Mesa Encore Theatre

Beautiful venue at the Mesa Arts Centre. I loved the small auditorium with stadium seats – honestly not a bad seat in the house. General seating, or «festival» seating as I like to call it. We saw the final show of «The Full Monty,» a show I had seen on the national road tour in a large house but my wife had never seen before. I think after the first scene she thought I had lost my mind, because it set up the plot with a scene at a «ladies night out» performance with a male stripper, in which a very fit dancer stripped down to a very small G-​string! But by the end of the show the audience was cheering and standing and whistling, behavior you might expect from an audience at the first scene, but this time they were cheering for the wonderful and touching musical theatre performance they had just witnessed. There were two Equity actors in the production, but the others held their own with them. I was curious as to why the music director did not adjust some of the top notes for the guys, since they were straining several times, perhaps due to fatigue. Two of the women characters who played the wives of two of the six «strippers» had strong theatre belts and really impressed us. The older woman who played Jeanette stole her scenes, as well as the actor who played Malcolm, just because he was totally in character and believable. But this show is about six guys desperate for work who decide to become male strippers for one night only to take care of their families, and they are not Chippendales (obvious from the first time they take off their shirts,) but they perform with heart and talent and the show was lively, funny and exciting from beginning to end. Since this was the last performance, no warnings are needed, but there is male rear nudity and a flash of frontal nudity at the end («the full monty») which is cleverly disguised by excellent rear lighting. One of the most fun nights in the theatre I have ever had, (and that’s saying a lot for someone who attends live theatre events at least once per week and has a degree in theatre as well!)

We saw I Still Hate You today and loved it. Very talented cast that worked very hard on and off the stage.
Thoroughly enjoyable and hysterically funny!

Such an amazing resource for the east valley. I am a season ticket holder and look forward to every performance. Their production of Next to Normal was incredible to say the least.

Had ths agonizing experience of seeing «Proof» recently. I threw up a little in my mouth… if you like theater, go watch the crazy folks outside of your local Circle K. Light years more entertaining and engaging.