Orpheum Theatre Archives - TheaterScene.net

Orpheum Theatre

The Big Gay Jamboree

October 31, 2024

Following her star turn as “Celine Dion” in "Titaníque" which she co-wrote, Marla Mindelle has a new role in "The Big Gay Jamboree," another parody musical which she co-wrote with Jonathan Parks-Ramage. As Stacey, with a degree in musical theater, on her wedding day to chauvinist millionaire Keith, she wakes up to find herself trapped in an Off Broadway musical comedy, circa 1945, in the provincial town of Bareback, Iowa. Rather scattershot with its many multitudinous references to both pop culture and musical theater, the show is both raunchy and erotic in the style of a cabaret or nightclub act. The corny humor may charm some theatergoers, but put others off by its old-fashioned and familiar humor spiced up with bawdy, off-color jokes. [more]

Eddie Izzard: Hamlet

March 30, 2024

In this tour de force, Izzard has come up with a different voice and stance for each character: King Claudius is a baritone, Lord Polonius has a limp, Lady Ophelia has a somewhat breathy speech pattern while Queen Gertrude is very emotional. The gravediggers are given two different lower class accents and the humor in the scene is still very vivid. The courtier Osric, who is usually played as somewhat fey, waves his hands around a great deal. The duel scene between Hamlet and Laertes in the last act is mostly successful but eventually it becomes difficult to figure out who is winning and who is losing. [more]

Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Show

December 22, 2023

Dressed in a glittery, silver suit—costumes by Kristin Isola—Bloom immediately takes control of an audience who already admire her from her standup comedy and her bitterly funny TV show, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" plus her solo tour of "What Am I Going to Do with My Life Life?" and, perhaps, from the recent iteration of this amusing musing of life and death and birth and Covid. Bloom ponders her pre-pandemic self and the trauma of the birth of her daughter who had a life-threatening condition. Covid limited her visits to her baby in the NICU and caused the death of her close friend and writing partner Adam Schlesinger who, ironically, shared the NICU when it was partly converted to a Covid ward. [more]