Alan Souza
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What director Alan Souza and company have done with Kim Merrill's looking-glass peek into Victorian England is to fashion a fascinating shadow-box that's decorated with wonderful words, interesting figures and curious objects. Like an amazing artifact stumbled across in someone's attic — in this case an old photo album — we want to know more about the people who left it there, and what we don't know we tend to fill in from our own imagination.
- Tom Chesek
Asbury Park Press - 17 February 2010
The show has the kind of giddy feel you get when you're
watching great magic – you're dazzled, confounded and riveted all at once. The
Rep's version is big and bold and sculpted, much like the physiques of its three
stars. Director Alan Souza isn't afraid of cheese; for that you can bathe in the
big dance number with the silver wigs, the white ABBA costumes and disco ball.
But Souza has a real knack for staging that's fluid, funny and pronounced. In
the end, this “Joseph” just obliterates any cynical thoughts you might have. The
last image, which finds the title character's coat with one more trick up its
sleeve, is so surprising and winning that you wouldn't mind seeing “Joseph” back
at the Rep as early as, say, next year.
- Werner Trieschmann
Arkansas Times - 7 December 2009
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat lived up to its vibrant title -
directed by Alan Souza it's a treat for the senses of sight, sound, and humor
and a reminder that your kin are not the most dysfunctional out there!
- Jennifer Christman
Arkansas Democrat Gazette - 5 December 2009
Joseph is back at The Rep. But this is not your mother's Joseph (as we heard one
of the audience members remark after the first act). No, this Joseph is better.
We cannot say enough great things about this show!
- HotInLittleRock.com - 9 December 2009
...even more powerful than before; a reminder of how
awful it was and, for millions worldwide, it still is. The athletic, vibrant,
strong-voiced young cast at the Engeman Theater, stylishly directed by Alan
Souza, it works hard to evoke the era, and largely succeeds.
- Anita Gates
The New York Times - 20 September 2010
'Rent' the rock opera with live-for-the-moment urgency, is now the young Engeman
Theatre's finest moment. Alan Souza pulls this sprawling interpersonal soap
together with clarity and dignity.
- Steve Parks
New York Newsday - 14 September 2010
In the Engeman Theatre's saucy production, Mr. Santagata and Ms. Millhollen give endearing performances, as does the rest of the cast, expertly directed by Alan Souza.
- Anita
Gates
The New York
Times - 3 July 2009
Great is the word
for the four person cast, directed smartly by Alan Souza.
- Naomi Siegel
The New York Times - 19 December 2008
John Lennon's anti-war sentiments in the ealy 1970s figure prominently in Mark St Germain's humorous, thought provoking two-person play Ears
on a Beatle, terrifically staged by Alan Souza for the Human Race Theatre Company.
It's the most pleasant surprise of the fall season thus far and a prime example
of the type of insightful theater audiences have come to expect from the Race;
this production reiterates the sheer importance of free speech as it appeals to
anyone who loves the music of John Lennon and appreciates his indelible legacy.
- Russell Florence, Jr.
City Paper - 24 October 2008
...an amusing, thought-provoking and open-minded
production by The Human Race Theatre, directed with detail and a satisfying big
picture by Alan Souza.
- Terry Morris
Dayton Daily News - 21 October 2008
If you're a fan of the witty wordsmith Dorothy
Parker - or just love an intelligent new musical - get to see "The Little
Hours"... the New Jersey Repertory Company has produced an enticing - and
superbly-performed production... a strong vehicle for each of the actresses,
all of whom give richly textured perforances...
director Alan Souza provides crisp, fluid staging to match. The situations
might seem commonplace, but through Parker's writing - and especially in this
production - the women's lives appear anything but small.
- Amy Krivohlavek
Show Business Magazine - 21 July 2008
With "The Little Hours," New Jersey
Repertory offers up a work that's every bit the landmark as the writer's
commemorative plaque....It's a living theatrical experience that removes Parker
from the realm of stony memorials and deposits her back where she more or less
belongs - hovering just over our shoulder, as a bitterly funny and always
trenchant observer of our modern American lives.....this world-premiere tunefest makes perfect sense somehow - as a crash course in
the timeless themes of Parker's most enduring work - under the direction of
Alan Souza.
- Tom Chesek
Asbury Park Press - 17 July 2008
The formidably adventurous New Jersey Repertory
has given David Bucknam's "The Little
Hours" an exemplary production. Director Alan Souza has done an
outstanding job.
- Bob Rendell
Talkin' Broadway - 16 July 2008
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2008/07/musical_to_recall_wicked_wit_o.html
The Full Monty is hardly the best musical to play
on the Maltz stage. But it just may be the best
production.....The Full Monty is not an easy show to pull off, but you would
never know from the inventive, assured staging by Alan Souza.....you have a
show that is at least the equal of the National Tour.....with its terrific
rendering of it, the Maltz Jupiter has grown up too.
- Hap Erstein
The Full Monty simply is not a good musical. It's
lame, erratic, and superficial. Why anyone bothered to musicalize
a film that needed no gilding in the first place is an unfathomable mystery. So
it is amazing to report that the Maltz Jupiter
Theatre has mounted such an unreservedly entertaining production, one that is
significantly better than the road show the slinked through here in 2004 There
will be four-letter words, blue jokes, and bare butts tonight. Thank goodness.
Director Alan Souza stages matters deftly while preserving the good-natured raunch and he gets unusually believable performances out of
the entire ensemble.
- Bill Hirshman
Sun-Sentinel - 1 March 2008
Director Alan Souza has wisely created
relationships and embedded them into the existing material. From 31 musical
numbers he has managed to give us 31 shows in one short evening, by treating
each individual song as if it were a play unto itself. This is the way true
revue material is supposed to be written -- but since these songs have all been
extracted from previously existing shows, Souza had to do the work that the
book writer didn't. And he's done it with dazzling results....Souza has not
only directed but meticulously choreographed the evening as well.....Every
moment has its payoff - every joke has its delicious landing.....These elements
all work perfectly with Souza's overall vision of the evening which is sleek,
sophisticated, devilishly sly, funny, and poignant - like the work of Mr.
Sondheim.....I hope to see Mr. Souza direct a great big, fat musical on the
Main Stage, perhaps (or anywhere else for that matter)!
- Claudia Perry
aislesay.com - 29 May 2007
The cast of the Walnut Street Theatre's production
of Side by Side by Sondheim fulfilled director Alan Souza's aim to stage these
30 some songs as one-act plays. Inventive direction and strong vocal
performances are needed....The structure of this revue isn't entirely fluid,
but wherever possible, Souza finds ways to shade and draw out Sondheim's
dimensions, so it doesn't play like a concert of strung together songs. No
gimmicks here.
- Lewis Whittington
EDGE
Well, every now and then you can encounter honest
poignancy in a playhouse. That's one of the things you get with the New
Theatre's efficient production of I Do! I Do! Director Alan Souza gives us a
physically handsome production; the work emerges as an often amusing, even
acerbic commentary on the ups and downs of marriage and shows us flashes of
deeper meaning and a good-faith effort to grapple with "dare I say
it?" the meaning of life.
- Robert Trussell
This little-nonsense, all-musical-sophisticate
medley of a show is directed by Alan Souza with verve and a refreshing lack of
cuteness. Those who may have written off musical revues as bland tributes to
yesteryear should be given a wake-up call on this Side by Side by Sondheim.
It's sophisticated musical theatre that proves tunes also have lyrics - and
sometimes lessons in life.
- Mal Vincent
The Virginian-Pilot - 30 March 2007
VMT's Side by Side by Sondheim is a savvy production. Alan Souza
helms the production as director and succeeds in bringing the meaning and
subtlety to the appropriate levels. He understands the material and is able to
get the best out of the cast members, moving them well, and using only minimal
props.
- Clyde
On
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