Author: Grant Golden

GRANT GOLDEN wears a number of hats. He has been practicing radiology in Buffalo since 1981, for the past 15 years, with Seton Imaging. Dr Laszlo Tabar, internationally famous mammographer, has been his special friend and mentor. Grant began The Old Chestnut Film Society, Buffalo’s only film society, in 1983. Now in its 35th consecutive season, the OCFS does monthly screenings of Hollywood classics in 16mm. He has written the scores (and some of the books) for a number of locally produced musicals, including the old WONDERMAKERS shows, THE OTHER ISLAND, NOBODY’S INN (Alleyway Theatre), IZZY! (Musicalfare), and ME II (Western Door Playhouse). He reviewed local plays on the radio for 20 years--on WBEN and WBFO—before making the switch to BuffaloRising. Grant and his lovely wife Deborah live in Central Park with their dog Ginger, and cats Ella and Felix. They have three adult children, and now, happily, two grandchildren!

THE BASICS:  This early Shaw offering (1902), highly controversial in its day, has been remounted at the Royal George Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake, where it plays in repertory through Oct 16th.   Eda Holmes directs a cast of six.  It is being performed with a single intermission; the running time is slightly under 2 ½ hours. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:  Vivie, an intelligent, pragmatic young woman who has just graduated from Cambridge with honors, returns home.  Here she is given her first real opportunity to get to know her wealthy, mysterious mother.  Imagine her surprise to learn that Kitty Warren has made her way…

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THE BASICS:  This new version of Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic has been adapted for the stage and directed by Peter Hinton. It plays, in repertory, at the Festival Theatre in Niagara on the Lake through October 16th.  This a truly a mammoth production, with twenty-two performers tackling eighty-eight distinct, program-specified roles!  ALICE, with its single intermission, runs approximately 2 ½ hours. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:   Victorian England.  Little girl falls down big rabbit hole and has strange adventures.  For those who somehow missed it as children, the book is still great fun to read.  Annotated versions are best, however, so you don’t miss…

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THE BASICS:   A. R. (“Pete”) Gurney’s beloved two-hander has been performed by a veritable who’s who of the entertainment industry since its debut in 1989.  This long-running touring version, starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal, is on stage at the 710 Main Street Theatre through May 22nd.  The show runs about ninety minutes, and is played without an intermission. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:  LOVE LETTERS is the story of a lifelong, hot-and-cold but mainly affectionate relationship that weathers many storms but never quite bears fruit.   Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner are typical Gurney People—blue-blooded WASPs who come from the same privileged…

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THE BASICS:  A pair of poetic one-acts by William Butler Yeats, produced by the Irish Classical Theatre Company, in collaboration with the Lehrer Dance Company and the Torn Space Theater.  PROJECT, directed by the ICTC’s Vincent O’Neill, plays weekends (incl. Saturday and Sunday matinees) at the Andrews Theatre, through May 8th.  The show, with its single intermission, runs about an hour and forty five minutes. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:  Both plays, legends of a sort, are set in rural Ireland, at some remote, unspecified time.  In the first, LAND OF HEART’S DESIRE, a pretty young bride is seduced from the dull but…

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THE BASICS:  Broadway’s long running, “muppets for adults” musical has been revived by Musicalfare Theatre, in collaboration with the Shea’s Buffalo organization.  The present incarnation plays weekends at the 710 Main Theatre (old Studio Arena) through April 24th.  AVENUE Q, with its single intermission, runs approximately two hours and ten minutes.  THUMBNAIL SKETCH:   The action takes place on…  Avenue Q, a second (or maybe third) class street in the Bronx where the rents are just low enough for “hungry” young newcomers to the Big Apple.  We follow the muppet Princeton from his arrival, college diploma in hand, searching for a paycheck…

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THE BASICS:  The is the world premiere of a new drama by Buffalo’s own Gary Earl Ross.  This lightly fictionalized version of the Sweet Trials, a not-widely-known but important piece of black history, has been produced by the Subversive Theatre Collective, as part of their ongoing Black Power series.  It plays weekends through April 30th at the Manny Fried Playhouse in the Great Arrow building.  Michael Lodick directs a cast of twelve.  CAIN, with its one intermission, runs about two hours and fifteen minutes. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:  A major northern city (read Detroit), 1925.  Dr. Ossian Cain (read Sweet), an esteemed…

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THE BASICS:  This five-player, all black ensemble piece by Korean American playwright Young Jean Lee premiered in NYC in 2009.  It is currently playing weekends at the Torn Space Theater (Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle, 612 Fillmore Avenue) through March 13th.  Dan Shanahan directs.  The play runs approximately 90 minutes; there is no intermission. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:   SHIPMENT is a patchwork satire, an “experimental” theater piece dealing with black identity issues and black/white stereotypes in present day America.  Its major building blocks are an angry young black comic’s stand-up routine, a fractured fairy tale of a young black rapper getting…

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THE BASICS:  Mark St. Germain’s two character historical fantasy has been directed by Katie Mallinson for Road Less Traveled Productions, and plays weekends through Feb 14th at the new Road Less Traveled Theater, 500 Pearl Street (the old Buffalo Christian Center).  The play, which is performed without an intermission, runs a little under 90 minutes. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:  The action (read: conversation) takes place in Sigmund Freud’s private study in London, in September of 1939.  The world is on the very brink of WWII.  Sigmund Freud, 83 and in failing health, has invited author and theologian C.S. Lewis over for a chat.  Freud,…

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THE BASICS:  Jane Martin’s high-octane abortion rights drama has been revived by the Subversive Theatre Collective, and plays weekends at the Manny Fried Playhouse, through February 6th.  Toni Smith Wilson directs a cast of six.  The play, with its single intermission, runs a little over two hours. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:  Keely, a dirt-poor, working-class divorcee, has recently conceived a baby under the direst of possible circumstances. (No spoilers from me!)  In line at the abortion clinic, she awakens to find that she has been drugged and abducted by a cadre of radical Right-to-Lifers.  Their agenda: to keep Keely and the fetus “safe”…

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THE BASICS:  Maxwell Anderson’s caustic take on the American Way of Governing won him a Pulitzer prize in 1933.  Dusted off and now staged at the Kavinoky, it is still remarkably relevant.  David Lamb directs a cast of 16, all but two of them men.  BOTH YOUR HOUSES plays weekends (including Saturday matinees) at the Kav through December 6th.  The show, with its single intermission, runs about two hours. THUMBNAIL SKETCH:  Alan McClean, freshman representative from Nevada, gets appointed to the House Appropriations Committee, presided over by his idol, Simeon Gray.  Since an upcoming  bill funding a big dam project (read Boulder or Hoover…

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