[Click any photo to enlarge] There are those rare occasions in life when it seems the stars are fully in alignment. Such was the case on Saturday night last weekend in Conroe, Texas, when af…
[Click Any Photo to Enlarge] It was the opening week for the new Theatre Under the Stars production of the ever-popular Broadway musical, MARY POPPINS. Though it was a school night, there wa…
It was a night of dazzling music that will be long remembered by those fortunate enough to attend one of the three dazzling performances with which the Houston Symphony closed out "leap week…
[Click any photo to enlarge] A glorious evening would begin on a briefly awkward note. Never in my two decades as a performing arts critic have I ever failed to arrive well in advance of cur…
[Click any photo to enlarge] It is always a pleasure when a fine pit orchestra sets the tone for a delightful musical even before the curtain rises. Such is the case when gifted music direct…
[Click any photo to enlarge. All photos by Michael Pittman] By DAVID DOW BENTLEY III www.ThePeoplesCritic.com Old timers will remember early television's Ed Sullivan and his long-running var…
How appropriate that on this Super Bowl weekend the Houston Symphony has chosen to screen a super movie with 1952’s MGM musical classic, SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, starring Hollywood l…
Those who say, "You can't go home again," have probably never enjoyed A Prairie Home Companion, and its weekly PBS radio journeys to host Garrison Keillor's fabled hometown of Lake Wobegon, …
For those of us fortunate enough to have become familiar with the brilliant musical talents of the Anderson Twins (via their previous successes with Le Jazz Hot and Those Fabulous Dorseys at…
[Click any photo to enlarge.] For those lucky enough to have been part of last Sunday's packed house at the PARAMOUNT Hudson Valley Theater in Peekskill, New York, the Christmas season got o…
[ Click any photo to enlarge. ] As much as I enjoy my work reviewing professional performing arts productions of all kinds, there is something refreshing about now and then getting back to b…
I had a wonderful surprise last Saturday night at Conroe's elegant Crighton Theatre. It had been just exactly one week since my reviewing a sensational Sinatra Centennial concert at Houston'…
The consistent excellence of musical performances from Class Act Productions are well known here in Montgomery County and The Woodlands, Texas. Over at the Nancy Bock Center for the Performi…
The Houston Symphony certainly started off this month of November with a sensational concert in Jones Hall. Titled, SINATRA'S CENTENNIAL, the program was a wonderful look back at the countle…
I always enjoy it when my trips to Texas coincide with scheduled productions of the Texas Repertory Theatre. The company's current cheerful offering of Joan Micklin Silver & Julianne Boy…
It was arguably the most dismal, rainy and dreary weekend in recent Montgomery County memory, but on the stage of the Crighton Theater in Conroe, Texas, the angelic voices and beaming faces …
Until the current BROADWAY at the Hobby Center offering, I had somehow never managed to actually see a production of the longtime hit musical, PIPPIN. I recall once reading a lengthy plot su…
Last Saturday it was Opening Night for the 37th season of the Montgomery County Performing Arts Society, and the five dazzling stars of the evening comprise the rhythm & blues singing gr…
[ Click Any Photo to Enlarge ] In these half dozen years since its World Premiere in La Jolla, California, composer Frank Wildhorn's ambitious musical, BONNIE & CLYDE, has had numerou…
Last week at Houston's Wortham Theatre Center I had the privilege of attending Thursday's Opening Night of Houston Ballet's FALL MIXED REPERTORY, presented in advance of the company's perfor…
[Click any photo to enlarge ] As I put pen to paper for this review, I am reminded of that wise old expression: "Better late than never." As a critic, I have never been fond of reviewing sho…
[ Editor’s Note: Click any photo to enlarge ] There was a special kind of warmth and intimacy coming across the footlights when director, Jim Walker, stepped out on the Crighton Theatr…
For those of us fortunate to have homes in The Woodlands, Texas, there have been countless opportunities through the years to enjoy the wonderful concerts of the Houston Symphony Orchestra a…
As I close in on completion of two decades of work as a critic, I feel compelled to weigh in on what is surely destined to be one of the great New York City engineering projects of our gener…
[Click any photo to enlarge] There are rare times in the world of the theatre that all the elements just seem to come together perfectly. The current Goodspeed Opera House production of La C…