Bob Goepfert

Capital Region - In email and text conversations with local arts leaders there is confusion and anger about the proposed elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts from the 2026 budget.

In the world of theater those May flowers brought on by April showers are starting to bloom. Locally this month there is available a bouquet made up of comedies, musicals and dramas.

It can be very misleading to describe any play as “a comedy about unhappy people.” No one likes to laugh at other people’s troubles.

It sounds simplistic, even obvious, but theater availability and general entertainment choices are usually limited during a holiday week. Today is Easter Sunday and this week celebrated Passover. The lack of theater, be it touring shows or locally produced work, indicates what happens when audiences are preoccupied by such important events.

There are times when a life-lesson is made abundantly clear. This week I had interaction with a contemporary musical artist and a rock group from the 1980s.

Artists everywhere are contemplating what type of art they should create in changing, uncertain times. The question becomes “Do you offer political drama or escapism entertainment?”

The national tour of the musical “Funny Girl” opens at Proctors in Schenectady on Tuesday. It’s based on the life of comedienne Fanny Brice, one of the most important figures in 20th century entertainment.

The fallout from COVID keeps being discovered. The most recent is the reason for the Solo Fest at Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill. When I attended “Help! I’m Trapped in a One-Woman Show” on Sunday, March 16, co-founder Steven Patterson told me the reason they created the festival was the abundance of one person shows available because actors wrote them while in isolation during COVID.

There is a strong temptation to start a review of “Shucked” with a pun. Preferably a bad pun. However, if you are like me and delight in terrible puns this is the show for you.