2019
“Disaster!” Unmitigated Success at the Pollard
Charlie Monnot and Kara Chapman “Disaster!” Photo courtesy of James Michael Avance
The Pollard ends this season with a bang! “Disaster!” is an incredibly funny show; music, song and hilarity in a single package directed as well as choreographed by genius Matthew Sipress Banks. Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick, with creator Drew Geraci, wrote this spoof on popular catastrophe films, gathering a stellar cast singing with flair and dancing like Fred Astaire—with a perfect grasp of comedic timing creating high-spirited merriment.
Banks cast is incredible, and each member, whether ensemble or main character has a wonderful moment of triumph;… Continue reading
Meet Us!
The OK Art Scene and Hurd Team!
We are growing here at Oklahoma Art Scene and Hurd!! We have a 3-person team covering OKC theatre reviews and features. Theatre is a passion for all of us! You’ll see us in the lobby and sitting among you during your favorite plays and musicals, so we wanted to take an opportunity to introduce ourselves!
Elizabeth Hurd: Our founder and publisher, Elizabeth Hurd has been acting and writing for Oklahoma City theatre for over thirty years. Elizabeth is a true legend in OKC!
- Favorite Play: The Night of the Iguana… Continue reading
The Pollard’s In for a DISASTER!
The cast of The Pollard’s DISASTER! Photo by James Michael Avance.
What a Disaster! The Pollard closes out their 32nd season with one wild boat ride. Inspired by the 1970s natural disaster movies and the music of the disco era, Disaster! is a funny, low-brow comedy romp for (almost) all ages. The casino cruise ship where the chaos plays out rocks with hits of the 70s. Soon it rumbles and shakes as an earthquake wreaks havoc and sets off a cascade of impending doom. Killer tides, infernos, gas leaks, rats and sharks all threaten the evening and everyone… Continue reading
Carpenter Square Presents the Colorful White Guy On the Bus
The cast of White Guy on the Bus. Photo courtesy Carpenter Square Theatre.
Bruce Graham’s 2017 drama White Guy on the Bus offers a surprising and honest take on race relations in the U.S. Bringing a personal touch to the subject matter, Carpenter Square Theatre tackles this heavy topic with a strong cast. Terry Veal is Ray, the titular White Guy who sits on a city bus every week and befriends a black mom who travels the same route for school and work. Time flashes backwards and forwards, showing the audience Ray’s life with his wife Roz, played by… Continue reading
INCOMING! The Pollard Prepares for Disaster!
L to R: James A. Hughes, Kara Chapman, Erin Heatly, and Charlie Monnot rehearse for The Pollard’s Disaster! Photo by Jared Blount.
Downtown Guthrie this June is looking to be quite troubling. The Pollard Theatre’s upcoming production of Disaster!, written by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick, pays tribute to the great music and stylized catastrophe movies of the 1970s. It includes a large cast full of comedic greats in the local theatre scene, and features some of the best music money can buy. Two of the production’s stars, Emily Pace and Matthew Alvin Brown, sat down with me… Continue reading
Lyric Academy’s Honk, jr. is a Honk of a Great Time!
The cast of Honk, jr. Photo courtesy Rozz Grigsby.
Honk, jr. is a lovely adaptation of The Ugly Duckling, and the Thelma Gaylord Academy presents it with Spring in their step. Featuring a cast made up of the Academy’s 7-14 year olds, these students tell the sweet tale of Ugly, a baby chick who just doesn’t quite belong with his duckling siblings. After being unfortunately separated, Ugly sets off to find his family, and meets some wonderful friends along the way.
The delightful cast is a large ensemble, and they’re ever present and professional. Hanna Andreassen is… Continue reading
Urinetown is The Place to Be!
Urinetown: The Musical. Photo courtesy Nicholas Bartell.
Urinetown: The Musical brings us to a not-so distant dystopian future where vital natural resources are in desperately short supply. The citizens who live in this dusty world must stand in line for hours each day, scraping pennies to use the bathrooms. Public facilities are closely monitored, and big business runs the show. Lyric Theatre’s Thelma Gaylord Academy presents this musical with all its wit, irreverence, and surprisingly poignant statements regarding the lifestyles we lead and take for granted every day.
Logan Boyd is Officer Lockstock and the narrator of the show.… Continue reading
Fun Loving Devils in Jewel Box Production of “My Three Angels”
Three Angels, from left, Derek Kenney, Doug Monson and James A. Gordon
“My Three Angels” is the charming comedy from 1953 written by the collaborating couple Samuel and Bella Spewack and directed by Richard Lemin. The play takes place in Cayenne, French Guiana in 1910 as the Edwardian Era closes. Felix Ducotel, an honest, kindly, but quite inept family man manages a mercantile that his cousin, Henri Trochard owns. He and his wife are having much needed repairs done on the roof by convicts as their home in Cayenne is a French penal colony. It… Continue reading
The Rokademy Students Won’t Want for Love
The Rokademy Experiment presents The Hazards of Love. Photo courtesy Matthew Alvin Brown.
The Thelma Gaylord Academy’s Rokademy Experiment is no child’s play. The students that make up this band are polished performers who sparkle with the gleam of seasoned rock-stars. They take their audience on a ride they won’t soon forget. After attending an impromptu Christmas concert of theirs in December, the springtime show has remained one of the upcoming experiences I’ve looked forward to most. Unsurprisingly, they do not disappoint. This year’s concert is a 3 performance run of the concept album The Hazards of Love… Continue reading
Bonus Review: Beehive Is A Rockin’ Tribute to the 60s
(L to R) Stef Fortney, Jennifer Teel and Megan Montgomery star in Beehive: The 60s Musical. Photo courtesy Pollard Theatre Company.
Beehive: The 60s Musical is a hair raising good time for Pollard patrons. Susan Riley serves as narrator and she takes us from 1960, with the girl groups and iconic hairdos, all the way to Woodstock in 1969. Seen through the eyes of someone coming of age during this infamous decade, Beehive shows what it truly felt like to live while this era was unfolding. Music reflected the changing times as female empowerment began to take hold. Along… Continue reading