Benjamin Schwartz

Charismatic. Fun. Participatory. Charming. A party. Nic + Brooke know how to work it. The audience, dance moves, singing, comedy sketches. The whole fast food combo meal and then some. N + B feed so well off of the crowd that this show needs a packed house in order to be the rager that it truly can be. Bring a bunch of friends, sneak in some booze, and sing some songs that you might know or not know. ... full review

An offbeat, absurdist, even sitcomesque take on a overlooked historical event. Through all the blood, people popping up in windows and one-liners, performances are what shine. The timing has been wrenched into all the right spots thanks to an experienced director. The dialogue needs a little punch-up, but there is no shortage of laughs in this show. The show is short, clever, snappy and doesn't let go until the bows. You'll have a good time and learn something in the process. Check it out!... full review

This show has managed to take almost every classic theatre convention in the book: Shadow/light box visuals, puppetry, scale, music, spectacle, dance, poetry -- and merge them into a really beautiful piece. Aristotle would be proud. Like torn chapters out of a book, we follow true origin stories of women from folklore who have been victimized, damned to eternity, wrongfully accused and overall, screwed over. These stories are narrated by an ensemble member while other the rest of the cast, th... full review

Most people would describe this show as a "chill" show, considering they are spoonfed the buzzword In the title, but that word doesn't really quite ring true with this theatrical piece. This is not a "chill" show. This is a theatre piece that combines performance art, visual storytelling and movement that lightly strings along excerpts from the Bard. First thing that caught my attention was the music. This is a pretty hip soundtrack, featuring Kendrick Lamar and other music that cool kids ... full review

High energy, snappy, joke after joke, nonstop entertainment. Nic + Brooke piledrive the stage with their infectious energy and comedy sketches, songs, bits and audience interaction. As is with any episode of SNL, there are some bits that soar a bit further than others but overall, this would be a classic episode. The creative team behind this show has a keen eye for comedy and what works. Trust this talented team for a mere half hour and be prepared to shake your hips a bit.... full review

Everything is calm, even perfect in Musical-land. All your favorite Broadway characters including, Elpheba, Annie, Maria, Danny Zuko and many others live in perfect harmony, literally. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Elder Price from Book Of Mormon gets the life sucked out of him by a Xenomorph, from Alien. Wait, what did you just say? You heard right. This is Aliens Vs. Musical. After taking home the audience voted Best Musical Award at last year’s Hollywood Fringe, AvM returns w... full review

Delightful. I went in not knowing what the plots of the mini-musicals were and I would suggest the same thing. It will make it all that much more fun. I guarantee you that you will not be able to guess where they go to with each passing story. Some really darn good singers in this cast too. Very funny and clever. I would have liked to see some sort of through line connecting them all together. But not something that should deter you from seeing it. Also... I understood the lyrics. Something that ... full review

This show has high stakes with a richly surrounding plot that raises questions and employs actions of moral ambiguity in the face of a political campaign. You don't know who to root for, because the characters walk such a fine, grey line. It's funny, too. I loved the intern. Great comedic timing from the cast and pace from start to end. An excellent bud of a play, but I think it deserves a second act to really push it where it could go. This show could be West Wing, even The Newsroom, goo... full review

This reminded me of an early Christopher Durang play (his one-act years in college) mixed with "The Ugly Duckling". The Princes' Charming is a very wacky, screwy take on the fairytale genre, with plenty of Monty Python-like devices that remind the audience to not take it seriously. Don't try to make sense of the oddball behaviors. We're here to just laugh. And you will. You'll laugh.... full review

I stumbled into 50 Shades Of Shakespeare not knowing at all what I was in for. I expected a sexy send up of Shakespeare's material, or maybe inspired, I don't know. The format of this show: Four extremely talented actors (2 female, 2 male) play various roles decided by the audience as they perform excerpts from selected canons. Really, what works about 50 SoS, are the performances. I'm not a huge Shakespeare guy, so usually I avoid anything to do with the source material, but what I di... full review