Buffalo Theater Reviews

Review: KINKY BOOTS at Shea's 710 Theatre
by Michael Rabice - May 05, 2023

Everyone was raising the roof at Shea's 710 Theatre last night singing 'Yeah' as the little story of a drag queen who saves a failing English shoe shop captured the audience's heart in KINKY BOOTS...

Review: SIX at Shea's Buffalo Theatre
by Michael Rabice - April 26, 2023

The Tudor Era meets the Girl Band as the six wives of Henry VIII take the stage in the flashy new musical SIX now playing at Shea's Buffalo. The girl singing groups of the last 70 years surely have paved the way for our regal queens, with the Spice Girls and K-Pop Girl Bands being more recent additi...

Review: THURGOOD at Irish Classical Theatre
by Michael Rabice - April 07, 2023

American History, Civil Rights, Black History and theatrical drama are magically melding on stage in the one act play THURGOOD that is playing at Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre....

Review: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG at Kavinoky Theatre
by Michael Rabice - March 06, 2023

What did our critic think of Just how wrong can everything go so that it looks wrong in a perfect way? That should be the goal in any good  farce. And the farce du jour these days seems to be the ridiculously absurd but oh so perfectly titled, THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG now playing at the Kavinoky The...

Review: THE THIN PLACE at Road Less Traveled Productions
by Michael Rabice - February 26, 2023

The stage can bring you to places never dreamed of before, but what about places that are even beyond your dreams...or nightmares. Lucas Hnath's THE THIN PLACE, now playing at Road Less Traveled Theatre, brings the audience along for a fascinating ride in this interactive play. The result is nothing...

Review: HADESTOWN at Shea's Buffalo Theatre
by Michael Rabice - February 22, 2023

Finding new ways to tell age old stories is as old as time.  Greek and Roman mythology, passion plays and Shakespearean tales are often updated or transformed from play to musical to opera or  even ballet.  Most recently the Broadway stage has found a new re-telling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth ...

Review: THE MAI at Irish Classical Theatre
by Michael Rabice - January 27, 2023

A modern day memory play  of sorts with influences of Greek mythology may be one way to describe THE MAI,  now playing at Irish Classical Theatre. Never a company to shy away from complex topics, the drama that is unfolding challenges the viewer in a myriad of ways....

Review: COME FROM AWAY at Shea's Buffalo Theatre
by Michael Rabice - December 14, 2022

The best uplifting evening of theatrical magic is happening again just in time for the Christmas season. And no, it's not the annual Christmas Pageant at your family church. It is the remarkable true story of goodness that came out of the unthinkable tragedy of 9/11. COME FROM AWAY has returned to t...

Review: ALL IS CALM: THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914 at SHEA'S 710 THEATRE
by Michael Rabice - December 08, 2022

If ever there were to be a hope of peace, it couldn't be found any closer than the trenches of the battles fought in World War I. And a rare and hard to believe story of a single night of peace is what makes up the beguiling musical play ALL IS CALM: THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914 now on stage at Shea'...

Review: CHARLES DICKENS' GREAT EXPECTATIONS at Irish Classical Theatre
by Michael Rabice - December 02, 2022

The holiday season often brings about classic Christmas stories being retold and Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL is usually number one on most producer's short list. Instead, Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre Company is presenting  Dickens' GREAT EXPECTATIONS in a newer version by Neil Bartlett. ...

Review: Holiday Classic WHITE CHRISTMAS Takes the Stage At Shaw Festival
by Michael Rabice - November 29, 2022

Christmas traditions may come and go, but watching the film WHITE CHRISTMAS has always been an obligatory part of the holiday season for me. And for the past 20 years or so, audiences can experience Irving Berlin's classic  live on stage. The Shaw Festival is presenting their joyous version this yea...

Review: GUARDS AT THE TAJ at Road Less Traveled Theater
by Michael Rabice - November 28, 2022

The bonds of a true friendship rarely can be broken, even in the face of adversities.  The story of such a friendship is being beautifully told in Rajiv Joseph's gripping one act play GUARDS AT THE TAJ now playing at Road Less Traveled Theater....

Review: TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL at Shea's Buffalo Theatre
by Michael Rabice - November 09, 2022

The beloved  diva took to the Shea's Buffalo stage as the Broadway musical TINA: THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL opened to wild audience approval last night. The icon of soul and later rock & roll has her life told through another one of those bio-musical retellings, using the Tina Turner catalog of hits as...

Review: A Disturbing MISERY at Kavinoky Theatre
by Michael Rabice - October 30, 2022

The Halloween season is upon us and the folks at Kavinoky Theatre have capitalized on the eerie and sometimes gruesome story that is Stephen King's MISERY. Thanks to the blockbuster 1990 movie adaptation featuring the fascinatingly devious Kathy Bates, the story has some name recognition. Bates went...

Review: Celebrating Sondheim with The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at Kleinhans Musical Hall
by Michael Rabice - October 24, 2022

What did our critic think of Celebrating Sondheim with The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at Kleinhans Musical Hall?...

Review: THE SECRET GARDEN: SPRING VERSION CAPTIVATES at Shea's Smith Theatre
by Michael Rabice - October 15, 2022

When a big musical takes to a small space there may be cause for concern. But fear not, The Second Generation Theatre Company ‘s production of THE SECRET GARDEN fits perfectly in the cozy Shea’s Smith Theatre and transforms the space into a magical garden. ...

Review: THE PROM at Shea's Buffalo Theatre
by Michael Rabice - September 28, 2022

THE PROM concludes it's National tour in Buffalo this week as the big show with lots of heart took to the Shea's Buffalo stage. The first production of the 2022-23 M & T Bank Broadway Season is not an instantly recognizable name to theatre goers, despite having had a one year run on the Great White ...

Review: DOUBT, A PARABLE at Irish Classical Theatre
by Michael Rabice - September 25, 2022

Storytelling for the sake of enlightenment and teaching is what many think of when they hear of parables. Allegories intimate there is something deeper to be found under the surface. And many a Sunday preacher has used the pulpit to convey an everyday lesson to live by.  John Patrick Shanley’s DOUBT...

Review: ONCE ON THIS ISLAND at Shea's 710 Theatre
by Michael Rabice - September 16, 2022

Shea's 710 Theatre was reborn last night as it  solely produced it's first ever musical on the former Studio Arena stage. An embarrassment of riches assembled onstage as some of Buffalo's own brightest talent mixed with some out of town pros  presented a rousing production of ONCE ON THIS ISLAND....

Review: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST at Shaw Festival
by Michael Rabice - July 14, 2022

A breezy comedy of manners, as only Oscar Wilde could pen, is a welcome way to return to Niagara-on-the Lake's SHAW FESTIVAL. For it's 60th anniversary audiences are in for a familiar treat as THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST returns to the stage in all it's witty charm. Hints of covid still pervade ...

Review: GASLIGHT at Shaw Festival
by Michael Rabice - June 20, 2022

A Victorian thriller melded with a dash of 21st century female fortitude makes up the fabric of the Shaw Festival's gripping new production of GASLIGHT. Over the years the Festival has mastered presenting these chilling stories in it's quaint jewel box  Royal George Theatre. Memories of REBECCA and ...

Review: THE ONION GAME at Irish Classical Theatre
by Michael Rabice - June 16, 2022

Another wholly dysfunctional family has entered the literary realm in a new play by Bryan Delaney and Buffalo's Irish Classical Theatre gets to show them off in all of their wretchedness. Dublin-born playwright Delaney has been named ICTC's Playwright in Residence and is best known to Buffalo audien...

BWW Review: DAMN YANKEES is a Winner at Shaw Festival
by Michael Rabice - May 23, 2022

Americana and the Golden Age of the Broadway musical has happily landed at the Shaw Festival in their knock it out of the park production of DAMN YANKEES. After years without a staged musical at the Festival Theatre and repeated cancellations of it's production of GYPSY (thanks Covid!), the magic of...

BWW Review: AIN'T TOO PROUD at Shea's Buffalo Theatre
by Michael Rabice - May 11, 2022

The evolution of the American musical has morphed from operetta to Vaudevillian musical revue to the classic  integrated musical comedy. The advent of the jukebox musical began as MAMMA  MIA and ALL SHOOK UP shoehorned popular music into a script to showcase Abba or Elvis Presley’s music into paper...

BWW Review: ANASTASIA at Shea's Buffalo Theatre
by Michael Rabice - April 20, 2022

Romance, Russian espionage and a bad case of amnesia in short order sum up the plot of the latest Broadway tour to land in Buffalo as ANASTASIA took to the stage at Shea's last night. Inspired by the animated 1997 musical film of the same name and endless other films and books, the story of a Russia...