Mayte Natalio

Picnic at Hanging Rock

December 28, 2025

However, where the Peter Weir film used magical lighting and the atmosphere of the actual filming at Hanging Rock to recreate a mystical, supernatural feeling, the musical instead adds songs and dialogue. Unfortunately, Bell’s lyrics are either too prosaic or too poetic without creating a magical world, while Gold’s folk-pop score often sounds the same throughout. The busy set by Daniel Zimmerman which attempts to shoehorn the school and its stairway to the second floor, the hanging rock and its environs, and the five-piece orchestra all on the same stage seems rather cluttered along with the forest of trees and foliage in the background. The many-colored costumes by Ásta Bennie Hostetter for the girl students’ dresses vie with the background for our attention and there are often too many hues on stage simultaneously. While Barbara Samuels’ lighting is often exactly right, her plot using red for the picnic seems to make many of the girls look like they have picked up terrible sunburns in a very short time. [more]

Urinetown (NY City Center Encores!)

February 8, 2025

“What an awful name for a musical,” spouts Little Sally (a brilliantly talented Pearl Scarlett Gold) as one of the narrators of the New York City Center Encores’ witty production of the 2001 surprise hit "Urinetown." Yes, it is, but it’s also an entertaining show that actually has inadvertent relevance to today’s audience with its artful jabbing at big business. [more]

Suffs

May 3, 2024

The transfer to Broadway has brilliantly expanded the show. The new production designed by Riccardo Hernández (scenery), Paul Tazewell (costumes), Lap Chi Chu (lighting) and Charles G. LaPointe (wigs & hair) brings Taub’s script to vivid life, much better than the more didactic and spare Public Theater rendering. These artists put Taub’s script into historical context making the battle all the more vibrant. The new version also has rethought the casting, reshuffled and improved the songs and, more importantly, is more focused and effective in telling about the conflicts—internal and external—that plagued the suffrage movement. These included dissonance between Catt and Paul; the thorn-in-the-movement’s side of the Black contingent led by the brilliant Ida B. Wells (a charismatic Nikki M. James); and the far left, Socialist ideals of the hothead Ruza Wenclawska (Kim Blanck, brilliantly avoiding caricature). [more]

How to Dance in Ohio

December 12, 2023

Based on an identically titled 2015 HBO documentary by Alexandra Shiva, "How to Dance in Ohio," in its musical form, works best whenever that magnificent seven is completely together onstage and falters mightily if none of them are present. Their characters' bond comes courtesy of Dr. Emilio Amigo (Caesar Samayoa), a psychologist--in both real and theatrical life--who specializes in social therapy for autistic people. To assist them in the closing stage of their adolescent development, Dr. Amigo's creative approach is to hold a spring formal, a traditional rite of passage that, of course, generally produces a lot of anxiety even if you're not neurodivergent. Through the voice of Marideth (Madison Kopec), the newest and most studious member of the group, Rebekah Greer Melocik's high-minded book makes sure to point out this hoary event's gendered baggage, though simply as an annotation rather than as the basis for any intriguing character conflict. [more]