S.E. Barcus

Music and Theater Reviews and scribbling & bibbling

    • S.E. Barcus
  • Music
    • Opera
    • Piano
    • Symphony
  • Other
  • Performing Arts
    • Dance
    • Mediated (e.g., film)
    • Musical
    • Theater
  • Charles Busch’s Psycho Beach Party, review

    “Besides the funniest script this year with the best acting, you get dance numbers … Metts opens the show with some sexy freak-out strobelight hula hoop madness that gets everyone rocking.”

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Charles Busch, Charleston, Jennifer Metts, Pluff Mud, Psycho Beach Party, Robin Shuler, Steve Lepre
  • Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, Review

    Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, Review

    Review of Charleston Stage Company’s 2000 production of Cole Porter’s “Anything Goes”. From S.E. Barcus’ Charleston City Paper archives.

    S.E. Barcus

    Music, Musical, Opera, Performing Arts, Theater
    Anything Goes, Charleston, Charleston Stage Company, Cole Porter, Julian Wiles
  • Frankenstein at the Charleston Stage Company, a review

    “… philosophical and theological questioning, Prometheus, intricate plot-weaving, creative use of her contemporary scientific ideas on vitalism and electricity, and fine, fine terror — all mixed up by a 17-year-old, 175 years ago. Just unbelievable. Mozart-prodigy-unbelievable. Godwin and Wollstonecraft, you done us good.”

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, Charleston Stage Company, Frankenstein, Julian Wiles, Mary Shelley
  • You Can’t Take It with You

    You Can’t Take It with You

    “You Can’t Take It with You” has several plotlines that make for light, romantic farce — dealing with a young couple’s dilemma over their contrasting families and a kind, old anarchist’s dilemma over taxation — but the real meaning is in the title of the play.

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Amy Hills, Charleston Stage Company, Julian Wiles, Kaufman and Hart, review, You Can't Take It with You
  • The Last Night of Ballyhoo, by Alfred Uhry, Charleston City Paper review, April 1999

    “Altogether, they’re an outstanding ensemble, one of the best all-around casts I’ve seen in Charleston.”

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Ballyhoo, Charleston, review, Uhry
  • Born Yesterday, Charleston Stage Company Review

    Born Yesterday, Charleston Stage Company Review

    “This play is about political scandal, but it is not a sex scandal like Cliniton’s. … And it’s not a cynical and clever ’90’s script like Hollywood’s three products of ’98. No, thankfully, it’s a play written in the ’40’s when there was still idealism and right and wrong in this country.”

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Born Yesterday, Charleston, Charleston Stage Company, Garson Kanin, Michael Locklair
  • The Guest Director, review of Franklin Ashley’s Southern farce

    The Guest Director, review of Franklin Ashley’s Southern farce

    “Goodness knows how hard it is to get local, contemporary work up on its feet. It’s always a risk — but always a good one for our culture at large.”

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, College of Charleston, Franklin Ashley, Guest Director, Southern farce, Theater
  • College of Charleston’s Much Ado About Nothing

    College of Charleston’s Much Ado About Nothing

    “Is Much Ado About Nothing a flowery, two and a half hour “Three’s Company” episode? Yes. Is it a smattering of ideas and humor and complicated characters that are well-acted and directed? Yes. …”

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, College of Charleston, Much Ado About Nothing, review, Shakespeare
  • College of Charleston’s Macbeth, Review

    College of Charleston’s Macbeth, Review

    Like a poser at a pop concert, I get really excited for the ‘hits’: “Foul is fair, and fair is foul.” Oh yeah. “Something wicked this way comes.” Oh, cool. “Out, damned spot.” Right. “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,” “sleep no more,” “full of sound and fury….” How can anyone not have a good time,…

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, College of Charleston, Evan Parry, Macbeth, review, Shakespeare
  • Review of Jeffrey Hatcher’s Scotland Road, at Footlight Players

    Review of Jeffrey Hatcher’s Scotland Road, at Footlight Players

    These sorts of plays are for those who like Richard Foreman or David lynch. There are insightful, sublime and terrifying moments, but many that just make you go, “huh?” A cutesy-da-da weirdness thing that makes you wonder if you’re missing something, so you think-think-think like Winnie the Pooh until you come up with a million…

    S.E. Barcus

    Performing Arts, Theater
    Charleston, Footlight Players, Jeffrey Hatcher, review, Scotland Road, Susan-Lynn Johns
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