Reviews and Columns  

SYMPHONY REVIEW

The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra offered what can best be described as a "Sonic Spectacular" in its final concerts of the season.

Conductor Stephen Gunzenhauser designed the program, which featured no guest soloists, to highlight the strengths of the orchestra, which he called ...

A winner has been announced in the Fulton's second Discovery Project new play contest.

It's "The Baby Game" by Michele Aldin Kushner.

According to Kushner's website, the play is about two couples — one straight, one gay — who are promised the same baby by a young birth mother, who ...

MOVIE REVIEW

There is nothing typical about "The Raven," which is exactly the way I hoped it would be.

The film is framed beautifully around the life and works of famous American writer Edgar Allan Poe, and this knowledge alone shot my expectations for this movie into oblivion. Let me first sa...

THEATER REVIEW

"Annie Get Your Gun," which opened at Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre last week, is the story of the romance between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, a sharpshooter who was a star in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the late 19th century.

Well, that was until Annie came out of the back...

"To Cross an Ocean Four Centuries Long," started small.

When it was performed in September at the YWCA, only an actor and a percussionist were on stage, telling the story of four African-American women (three historical, one fictional) and who they were beyond their enslavement.

But when the s...

DVD REVIEW

Glancing at the cover of the 1989 film "Steel Magnolias" reveals two things: First, this is a movie about women, and second, this is a movie for women.

In laymen's terms, this movie can be accurately described as a chick flick.

Unlike most movies that fall into this genre, "Steel...

THEATER REVIEW

OK, "Xanadu," which opened Thursday at Ephrata Performing Arts Center, doesn't have the greatest pedigree.

It's based on a pretty stinky 1980 movie of the same name about a roller-skating Australian/Greek muse named Kira, played by Olivia Newton-John.

She comes down to earth ...

THEATER REVIEW

There's been plenty of hype about "August: Osage County," since it opened in 2007.

Critics have declared it the best play in the last 20 years. It's won just about every award it's been eligible for, including the 2008 Pulitzer and Tony for best play.

And reviewers have raved...

After directing the Wheatland Chorale for 25 years, Rob Upton is retiring.
Blame Phoenix, Ariz.
Upton recently bought a vacation home there. While we are shivering in February, he'll be enjoying temperatures in the sunny 60s.
No more Monday night commutes from the western suburbs of Philadelphia, wh...

SYMPHONY REVIEW

Knowing that one of the works on the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra program this weekend was to be an arrangement of songs made famous by Elvis Presley, perhaps the first question to be answered is, did conductor Stephen Gunzenhauser wear a white spangled jumpsuit for the occasion?
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