I’m all for firsts. And Artistic Home’s very solid production of Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana presented a whole world of them. It was my first time seeing any iteration of this classic Williams play, my first time seeing this well-established, small-yet-mighty ensemble, and it was the ensemble’s first production in their impressive new storefront space.

Overall, I’d say the combination proved a triumph of firsts.

Ok, so Williams’ play is is more than a bit heavy handed, and going into the show cold, there’s a boat-load of exposition that took me about half the first act to piece together. Essentially, Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon (the ideally cast John Mossman) has recently been shunned by the church, and has started a new career as a tour guide. Unlucky for his tour party, somewhere deep in the coast of Mexico he engages in one of his many “nervous breakdowns.” He escapes the mess by visiting his friend Maxine who runs a cheap motel near the coast. The recently windowed Maxine (the fiery Miranda Zola) is hot on the trail for the ex-Reverend, but another motel guest, a mysterious spinster (Kelly Owens) and her eccentric father (the adorable Walter Brody) may foil Maxine’s plans, while also shaking Shannon from his mid-life crisis. Read the full review on The Huffington Post >