"Director
Brendon Fox, the associate artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre
in San Diego, establishes an exhaustive breakneck pace right from the
beginning, and does not let up for the entire two-hour three-act performance.
"
Montgomery Advertiser (AL) By
Michael P. Howley
Moonlight
moves up a notch with production of 'Arms and the Man'
By Anne Marie Welsh, San Diego Union Tribune (excerpts of review)
A well-cast and effervescent new production of "Arms and the Man"
at the Avo Playhouse represents a step up for Moonlight Stage Productions,
a company that only recently began offering such classic fare during
its winter season.
Directed by Old Globe associate Brendon Fox, with a cast that includes
several seasoned San Diego veterans and a couple of sexy, appealing
newcomers from Los Angeles, the planned production earned Moonlight
its first grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The money was clearly well spent on actors such as Rosina Reynolds,
and the darling charismatic pair playing Bluntschli (Mario Schugel)
and Raina (Melanie Lora). Mike Buckley's folk-decorated set and Jeanne
Reith's costumes are as aptly detailed as the performances.
Shaw is never easy, and this early play offers the special challenge
of balancing serious social critique and fizzy comic give-and-take.
Fox's production, with glittering comic turns by Tim West and Reynolds
as Major Petkoff and his wife, tends toward the light side. Fox emphasizes
the frothy repartee that inspired Oscar Straus to turn the play into
the operetta "The Chocolate Soldier."