initially flattered, Della all but spills her emotional sprinkles once she discovers that the women are in fact getting married to each other. 

Jen and Macy live in New York City, and are therefore Not To Be Trusted. Jen is an all-American local girl, though, and can therefore code switch (Macy challenges her accent changing at one point) to move among the locals without causing wrinkles. Macy is a progressive black woman with strong opinions, rubbing up against Della’s sensibilities despite her protestations of “not seeing color”. 

Much frantic deliberation follows, as Macy and Jen contend with new pressures on their relationship, and Della parses things out with her dim husband Tim (Mike Harkins), a sentient Bass Pro fishing hat. Della also descends into quasi-madness, and has multiple paranoia-fuelled hallucinations, imagining herself to be a contestant on The Bake Off. Larry Herron’s disembodied TV presenter initially welcomes her, then goads her about her bigotry, her attitudes about the human condition put under the spotlight. 

The performances across the board are punchy and entertaining, especially Lara Grice as Della, who has to carry much of the comedic heft by herself. Even with just the audience as foils, her monologues are deft and consistently funny, and her busying herself with cake decoration as she nails the comedic timing is genuinely impressive. 

The other characters - while all very well portrayed by a committed cast - receive slightly less attention to detail, and sometimes seem like the half-constructed cakes that adorn Della’s bakery. Their one-note characterizations are tasty enough but feel store-bought rather than home cooked. 

The script, for example, serves up Macy as the kind of gluten-free, New York progressive yelling about oat milk and the patriarchy that only really exists in the media. I feel like tipping a few extra ounces of nuance into the mixing bowl would have rounded out the characters beyond sitcom level. 

All that said, there’s still a lot to love about sitcoms, and you’ll honestly find plenty of laughs to tuck into here - the rowdy opening night audience were definitely entertained. The colorful set design, evocative lighting and costumes work really well (kudos to Riley Trahant, Liam Gardner and Jahise LeBoeuf respectively) and Elizabeth Newcomer’s direction doesn’t falter. 

It’s an even-handed, feelgood production, with the stubborn idealists and the religious zealots all learning something in the end. If you want to kick off Pride month with a lighthearted romp, then this is a solid choice, the performances being the cherries atop a familiar, easily-digestible story. A signature bake, if you will.
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The Cake plays at Marquette Theater at Loyola University through June 16th, click here for ticket info 
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Revisers on the storm: The Tempest Reimagined
Review by David S. Lewis

As hurricane season approaches the Gulf Coast, late May is the perfect time to enjoy William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the eponymous storm of which forms the catalyst for this English take on Italian commedia-dell'arte. Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan—now marooned on an enchanted island with his teenage daughter and a bevy of supernatural entities—marshals all his magical tricks (and some Machiavellian manipulation) to reverse the coup engineered by his rival and brother a dozen years prior. 

Written around 1610, The Tempest may be seen as Shakespeare’s commentary on his own career in theater, as well as a lens by which to examine the expansionist tendencies of the burgeoning British Empire; as outlooks on colonialism have evolved, characters such as the monstrous Caliban and the more powerful, subversive spirit Ariel have been used to explore conversations of power and the obligations of those who would govern. The play has also been used to examine paternalistic relationships and the political ramifications of chastity cults.

James Bartelle’s light rewriting recasts characters in ways that contrast with the heyday of the Globe Theater, where women’s roles would have been performed by men. Characters here are portrayed gender-blind. The program notes imply that colonial mindsets have also been “reimagined” to reflect modern viewers’ sensibilities, challenging instances of misogyny, colonialism, and racism in the staging.

Caliban, rendered as a race-ambiguous monster, an indirect stand-in for 'supernatural' inhabitants of resource-rich colonial targets, is still given a comedic reading, if rather a sad one. He eagerly accepts the libations proffered by the shipwrecked buffoons Stephano and Trinculo, and entices them into a conspiracy against Prospero, who easily thwarts his primitive machinations. Nevermind that Prospero seized his native island and enslaved him, or that the sorcerer coerces Ariel, another powerful island spirit, to do his bidding by dangling the promise of freedom: so long as they or their resources are valuable to his quest for power, in his sway they shall remain.

Bartell makes wonderful use of a limited stage and minimal production, and wisely leans on the talents of his cast, many of whom are, like him, core members of the NOLA Project ensemble, all with impressive theatrical backgrounds and stacks of regional and national awards.

The musical numbers, composed and shaped by Sweet Crude’s Alexis Marceaux and Stephen MacDonald, are delivered beautifully by the entire cast, particularly Leslie Claverie’s enchanted chanteuse, the spirit Ariel. Monica R. Harris’ Prospero churns wrathfully around the stage, their wizarding staff wielded wonderfully as weapon in active fight scenes, with punchy choreography.

Prospero has always been a coveted role, with as many interpretations as actors have approached him. Harris imbues the sorcerer prince with just a touch of menace, juxtaposed judiciously against Prospero’s many handsome and contemplative lines.

Alexandria Miles brings humor, warmth, and humanity to Miranda, whose wide-eyed love affair with Zarah Hokule'a Spalding’s Ferdinand (the first person she has ever met that’s neither her father or an island spirit) is endearing, as is the chemistry she shares with the prince. Even the lightly-swarming nighttime insects cavorting preternaturally in the glow of the stage lights offered a naturally-enhanced production effect.

This is bring-your-own-chair Shakespeare in the finest traditions of community theatre. As such, The Tempest Reimagined hits all the right notes. Bartelle has perhaps discovered a sweet, rather dreamy spot with his interpretation, but the actors’ spirits don’t merely “melt into air, thin air”: theirs is the stuff that offers substance to this pageant. 

The NOLA Project's 'The Tempest Reimagined' runs at Lafitte Greenway through May 25th. Click here for show information, times and tickets. 

Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses is to host the upcoming presentation of 'Two Elizas' by Jenny Mercein, running from May 16th through May 19th. Hailed by critics as a "one-woman tour-de-force", this acclaimed solo show delves into the true story of Jenny's ancestor, Eliza Mercein Barry, and her groundbreaking 1847 U.S. Supreme Court case, Barry v. Mercein, which secured a woman's right to retain custody of her child. This 80-minute production, co-directed by Lori Elizabeth Parquet and Ryder Thornton, candidly addresses themes of mental illness and miscarriage, adding depth and emotional resonance to the performance. Click here for more information and tickets