Dick Kerekes & Leisla Sansom

The Dual Critics of EU Jacksonville have been reviewing plays together for the past nine years. Dick Kerekes has been a critic since 1980, starting with The First Coast Entertainer and continuing as the paper morphed into EU Jacksonville. Leisla Sansom wrote reviews from time to time in the early 80s, but was otherwise occupied in the business world. As a writing team, they have attended almost thirty Humana Festivals of New America Plays at Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, and many of the annual conferences sponsored by the American Theatre Critics Association, which are held in cities throughout the country. They have reviewed plays in Cincinnati, Chicago, Miami, Sarasota, Minneapolis, Orlando, New York, Philadelphia, Sarasota, San Francisco, Shepherdstown, and The Eugene O’Neill Center in Waterford, Massachusetts. They currently review about one hundred plays annually in the North Florida area theaters, which include community, college, university, and professional productions.

Douglas Anderson School of the Arts A Little Nigh tMusic

Douglas Anderson’s A Little Night Music

Dick Kerekes & Leisla Sansom November 24, 2009 Dual Critics, On Stage, St. Nicholas, Theatre, Theatre Reviews 377

The theatre department of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts presented Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award Winning musical, A Little Night Music on November 19-21. I write this review feeling happy and sad. Happy to have had the opportunity to see such a spectacular show, sad because, as with most high schools, their performances are only for one weekend and I cannot urge you to go and see it. This musical almost did not get done this year. Douglas Anderson has a policy that they will only do a musical every other year. According to the program, this is to maintain …

OKLAHOMA

Dick Kerekes & Leisla Sansom November 24, 2009 On Stage 85

by Dick Kerekes My first visit to Nease High School in St. Johns County, was to see their annual musical production, which this year was Oklahoma and held on November 19 & 20. Considered by almost every critic as one of the best American musicals of all time, I am pleased that the Nease students were introduced to this l943 ground breaking and still very popular musical. Since this is an after the fact review, I won’t linger on the plot other than to say it is the story of a cowboy and a country girl who fall in love …

Orange Park Community Theatre’s Greetings

Dick Kerekes & Leisla Sansom November 15, 2009 Dual Critics, On Stage, Orange Park, Theatre, Theatre Reviews 254

The Orange Park Community Theatre opened its 2nd show of its 40th season, with Tom Dudzick’s Greetings. This play jumps starts the holiday season, but I supposed you guessed that with a title like Greetings. It will be on stage until December 5th. Call 276-2599 or visit them at www.opct.org. The program says it is set in present day, but I would place it back in the 80s, since there are no cell phones, no computers and not even a television set. It all takes place in the comfortable living room of a lovely house in Pittsburgh designed by Lee …

Alhambra & JSO’s Oklahoma

Dick Kerekes & Leisla Sansom September 25, 2009 Classical Music, Downtown, Dual Critics, Music, On Stage, Theatre, Theatre Reviews 226

The Jacksonville Symphony under the baton of Michael Butterman and the Alhambra Theatre directed by Tod Booth combined their talents for the third time in as many years with four inspired performances of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma September the l8th to the 20th. Previous joint productions of The Music Man and Westside Story were well received by enthusiastic audiences and Oklahoma was equally as popular with the audiences in Jacoby Hall at the Times Union Center for the Arts in downtown Jacksonville. You may have read that the Alhambra Dinner Theatre has closed, at least temporarily, but it appears that a …

Alhambra’s Singin’ in the Rain

Dick Kerekes & Leisla Sansom March 8, 2009 On Stage 594

The Alhambra Dinner Theatre opened a bright ray of sunshine last weekend with Singin’ In The Rain, the 1985 Broadway musical based on the outstanding 1952 film of the same name, starring Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds. This brilliant musical has it all; hilarity, engaging performances, lively choreography and the catchiest tunes. It is Alhambra’s stimulus entertainment package that lives up to the definition: something that quickens action, feeling and thought. Action! The tap dancing is possibly the best ever performed on this stage, and you’ll feel the urge to tap a toe or two. Feeling! Any time you can …