2011 Season Reviews

Love Letters
"With laugh-out-loud lines and an ending that will squeeze tears out of all but the stoniest hearts, it would take two pretty poor readers to bring 'Love Letters' to its knees...They're human. They're us, and that's why we can't help but love them."
Full Review
"Nystrom and Cressman are long-time friends, not a real-life couple, and they manages to capture that difficult balance beautifully. The lights dimmed, they entered, he held out a chair for her to be seated, before taking a seat himself, and the lights came up so the audience could delve into their lives"
Full Review
"With laugh-out-loud lines and an ending that will squeeze tears out of all but the stoniest hearts, it would take two pretty poor readers to bring 'Love Letters' to its knees...They're human. They're us, and that's why we can't help but love them."
Full Review
"Nystrom and Cressman are long-time friends, not a real-life couple, and they manages to capture that difficult balance beautifully. The lights dimmed, they entered, he held out a chair for her to be seated, before taking a seat himself, and the lights came up so the audience could delve into their lives"
Full Review

Rumors
"As an actor, all you've got to do is learn your lines, turn up the heat and watch the magic happen. That's pretty much what occurs in this tight, crowd-pleasing comedy at the Cape Fear Playhouse directed by Tony Moore, whose cast, for the most part, handles Simon's rapid-fire quips and turns of phrase adeptly and navigates the script's twists and turns adroitly to arrive, wheels screeching, at a surprise ending that's just as silly and ludicrous as everything that came before it."
"It's pure farce, with the requisite crazy situations, perfectly timed doors opening and closing and chance ailments (a whiplash injury here, a temporary loss of hearing there) adding to the hilarity."
Full Review
"Big Dawg Productions is currently staging Simon's "Rumors" at the Cape Fear Playhouse and it is filled with laughter!.
"Directed by Tony Moore,...this show has the stamp of someone with a clear vision and, more importantly, a director who gets comedy."
Full Review
"As an actor, all you've got to do is learn your lines, turn up the heat and watch the magic happen. That's pretty much what occurs in this tight, crowd-pleasing comedy at the Cape Fear Playhouse directed by Tony Moore, whose cast, for the most part, handles Simon's rapid-fire quips and turns of phrase adeptly and navigates the script's twists and turns adroitly to arrive, wheels screeching, at a surprise ending that's just as silly and ludicrous as everything that came before it."
"It's pure farce, with the requisite crazy situations, perfectly timed doors opening and closing and chance ailments (a whiplash injury here, a temporary loss of hearing there) adding to the hilarity."
Full Review
"Big Dawg Productions is currently staging Simon's "Rumors" at the Cape Fear Playhouse and it is filled with laughter!.
"Directed by Tony Moore,...this show has the stamp of someone with a clear vision and, more importantly, a director who gets comedy."
Full Review

Hallelujah Girls
"If laughter is any indication of a comedy's success, Big Dawg Productions' latest show, 'The Hallelujah Girls,' has achieved it. If ticket sales also determine a hit, then Big Dawg has one on their hands. The show sold out through its opening weekend, and from what director Michele Seidman says, tickets for its last two weekends are going quickly, too."
"...Big Dawg pulled it off...with a cast who clearly had a ball acting the show"
"Filled with zippy quips, pun-filled songs, metaphors and similes out the wazoo, the adventures of 'The Hallelujah Girls' are, if anything, down-right silly-something many will appreciate when considering the real world's otherwise serious state...in the end, [the audience] laughed their way out the door."
"...the actors sculpt their roles with exciting details, but it couldn't have been done without the writing team of Jessie Jones, Nicolas Hope and Jamie Wooten, otherwise known as 'America's three funniest playwrights.'" Same writers as "The Dixie Swim Club" featured in our 2012 season!
Full Review
"If laughter is any indication of a comedy's success, Big Dawg Productions' latest show, 'The Hallelujah Girls,' has achieved it. If ticket sales also determine a hit, then Big Dawg has one on their hands. The show sold out through its opening weekend, and from what director Michele Seidman says, tickets for its last two weekends are going quickly, too."
"...Big Dawg pulled it off...with a cast who clearly had a ball acting the show"
"Filled with zippy quips, pun-filled songs, metaphors and similes out the wazoo, the adventures of 'The Hallelujah Girls' are, if anything, down-right silly-something many will appreciate when considering the real world's otherwise serious state...in the end, [the audience] laughed their way out the door."
"...the actors sculpt their roles with exciting details, but it couldn't have been done without the writing team of Jessie Jones, Nicolas Hope and Jamie Wooten, otherwise known as 'America's three funniest playwrights.'" Same writers as "The Dixie Swim Club" featured in our 2012 season!
Full Review

Murder by Natural Causes
"Big Dawg Productions 'Murder by Natural Causes' dinner theatre last Friday was one of the most fun evenings I have had in years."
"The set up that Big Dawg has employed seems to be a recipe for success: Utilizing local businesses to provide a pre-show flight of fancy, so to speak, wherein date night becomes an all-in-one stop. The meal and the show both sold out!"
"'Murder by Natural Causes' was tremendous fun!"
"Big Dawg is really a quiet success story of theatre in this town. ... They have built a reputation for producing solid non-musical plays that are character- and plot-driven, with minimal sets and costume changes."
Full Review
"Big Dawg Productions 'Murder by Natural Causes' dinner theatre last Friday was one of the most fun evenings I have had in years."
"The set up that Big Dawg has employed seems to be a recipe for success: Utilizing local businesses to provide a pre-show flight of fancy, so to speak, wherein date night becomes an all-in-one stop. The meal and the show both sold out!"
"'Murder by Natural Causes' was tremendous fun!"
"Big Dawg is really a quiet success story of theatre in this town. ... They have built a reputation for producing solid non-musical plays that are character- and plot-driven, with minimal sets and costume changes."
Full Review

The Diary of Anne Frank
"Director Steve Vernon has an eye and an ear for casting, which is quite remarkable"
"Seeing Tom Briggs onstage...as an actor was a treat. His Mr. Van Daan was deeply human: locked in the eternal father-son battle, devoted to his wife, worried, terrified, despondent but grateful."
"I could not rip my eyes from Robertson, though I wanted to more than I could describe, when he picked that slim volume and broke down in tears."
Full Review
"Director Steve Vernon is successful at creating the feeling of suffocating claustrophobia, using set design and the actors to create an ebb and flow of tension with the always-underlying cancer of fear."
"At the end, when Otto Frank, played by Charlie Robertson, tells what became of everyone, a girl in the audience, about the age of Anne, began to cry."
Full Review
"Director Steve Vernon has an eye and an ear for casting, which is quite remarkable"
"Seeing Tom Briggs onstage...as an actor was a treat. His Mr. Van Daan was deeply human: locked in the eternal father-son battle, devoted to his wife, worried, terrified, despondent but grateful."
"I could not rip my eyes from Robertson, though I wanted to more than I could describe, when he picked that slim volume and broke down in tears."
Full Review
"Director Steve Vernon is successful at creating the feeling of suffocating claustrophobia, using set design and the actors to create an ebb and flow of tension with the always-underlying cancer of fear."
"At the end, when Otto Frank, played by Charlie Robertson, tells what became of everyone, a girl in the audience, about the age of Anne, began to cry."
Full Review
NON-PROFIT THEATRE COMPANY IN HISTORIC DOWNTOWN WILMINGTON
613 Castle St Wilmington NC 28412 * (910) 367-5237 * Bigdawgpro@gmail.com
613 Castle St Wilmington NC 28412 * (910) 367-5237 * Bigdawgpro@gmail.com