Review: Top talent ensures ‘Jitney’ is great show

By Bob Fischbach WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Published Thursday February 18, 2010

It’s one of the most unforgettable dramatic moments of the year on local stages.

John and Tyrone Beasley, a father and son in real life, play an estranged father and son to electric, lacerating, heartbreaking results in August Wilson’s “Jitney.” The show is quite simply the best drama yet seen this season.

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Review: August Wilson Cycle Continues to Shine at JBT

by Warren Francke of The Reader

The magic of August Wilson’s writing as performed in the John Beasley Theater finds me struggling to convey the power of Jitney, the 1970s part of his 10-play cycle on the African-American experience.

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 Review: Beasley’s ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ a powerful play

By Bob Fischbach WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Published Thursday September 24, 2009

The John Beasley Theater has distinguished itself again with stellar ensemble work, only this time the playwright isn’t Beasley’s favorite, August Wilson.

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Theater Review: ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ superb drama at Beasley

By Loyal Fairman

The Daily Nonpareil

Published: Thursday, September 24, 2009 9:20 AM CDT

OMAHA – “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” by Dale Wasserman and based on Ken Kesey’s novel opened a four-weekend run at The John Beasley Theater & Workshop in South Omaha. Tyrone Beasley, the director, has a good cast in this famous story of one man’s defiant battle in a mental institution.

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*Blame Adam. Not the original man for original sin, but Leo Adam Biga, The Reader’s prolific reporter, for my rather ordinary crime of skipping August Wilson plays at the John Beasley Theater.

Biga was quick to cover earlier offerings in Wilson’s 10-play Pittsburgh cycle, so I didn’t head south in time to catch them. I saw a moving excerpt performed by John and son Tyrone Beasley at the Great Plains Theater Conference, but finally lost my Wilson-Beasley virginity last weekend with their Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.

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BY Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Published Thursday February 26, 2009

Toward the end of the first act in "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," a transcendent moment happens on the stage of
the John Beasley Theater.

People around the dinner table at Seth and Bertha's boardinghouse, having finished a fine meal, decide to make
some music - what they call a Juba. No musical instruments in this humble establishment, but conjure man Bynum
starts a rhythmic pounding on the table, and others gradually join in with makeshift percussion and their voices.

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BY Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Published Sunday December 28, 2008

It's goofy to rank them from best to least best, so I'll alphabetize my choices for the 10 community theater shows I most admired in 2008.

Your list would no doubt be different, and it's all horribly subjective. But at least you know I saw nearly 70 shows last year. These lasted most vividly in memory:

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BY Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Published Thursday December 11, 2008

Combine seven poetic sermons of African-American writer James Weldon Johnson with the traditions of the old-time black preacher, then add music.

That gives you some sense of "God's Trombones," which opened Friday at the John Beasley Theater. But it doesn't begin to capture the rousing spirit of the words, the energy of a 20-voice gospel choir or the artistry of a half-dozen or more soloists belting improvisational riffs.

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BY Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Published Friday September 19, 2008

John Beasley's performance in "Fences" is so incredibly good, you can imagine that those lucky enough to catch it will talk about it for decades.

The Pulitzer-winning drama by August Wilson, directed by Beasley's son Tyrone, opened last week at the John Beasley Theater to a well-deserved and noisy standing ovation.

Beasley stars as Troy Maxson, an embittered garbageman whose dreams of a professional baseball career were thwarted by racism.

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BY Bob Fischbach
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

When the cast of "Ain't Misbehavin'" sings "This Joint Is Jumpin'" at the end of act one, well, that ain't jive, honey. It's jumpin'.

The John Beasley Theater's production of this Fats Waller revue, which won the best-musical Tony in 1978, is a slightly naughty, slightly bawdy, whole-lot-entertaining evening of script-free song and dance.

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