AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Additions for February 24, 2009:

AmericanTheaterWeb

Review; This Beautiful City
The Evangelicals of Colorado and Those Who Oppose Them

New York Post

Sermons on the mount
The Civilians hit the jackpot when they went to Colorado Springs, Colo., to research "This Beautiful City." While the theater troupe interviewed residents of the area that's ground zero for the evangelical Christian movement, the news broke about Ted Haggard, then the pastor of one of its biggest megachurches. In terms of...

The Wicked Stage

Testify
[This Beautiful City]

---

New York Times

In a Transformed City, Falling in and Out of Grace
“This Beautiful City,” the latest work of cultural anthropology from the Civilians, is an engaging, inquisitive and evenhanded work of theater.

Newsday

'This Beautiful City' falls short of potential

Associated Press

A docudrama examines the evangelical movement
"This Beautiful City" is a lively docudrama -- complete with countrified musical numbers -- that examines America's homegrown evangelical movement.

Variety

Review: This Beautiful City
The inclination is to laugh when the Civilians swing into their first song in "This Beautiful City," a cowboy ditty extolling Colorado as the promised land. But the laughter turns to slack-jawed astonishment once this wicked-smart documentary theater troupe gets to Colorado Springs and allows the residents of this "Christian El Dorado" to demonstrate the evangelical fervor that transformed it into the mecca of the megachurch movement.

Back Stage

This Beautiful City reviewed by Adam R. Perlman
If you've been under the vast Colorado sky, you have some idea why evangelicals think it's God's country -- and why locals won't be so easily driven away.

TheaterMania

Review: This Beautiful City
The Vineyard Theatre presents The Civilians' attention-getting stage documentary about what makes right-wing fundamentalists tick.

Talkin' Broadway

Review: This Beautiful City
That old saying about surprisingly true events, “If you saw this in a play, you’d never believe it,” has rarely been more apropos than with This Beautiful City, which just opened at the Vineyard Theatre.

CurtainUp

Review: This Beautiful City
While every one of the six actors is a star, with perhaps Stephen Plunkett and Marsha Stephanie Blake the standouts, the superstars of this show are scenic designer Neil Patel and lighting wizard David Weiner