Lawrence Toppman

Crash. Kick. Stab. Punch. Talk (briefly). Smash. Chase. Screech. Shoot. Mumble.

One hundred years ago last May, Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio and French composer Claude Debussy premiered "The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian." It paid homage to a healer the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered clubbed to death in about 288, as he persecuted Christians.

In rare cases - and "The Woman in Black" is one of them - a story may be more atmospheric when less is left to the imagination.

Someone above my moral pay grade must decide if "The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told" is blasphemous enough to imperil the souls of author Paul Rudnick, Queen City Theatre Company or anyone seeking a ticket.

You'd expect a movie about a woman who masquerades as a man to reveal the circumstances that made her deepen her voice, crop her hair and don a high collar to conceal her lack of an Adam's apple.

Lawrence Toppman: Characters' recollections of treasured or hideous garments yield moments of heartbreak or exultation.

The most important thing about "Doubt" is that, at the end, we walk away with some.

The good news for theatergoers is that five to six dozen actors auditioned for five roles in "Doubt," which opened at Theatre Charlotte on Friday. Anyone casting a show knows there's strength in such numbers.

An actor can take over a movie so thoroughly, with a personality of such magnetism, that we forget the skepticism and questions the script leaves in its wake.

Robert Glaudini's "Jack Goes Boating" is a play in two acts and three questions.