No Bailout for the Arts? (Washington Post) 
While government bailouts are being offered or considered for financial institutions, the auto industry, homeowners, and so many other needy and worthy sectors, one group is quickly and rather quietly falling apart: our nation's arts organizations...

Life is wild with 'Lion King' (Arizona Republic)
Elephants, giraffes, gazelles: The Lion King may be the most dazzling Broadway show in a generation, but the supporting roles played by the ensemble sound like something out of a grade-school pageant... review by Kerry Lengel

Life’s a Stage, Even When You’re Sitting in Front of One (Phoenix New Times)
As usual, I saw a hell of a lot of plays this past year. But I suspect 2008 is the year I'll remember not so much for what took place on stage (although it's hard to forget a production as flawless as Childsplay's A Tale of Two Cities, or one so mind- and ass-numbing as Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde) as what happened around me before, during, and after the show...

Robert Harper Q&ARobert Harper (Echo Magazine)
One of the Valley’s most beloved actors talks about the Phoenix Theater scene. If you’re a fan of professional theater in Phoenix, you have either seen Robert Harper onstage or seen his inventive choreography....

Logainne has two daddies and a really long last name!The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee  (Echo Magazine)
Echo talks to Putnam County’s littlest overachiever. William Finn’s (Falsettos) humorous musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, may seem sweet on the surface...

William Finn’s (Falsettos) humorous musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, may seem sweet on the surface“Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting” at SMoCA Manifests in the Form of Lead Teddy Bears and Car Wreckage(Phoenix New Times)
At Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art's "Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting," charred car parts equal lace and lead yarn equals teddy bear. See, unlike me, the artists in this show successfully push the boundaries of method and material....

Behind-the-scenes work garnering rave reviews( Jewish News of Greater Phoenix)
Multicultural approach suits ASU events chief-"She is a creative and dynamic person who has brought a tremendous commitment to taking the arts out to the community, involving more people of different backgrounds and in different ways than anyone I've ever met," said Rabbi Barton Lee, director of the Hillel Jewish Student Center at Arizona State University.

Deavere Smith to Raise Issues in 'Arizona' (Back Stage.com)
Playwright-actor Anna Deavere Smith will present The Arizona Project — a one-woman show exploring women's relationships to justice and the law — at Herberger Theater in Phoenix.

 Curtains: A New Brain at Soul Invictus(Phoenix New Times)
Nowadays most theatergoers have at least heard of Avenue Q, Angels in America, and Urinetown, but the original offbeat, snarky, hyper-literate, queer-friendly Renaissance man, in my opinion, is William Finn, composer/lyricist of the Falsettos trilogy and, most recently, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Artists' Theatre Project, informally known as @Pro, has built their reputation by programming on the daring side (especially for the Valley) and mounting energetic, respectable....

Chihuly helps us see life anew ( The Arizona Republic)
Dale Chihuly is ambitious.The Seattle glass artist built a marketing empire, selling his signature as a brand name and single-handedly raising the profile of glass as an art medium for the wider public.

Out of the mouths of babes comes … Scientology? (Echo Magazine)
Neil Cohen covers The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Stray Cat’s newest holiday offering — A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant and Holly Jolly Christmas  a seasonal treat at Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre.

Arty Girl: Artists on Artists: "The Re-Imagined Space" Series at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (Phoenix New Times) 
If you grew up in the West, you’re probably pretty hungry for space. With our ranch-style homes, big back yards and seemingly endless desert, we’re sensitive to the way our walls block us from that which we crave. Such is the focus of a discussion, curated by local artists Steven Yazzie and Sue Chenoweth, that focuses on three artists’ work 

“Lowriders and Tattoos” at Mesa Arts Center Is an Audiovisual Attack That Hurts So Good (Phoenix New Times) 
It's difficult to enter "Lowriders and Tattoos" at Mesa Contemporary Arts without preconceptions. Let's be honest: Both cultural phenomena carry a negative stigma, even in a country where Hispanic culture is blossoming and, according to exhibit curator Patty Haberman, nearly half the population is inked....What happened? The show kicked my presupposing booty into sensory overdrive and knocked me off my stereotyping course....

Reviews for: "The Producers" - Phoenix Theatre and "Everything Will Be Different" - Stray Cat Theatre Media Reviews for Everything Will Be Different: (Cutain Up Phoenix)
Two diverse but well staged theater events premiered over the weekend. For its 1,000 show, Phoenix Theatre mounts a thoroughly entertaining staging of “The Producers,” Mel Brooks’ hilarious musical based on his film that slams crackpot Broadway producers. The other show is Stray Cat Theatre’s fascinatingly dark character study of a troubled teenage girl devastated by her mother’s death, “Everything Will Be Different,” subtitled “A Brief History of Helen of Troy.” This production marks the alternative theater company’s move to the downtown Tempe Performing Arts Center....

Stray Cat brings old spirit to new digs in 'Everything' (The Arizona Republic)
You can take the cat out of the alley, but you can't take the alley out of the cat. Stray Cat Theatre has moved into new digs for the 2008-09 season, at the Tempe Performing Arts Center. The venue is not to be confused with the $63 million Tempe Center for the Arts, but it's a vast improvement over the alternative troupe's last theater, with better lighting and sight lines....

Vegas, baby!  (Echo Magazine)
Get ready to see the original coolest of the cool when The Rat Pack Live at the Sands hits Gammage. You might be tempted to think that The Rat Pack Live at the Sands is a tribute show where the performers just mimic icons like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin, and that the show had to be made in America. You’d be wrong on both counts...

Talk about Dysfuntional!  (Theater Maven)
Take one imaginative teen age girl whose mother has died and who does not communicate with her father at all, mix in some fantasy involving her sexuality, demeanor and need for a confidante and you have the recipe for a very intriguing evening of theater!...

'BS4P' makes pop-culture point, over and over (The Arizona Republic)
Part sketch comedy, part performance art, Britney Spears for President is billed as a "pop culture disaster." Which is as good a description as any. A demented fantasia on celebrity worship, plastic surgery and post-9/11 politics, it's the brainchild of John Caswell Jr. and his Progressive Theatre Workshop....

10/2-11/15: 'All Shook Up' (The Arizona Republic)
In an unlikely pairing, Shakespeare meets Elvis Presley in Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre's next offering. The result is a sweet tangle of romantic love and high energy rock and roll. All Shook Up opens Thursday, Oct. 2, and runs through Nov. 15 at the Mesa theater....

Dinner theater options (The Arizona Republic) Caberet and All shook Up!
It doesn't matter whether you order the chicken or the beef, the main course at a dinner theater is always nostalgia. Even when it's a "new" musical, it's usually a revue packed with familiar melodies. A comparison of this month's openings at the two big dinner-and-a-show venues in the Valley...

Art comes out at night at Tempe Marketplace (East Valley Tribune)
A partnership between Tempe Marketplace and ASU Herberger College of the Arts, Night Gallery is a showcase for graduate students, faculty and alumni...

>> Hits ‘Lion King,’ ‘Wicked’ return in ‘08-’09 Gammage season (East Valley Tribune)
Stage musical versions of television’s “Happy Days” and Disney’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” plus returns of hit musicals “The Lion King,” “Rent,” “Cats” and “Wicked,” headline the 2008-’09 Broadway Across America season at Tempe’s Gammage Auditorium.

>> 9 Parts of Desire: a story of Iraqi women searching for freedom (Phoenix New Times)
...Raffo's remarkable one-woman show unfolded before me, moved not only by the depth of emotion she brought to each of her nine characters but by the subtlety with which she led me (and, I'm guessing, much of the audience) to...

>> Innovative band keeps Basie's jazz alive, fresh (The Arizona Republic)
What a difference a day makes. Very little if it's the Count Basie Orchestra. William "Count" Basie has been dead for 23 years, but it would be difficult to tell from the group's performances

>> Through 4/20: 'Jekyll & Hyde' is a macabre spectacle (The Arizona Republic)
Fans of such macabre musicals as Phantom of the Opera and Tim Burton's latest big-screen bloodletter, Sweeney Todd, will want to head over to Arizona Broadway Theatre for Jekyll & Hyde. Frank Wildhorn's hit Broadway musical is running at the Peoria dinner theater through April 20.

>> Joanna Settle on directing 9 Parts of Desire and what she refuses to ask an actor to do (Phoenix New Times)
Director Joanna Settle is the other woman behind playwright/actor Heather Raffo's acclaimed 9 Parts of Desire as well as...

>> 'Merry Wives’ of whimsy (Get Out)
Dressed up in the fat suit and fineries of bloated grifter Sir John Falstaff in Southwest Shakespeare Company’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” Ben Tyler is so much more than the funniest sight gag this season. He’s a source of architectural wonder.

>> Sirens of Song will sing for Opera's benefit (The Arizona Republic)
The Sirens of Song, three East Valley sopranos, will fill Steinway of Scottsdale's hall with music in a fundraising concert April 4 for the Phoenix Metropolitan Opera. The concert, from 6 to 8 p.m., is one of a series of community events for the Phoenix Metropolitan Opera, which was founded in 2006 by Metropolitan Opera star and mezzo soprano Gail Dubinbaum and her husband, John Massaro, an award-winning arranger, conductor, composer and producer of North Phoenix.This community fundraiser will feature...

>> Cyber sins – dark play weaves a dangerous web (Echo Magazine)
Director Jonathan Bellar is about to take audiences on a scary ride through the secret worlds of the Internet when his production, dark plays or stories for boys opens at ASU’s historic Lyceum Theatre.

>> 'Kissing' leaves emotional mark (The Arizona Republic)
Theatre Artists Studio bills itself as a workout space for actors and directors, rather than a producing company in competition with the dozens of others in the Valley. But with its onstage offerings, this "co-op" is aggressively staking out a prominent place in the theater scene.

>> As WGA Nears Deal, Is SAG Next? (Backstage.com)
The timing of a potential resolution -- less than five months before a potential actors walkout -- means there will be no immediate greenlights based on the work of returning writers....