Justin's Theatre Reviews

   There is absolutely nothing I could say about Hamilton that has not already been said. It's a phenomenon and anyone with a ticket is in for the greatest performance they will ever attend. I have now seen the show twice and I can say without hesitation that Hamilton is the best show I have ever seen in my life- Both times. The show is officially a global success, with four productions currently playing in the United States and one in London. While I am sure each of the five productions is fantastic, I can't imagine that any of their companies are better than the one currently playing on the show's first national tour, which I saw during its stop at the ASU Gammage in Tempe, Arizona.    My ultimate bragging right is being able to say that I saw Hamilton with the original Broadway company (minus Lin-Manuel Miranda, I saw the brilliant understudy, Jon Rua). Just like everyone else, I listen to the cast album constantly and have the voices of the original cast fore...

  Every February, there is always a production of The Vagina Monologues happening somewhere in town. I had always been aware they were happening, but I had never personally attended a production of Eve Ensler's series of monologues for women. This year, that changed when I attended a performance of Star on the Mountain's Production Company's production of The Vagina Monologues at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in El Paso.   The monologues, performed by each of the eight women in the cast, are truly beautiful. The Vagina Monologues is not a typical piece of theatre, it is simply these women standing before an audience and telling these stories that can be funny, sentimental, and heart wrenching. Each of the women in the cast was truly unique and memorable. The genius women who performed the monologues were Karla Baylon, Shelby Harper, Emily James, Kate Keyser, Aurolyn Luykx, Victoria Molinar, Meagan O'Toole-Pitts, and Lupita Peña.   The Vagina Monologues  is an importan...

   For the third show of their 35 th anniversary season, the UTEP Dinner Theatre presented a production of the Broadway classic, A Chorus Line , which is a musical about 17 dancers auditioning for a Broadway musical. Each of the dancers gets a chance to step out of the line and share a bit of their life story with the director, Zach, before they step back into the line with the rest of the Broadway chorus hopefuls. Although I do not speak about the show very often, I have always considered A Chorus Line   to be one of my favorite shows. Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban’s score is gorgeous and the book by James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante is masterful and intelligent. The UTEP Dinner Theatre’s production of the Broadway classic was entertaining, but the production had a few things that hindered it.   I found the show’s production and overall tone to be quite enjoyable and everybody involved seemed to have an innate understanding of what the piece says. The...