Stephen Schellhardt Archives

A man with dark hair and glasses, wearing a vest and a white apron, stands left with his arms folded in front of a candy counter. A young girl in a plaid skirt, jacket, and knit hat stands right. She is holding a chocolate bar over her head triumphantly.

Paramount’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adds a touch of bitter to the sweet

by Kerry Reid November 30, 2023December 4, 2023

Whether you’re waiting anxiously to see Timothée Chalamet in Wonka (the musical prequel to Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), or are rolling your eyes in anticipatory disgust (look, after the 2005 Johnny Depp cinematic debacle, I don’t blame you for being anxious!), Paramount Theatre’s current staging of the 2013 musical Charlie and the […]

Five actors in stand in line on a stage featuring a gloomy forest background, with fallen trees and a gray cloudy dome behind them. At left is the Baker, carrying a variety of tools and weapons on his belt. Next to him is Jack in a brown leather jacket and boots. The Witch stands center, looking outward with her arms partly raised, wearing a strapless purple gown covered with silver glittery streaks that suggest lightning. Cinderella stands to the right of the Witch in her ragged kitchen maid's clothes, holding a baby wrapped in a blanket. On the far right is Little Red in a red dress with a cloak of wolf fur over her shoulders.

Theater Review

Seeing the forest and the trees

by Kerry Reid February 15, 2023February 15, 2023

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical Into the Woods premiered three years before Robert Bly’s Iron John sent men into the wilderness as part of the “mythopoetic men’s movement,” complete with sweat lodges, drum circles, chanting, and other rituals designed to restore a pre-industrialization notion of masculinity, combined with Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” narratives. The […]

The actors portraying the members of Alison Bechdel's family in Paramount Theatre's Fun Home stand together. Mother Helen is on the left, in a dark blue cardigan, followed by John in a blue jacket, Alison in a red cardigan and striped top, Christian, also in a blue jacket, and father Bruce in a gray checked suit.

Theater Review

The Bechdels, tested

by Kerry Reid August 17, 2022August 17, 2022

Alison Bechdel’s family, captured first in her 2006 graphic memoir Fun Home and then in a Tony Award-winning 2015 chamber musical (music by Jeanine Tesori, book and lyrics by Lisa Kron), feels right at (uneasy) home on the intimate Copley Theatre stage in downtown Aurora. Presented as part of Paramount’s “Bold” series of seemingly more […]