"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."