Warren Gerds/Review: ‘The Last Five Years’ poignant

Jazz by a combo bustles along as background sound. On stage are invitations to explore. White parallel bands at an angle on the floor cross over brown parallel bands at a right angle to the eye. At the rear, white parallel bands seem to step their way up the backdrop, with the top band angling off. At the very top are wooden ceiling beams. Or so it seems. The beams are part of the magic of artistic perspective. The eye looks and looks and looks until what seems like a room of sorts is finally deciphered: Something flat is 3-D.

Warren Gerds/Review: ‘The Book Club Play’ sparkles

The catalyst for adventure in live professional theater: An international true-life documentary filmmaker is recording meetings of a book club. That sounds innocuous. But soon excitable folks are letting fly warts and all. “This book club is like ‘Lord of the Flies’ with wine and dip,” one fellow observes. Opinions clash, personalities crash and friendships tumble.

Moonlight and Magnolias opens this week!

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