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★★★★☆ - Delicious Whoa! What the f… There’s so much salty language, and so much blood, you’d swear you were watching a Tarantino film. Oh, wait. What? It is a Quentin Tarantino script—turned on its ear with an all-female cast—as Erika Soerensen’s Reservoir Dolls flips the film script of Reservoir Dogs into a stage play for women. Every Mr. a Ms. In this age of equality, of Charlize Theron putting serious hurt on entire bands of bad guys, why not? It’s an opportunity for women to prove they’ve got balls of steel. And these chicks are as bad-ass as they come. Surprisingly enough, it doesn’t come off as odd in the least. This ensemble piece is brash and brutal, and damn well done. Director Troy Heard put his cast through the paces with proper braggadocio. There’s just the right tinge of estrogen-turned-testosterone that it all works. The tone is parody and the cast is having a blast with it, treating it all real enough to make it believable. In the infamous diner scene discussion of Madonna, the cast doesn’t let the dialogue get in the way as they discuss the meaning behind “Like a Virgin.” That makes the scene just as fun as it was when the words came out of the mouths of men. As Jo Cabot, Gail Romero rules the gang of seven with an iron fist. There’s no bullshit, no pandering to niceties as she gets right down to business. Romero carries herself with chutzpah and never drops character for a second as she bullies her girls into submission. Yet her speech pattern attacks the lines a bit too hard, with emphasis on so many words that, at times, the intent gets lost. Deven Ceriotti packs enough punch as Nice Girl Edie, Jo’s daughter. She’s the perfect Second in Charge. She can laugh and make nice one minute and punch someone’s lights out the next. Ceriotti blusters and swaggers and there’s no doubt she can back it all up with follow-through. Pink provides the comic relief of the show and Jillian Austin is up to the task. When Austin hides behind a cop cuffed to a chair and says, “Now, ladies.” she maintains the right amount of fear in her voice and still gets the laugh. Austin maintains a haughty insouciance with great flair. Valerie Carpenter Bernstein brings real depth to White as she tries to protect one of the other women. There’s never a hint of backing down from threats and the genuine concern for her fallen comrade remains evident. Bernstein brings a level of class to the character that one might say was missing in the film portrayal. In one particularly gruesome scene, Lissa Townsend Rodgers is over-the-top frightening as Blonde. The malice boils to the surface and Rodgers grim, sinister smile is enough to make the testicles shrivel on any man who’s the target of her torture. But, the seductive dance meant to titillate her captive comes off as awkward because she doesn’t relax into it enough. Abby Dandy as Orange fares well until the final scene. Whether an actor choice or a directorial one, she’s got way too much eager energy for a woman dying from a gunshot wound to the belly. She’s lost so much blood, she’d have lost consciousness. The heaving gasps for breath come across more like a victim of a serious panic attack. Andrew Young is the poor captive cop, beaten within an inch of his life. His howls of pain and pleas for mercy as he’s tortured to give up the name of the spy among the gang are heart-wrenching. He begs to be spared for the sake of his wife and child with tension evident in every muscle. The fight choreography, at least from my angle of observation, needs some work. Punches which don’t come close to landing, early reaction to hair grabbing, or kicks that don’t land take away from the realism. The technical aspects show attention to detail from an appropriately grungy set designed by Roxy Mojica to Ceriotti’s special effects. Overall, it’s a helluva fast-moving production. One doesn’t have to be a Tarantino fan to enjoy this. Yes, it’s violent, but it’s bloody, bloody fun. What: Reservoir Dolls When: 8 p.m. Thursday - Saturday and through November 30 5 p.m. Sundays January 24, 31 Where: Onyx Theatre, 953-16B E Sahara Avenue Tickets: $20 (702-732-7225; www.onyxtheatre.com) Grade: **** (Delicious) Producer: Off-Strip Productions; Director: Troy Heard; Scenic Designer: Roxy Mojica; Lighting Designer: Taylor Ryberg; Costume Designer: Sam Murphy; Sound Designer: Joel Ruud; Special Effects Designer: Deven Ciriotti; Stage Manager: Coral Benedetti #Atreides #onyxtheatre #Review

★★★✩✩ Satisfying Will Eno’s existential-leaning play Middletown, which won the Horton Foote Promising New Play of 2010, breaks some barriers. It’s kind of an Our Town for a new generation. It’s absurdist, it’s funny, and it’s thoughtful exposition on what happens between birth and death. It’s Anywhere, USA, and the town’s inhabitants are just like you and me except they express things many of us think about yet don’t or can’t verbalize. The issues of contradictions of life and living is the real mystery to solve here. They find oddity in words. “Rock,” says one inhabitant to a town cop. “Good word. Solid.” Director Ela Rose successfully leads a quite talented cast for Las Vegas Little Theatre through the opening and first act. As lit by Ginny Adams, at first blush Ron Lindblom’s set appears to be cut out of a comic book or graphic novel. The play is actually a series of vignettes and Linblom’s set adapts well to each setting. Enter Kyle Jones as a Public Speaker who goes through a litany of folks he’s purportedly addressing as he moves into the audience, picking out various people. It’s a long, tough bit and Jones hits the right notes, setting the tone of the play. He takes on multiple roles throughout the show and finds distinct enough differences to keep them fresh and funny. As the Public Speaker, he’s at ease and pointedly direct; as the Freelance Writer, he nervously obsesses. It’s really an ensemble piece with half the cast taking on multiple roles as the denizens display the quirky characteristics we all have but typically hide. Cathy Ostertag, Jessica Deihl, Mike Kimball, and Kim Glover round out the inhabitants, and morph from doctor or nurse to tour guide or janitor. Each one is well-defined. In singular roles, Stacia Zinkevich (Mrs. Swanson) and Tom Chrastka (John Dodge) bring us a couple of lost souls; she a newly arrived housewife whose husband is often gone, he a befuddled handyman between jobs and relationships. They’re drawn together and Chrastka and Zinkevich both find the awkwardness of inappropriate attraction. Their delivery of lines is at times perfectly halting and stilted, yet the timing necessary to keep the pace and inject the humor remains. The giddiness and lightness of being shine through in the Librarian. Teresa Fullerton is having fun with the role. She keeps her head high, her movements short and quick, and the attitude that life is all sunshine and lollipops, or soon will be, is forever evident in her delivery. She uses sly movements and slight expressions to hint at the absurdity of the situations. Jake Taylor plays the Mechanic, the town ne’er-do-well, typically drunk or high, or looking for his next hit to ease his mind, to fill some unknown void. Taylor interacts with the audience, easily breaking the fourth wall, and keeps his focus on the demons within. There’s a natural ease to the way he moves on a stage that engages the audience. The steroetyped good-cop/bad cop is rolled into one as Michael DelaRosa, Jr. delights in allowing both to come out at various times under different situations. He’s gruff, he’s kind, he watches over his charges with intent, and DelaRosa brings a perfect note of underlying malice and righteousness, even when he’s being nice. He wields his baton and other accoutrements of authority with august pride. There’s a jarring separation at the end of Act 1, as cast members play fake audience members during a staged intermission and comment on the play we’ve been watching. And when Act 2 begins, it seems to have jarred the pacing and intent of the play. The cast inserts a dour thoughtfulness, a realist sensibility, into the situations encountered as life plays out its constant contradictions. Pacing became sluggish, the line delivery of absurdist comedy squelched into thoughtful reality. Director Ken Rus Schmoll opined, as he created the unusual atmosphere for the play’s initial 2010 Off-Broadway run, the script is wily; it’s easy to get lost in the drama of the second act, and care must be taken to maintain the humor and pace. Still, Rose’s is an interesting production. It evokes the question ‘Will it all turn out okay?’ Between birth and death, there’s this crazy truth in the appearance of confusion we all face in the search for meaning in life. And, as one character glibly states in a throw-away but funny line: “It’s been going on for years.” When: 8 p.m. Thursday - Sunday through January 31 2 p.m. Saturday, January 23 Where: Las vegas Little Theatre, 3920 Schiff drive Tickets: $21 - $24 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org) Grade: *** (Satisfying) Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Director: Ela Rose; Assistant Director: Aaron Oetting; Set Design: Ron Lindblom; Lighting Design: Ginny Adams; Sound Design: Sandy Stein; Costume Design: Kim Glover; Stage Manager: Karen Gibson; Deck Manager: Kendra Harris #LVLT #Atreides #Theatre #FirstFriday #Review #csn

★★★★★ Irresistible We are many different people. We are not the same person in the workplace dealing with colleagues as we are in our relationships at home with family. Who we are, and how we behave or react, varies according to the situation or individual and, to a certain degree, where we are in our own lives and according to our own moods. This is what Nick Payne’s play, Constellations, now in performances at Cockroach Theatre, explores. It immediately brought to mind Yasmina Reza’s Life X 3; only on steroids. Payne’s script doesn’t wait for a second or third act to show us, he provides a short scene - sometimes only a few lines - and backs up to change things up. Director Levi Fackrell gives the script the full range it deserves. On a bare stage, designed by Scott Fadale, Fackrell leads his actors through time and space so elegantly we were immediately taken in. Marianne (Maythinee Washington) is an Astro-physicist and Roland (Erik Amblad) is a Bee Keeper; dissimilar in education and life experience as any two people could be. They meet at a BBQ party. They’re awkward in their attraction to one another. Wait. They meet at a party, they aren’t awkward, but Roland is married. Wait. What if it’s only a girlfriend? Stop. Back up. What if he’s single and fancy free but Marianne is engaged? Washington and Amblad are a perfect pairing. The two of them evoke laughter, sadness, tears, anger, and contemplative thoughtfulness, and sometimes all of them at once. The chemistry is plainly there, but they allow the interest to develop naturally. They both have an uncanny ability to provide us with the forward movement even as the dialogue backs up, sometimes after a single word. In one scene, they use American Sign Language - something few people know - and, with facial expressions and bodies in motion, manage to make us understand what they’re saying. Reactions change everything. The smallest, most minute details of a situation can have an effect on the outcome of life; a smirk or a smile, a lifted brow or a scowl. Marianne has a malignant glioblastoma in the frontal lobe. Roland is scared and angry. Wait. Back up. What if it’s a benign tumor? Amblad has one of the most expressive faces I’ve ever witnessed on a local stage. He manages to put this talent through quick changes, yet telegraphs believable emotion. We don’t doubt for a second. Washington matches him millisecond by millisecond. Real tears run down her face, then thirty seconds later the sparkle of honest joy is in her eyes. By all appearances here, she’s a force to be reckoned with. The only costume change comes with Roland’s donning a sport coat. But, because of the skill of these two actors, it makes no difference; we easily follow them from the BBQ to a bar, a dance class, an apartment, and into Marianne’s workplace. Elizabeth Kline’s simple lighting design matches the monochrome platformed stage. Total kudos go to whomever was on the light board, hitting those cues with spot-on timing. The opening and closing scenes utilized sound designed by Amanada Peterson to great effect; the opening placed us in time and space, the closing to inform the wrap-up. Though it’s mostly a comedy, Fackrell has so delicately balanced the flavors of this rapid-fire play that during somber scenelets one could hear a pin drop, and the next we’re laughing. For a production to evoke such a roller-coaster ride of emotion on a completely bare stage, with no props (to speak of), no set pieces, and no true costume changes is pure, unadulterated, theatre at its core level. In the restaurant business, it’s said food must taste good, and in better establishments it’s all in the presentation. This production combines the two. This is fine dining at its best. What: Constellations When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, through January 31 Where: Art Square Theatre, 1025 S First St, #110 Tickets: $16 - $20 (www.cockroachtheatre.com, 702- 818-3422) Grade: Irresistible (Ravenous!) Producer: Cockroach Theatre; Managing Artistic Director: Levi Fackrell; Director: Levi Fackrell; Scenic Design: Scott Fadale; Lighting Design: Elizabeth Kline; Sound Design: Amanda Peterson; Costume Design: Rose Scarborough; Production Assistant: Alexi Harber; Stage Manager: Mack Geldmacher; Sign Language Consultant: Taylor Hall #Downtown #Cockroach #Review #ArtSquare #Atreides

One of the most adored love stories of all time takes center stage Valentine's Day weekend with Cinderella. Featuring a sweeping, melodious score by Sergei Prokofiev, Cinderella's rags-to-riches fairy tale will enchant lovers' hearts and enthrall even the youngest of fans. Graceful choreography, lush costumes and sly humor will intertwine evil stepsisters, charming Princes and fairy godmothers. Live happily ever after with everyone's favorite Valentine, Cinderella. Nevada Ballet Theatre The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, Reynolds Hall Saturday, February 13, 2016 7:30pm Sunday, February 14, 2016 2:00pm Presenting Sponsor: Nancy & Kell Houssels Supporting Sponsor: Audra & Bobby Baldwin #SmithCenter #NBT

The Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater Celebrates African American History Month “SHARED TREASURES” A Retrospective of African American Dance. LVCDT will present a very special performance for the Las Vegas community. Returning to the stage after a successful 2015 Season, Founder Bernard H Gaddis, and The Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater presents “Shared Treasures” A Retrospective of the History of African American Dance in America,” a spectacular multi-media dance concert showcasing the African-American contributions to American Concert dance. West Las Vegas Library Theater 951 West Lake Mead Blvd. Las Vegas, NV 89106 702.507.3989 Friday, February 5, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, February 6, 2:30 p.m. http://lvdance.org/performances/home-season/shared-treasures/ #LVCD #Listing #summerlin

Dinner and a show are a great combination, but where do you like to drink and eat when you go to local theatre? Please answer our brief survey so that we may post recommendations on EatMoreArtVegas.com. Thank you! http://goo.gl/forms/vphBQUh5Dp

Image via The Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theatre: Marie Joe image: Marie Joe Tabet of The Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater Photo Credit: Jason Skinner This site was founded to share about the wonderful work that local performing arts companies have to offer, and now we're pleased to expand our coverage to Las Vegas Dance companies! Lisa Bennett is one of our trusted reviewers, and has served the Las Vegas Review Journal in the past as a dance critic. Be on the look out for her reivews, and dance events on our new Dance Menu. Coverage will be appearing soon! Let's all get moving and EAT MORE ART by taking a bite of VEGAS DANCE! #Announcement #Review

Right before Las Vegas Little Theatre’s splendid presentation of “Tribes” begins, the dissonant sounds of an orchestra tuning up clues us in to the idea that author Nina Raine uses music as a metaphor for both discord and harmony in her play about belonging. The lights go up and musical instruments segue into the banter of an English family at the dinner table. Each member has his own unique timbre and together they create a cacophonous symphony. Everyone talks yet no one hears a word. Everyone that is except Billy (Ace Gilliam), the youngest adult sibling of the clan that includes brother Daniel (Josh Sigal), sister Ruth (Sarah Spraker), Mum Beth (Charlene Moskal), and Dad Christopher (Glenn Heath). We hardly notice Billy as he silently reads a book while his family bickers loudly around him in a game of verbal one-upmanship. He seems isolated and curiously not part of the conversation. Soon it’s apparent he’s deaf and can’t hear a thing. He may not want to listen to them anyway. Academics with an interest in language, they’re a self- absorbed bunch in love with their own voices. Both Daniel and Ruth have returned to the roost, and Billy has come back from university with a taste for spreading his wings. When he meets a young woman named Sylvia (Jasmine Kojouri) who’s slowly going deaf from a genetic disorder, he falls hard and brings her home to meet the folks. Sylvia teaches American Sign Language to Billy, who was brought up by his parents to speak vocally as if ignoring his deafness might make it disappear. With a new means of expression Billy awakens to his identity and finds a sense of community with others like him. He asserts his independence and his fragile family comes unglued. “These nuts are all rotten,” Daniel wryly says. Careful listening is required as these folks talk over and under each other and gleefully fling zingers about. Directors T.J. Larsen and Jacob Moore’s remarkable ensemble cast are near-perfect in creating what feels like a loving, middle-class English family, warts and all. They capture the proper cadences of dialect and dry British wit, making it easy to convey Raine’s substantial subtext. And they keep an energetic pace without feeling rushed, finding the silence and stillness when it counts. Gilliam’s Billy is the calm amidst the storm and the anchor for the family. He’s angelic and pure,quiet and attuned. He never plays the victim, and we can see subtle nuance when he intuitively “fills in the spaces” of conversations he can’t see. When he confronts his family about not learning ASL, he does so forcefully yet without losing grace as he signs the words he’s internalized through years of suppression. When Billy finds his new “tribe,” brother Daniel becomes despondent. He has a dark cloud hanging over, and hears the critical voices of his family in his head. Sigal fleshes Daniel out so fully that the story equally becomes his. Every word spoken and gesture made is filtered through the lens of mental illness as we watch him spiral helplessly downward, in the throes of a nervous breakdown. He admirably takes Daniel to the edge with just enough restraint to keep him from going over. Dad Christopher is depressed when Billy chooses to “conform” by learning sign language. He’s a stuffy book critic who has no qualms about saying exactly what he thinks. Under the guise of sarcasm Christopher is cruel, but Heath in the role doesn’t allow nastiness to define the character. He masterfully delivers on the sharp, funny lines, yet allows a tiny bit of vulnerability here and there to peek through. There is a balance and natural sweetness to both Moskal as Beth and Spraker as Ruth. Spraker especially is expert at deadpan, and Moskal plays the ditzy, dutiful wife to a tee in her symbolic kimono. Kojouri has a soft, gentle quality as Sylvia, and reminds of a hula dancer when she gracefully signs. As she descends into deafness, her pain is palpable. “I can’t hear music anymore,” she says. Technical aspects make magic in the small space. Chris Davies’ simple set is configured with the audience on two sides, as if we are in their dining room eavesdropping on them. The lighting design of Kendra Harris and the supertitled video design of Moore work in tandem to give the cool effect of a silent movie during scenes between Billy and Sylvia, as they quietly sign their dialogue against the backdrop of a white wall. Kim Glover’s costumes are richly textured in a cold-weathered, Britishstyle, with harmonious colors that signify relationships. And the lovely sound design of Arles Estes sets the mood with mournful and melodious classical music. Raine’s multilayered script isn’t perfect, but LVLT gives it an absorbing, top-rate presentation. We feel like a part of the tribe. #Review

I posted an image recently of a T-Shirt I designed to advocate for the Arts. Several people asked where they could buy one, and I had to tell them that it was just an idea. Well, like a good theatre director, I have put the thought into action, and have opened an EAT MORE ART STORE on CafePress.com. There you will find apparel and small gifts that share what we belive: That you are what you eat, so you should EAT MORE ART! If you do purchase anything form the sight, any proceeds will be go to the cost of hosting and spreading the word about show info to the public. Enjoy, and thank you! #Theatre #Dance #Announcement

The company, Poor Richard’s Players, is back on the boards after a lengthy hiatus with a remounting of their 2015 Fringe Festival winner Never Tie Your Shoelaces in Paris (30 Plays in 60 Minutes). The production is a potpourri of 30 newly-written, original, lightning-fast plays, directed by the troupe, and presented in 60 minutes (or less, as was the case last night). The format for the evening must be licensed because it is a registered trademark of Greg Allen, whose Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes) performs at The Neo-Futurarium in Chicago and at the Kraine Theater in Manhattan 50 weeks a year. Anthony Barnaby, Karalyn Clark, Brenna Folger, Maxim Lardent, Benjamin Loewy, and Mark Valentin, mingled with the audience as they came in, creating a festive, loose atmosphere in the Baobab Stage in Town Square. As with Dick Johnson: Private Eye (a series of award winning original plays), this production was done on a bare stage, using various props piled onto tables. For this performance, though, the only lights used were overhead fluorescent works. The audience chooses the order of the plays, which run from the ridiculous “What Are People From Jupiter Called?” and “My Heart Will Go On Kazoos” (oh, lordy, save me!) to the sublime “Mood Record” and “Lucky Numbers.” It’s a mixture of silly, thoughtful, funny, and sad. Some of the pieces fly by so fast, it’s difficult to grasp which actor, or actors, are up there, and the program doesn’t credit each playlet. So, if I mess up on who did what, I beg their forgiveness. In “Mood Record,” Barnaby beautifully bares the soul of a man who suffers from Bi-Polar Disorder as he reads a series of journal entries. It’s heartfelt, and the words at times catch in his throat while he weighs the number of good things/days against the bad. The sense of how easy it is to forget the good stuff, and how people misunderstand and react to the mood swings affects the life of those fighting the disorder, comes to the forefront - not because he says so, but because it’s apparent in his body language. Ben Loewy does a really nice job with “I’m Not Great at Everything,” a piece which chronicles the life of a man for whom most things appear to come too easy - until they don’t. Yet, others still retain the perception as he struggles to put extra effort into succeeding. In a feat most actors would love to be able to achieve with every step behind the footlights, Loewy’s honesty shines through. “The World According to Roger” is filled with a legacy of life advice from a father to a daughter, and Karalyn Clark, in relaxed repose, lists them out giving each one the weight it deserves. If the production had a longer run, I wouldn’t give it away, but Lardent and Clark brought the house down on “Qui Est Sur la Premier” - for those who got it, anyway. If you speak French (which I do not), it was easy pickings; if not, well the baseball bat should have been a clue to one of the most famous, if not infamous, comedy sketches of all time: “Who’s on First?” Using wild gestures and proper emphasis and tone, Lardent and Clark hit a home run. In an ensemble piece, “Lucky Numbers” was particularly hard-hitting. As Folger relates a night out after a show with fellow castmates, the remaining actors stand behind her and repeat the numbers 41, 66, 73, 47, & 59. The numbers represent the end result of a drunken driving accident and the ages of the recipients of donated organs. The mood of a dramatic script is enhanced by lighting, yet this cast didn’t need them to hit the right emotional buttons. There were other portions which were done well; some left me with a total question mark as to why they were used other than to fill time. Overall, it’s a decent night of entertainment, though I can’t say it was up to par for this usually talented group of people. What: Never Tie Your Shoelaces in Paris : *** (Satisfying) When: 8 p.m. January 8 & 9 Where: Baobab Stage - Town Square, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd S. Tickets: $15 (www.poorrichardsplayers.com/) Producer: Poor Richard’s Players; Directors: The Cast #PoorRichardsPlayers #BaobabStage #Review #Atreides