FINALE

Welcome to Katz Reviews. This is Ed Katz of Katnip Marketing- marketing consultant by day; theater and film critic by night- bringing my weekly review segment, Katz Reviews, here for you on WICC 600.

Last week I threw a teaser at the end of my review of ‘First Man’ and said I had a very special Katz Reviews segment for you this week.

I will dispense with the suspense and tell you this is my last Katz Reviews segment for WICC. It has been a fun year and a half but my wife and I are moving to Florida. Not to retire- Katnip Marketing will continue on from Palm Beach Gardens. This move is something we have talked about for a while and we are ready for a new adventure.

Before I go I wanted to share my highlights of some of the best local shows which really tell you there is great theater happening right here in southern Connecticut:

Best Movie You Probably Didn’t See

First- I want to mention the Best Film You Probably Didn’t See this year: ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ 5 stars! Great movie!

Now my Southern Connecticut theater high points from the past year and a half:

Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret Theatre for ‘In the Heights’

‘Rags’ at Goodspeed

Goodspeed Opera House for ‘Rags’ and ‘Oliver!’

Ivoryton Playhouse’s ‘A Chorus Line’

Long Wharf Theatre’s ‘Small Mouth Sounds’

‘Play with Your Food’ in Fairfield, Westport, Greenwich and Rye

Ridgefield Theater Barn’s ‘True West’

The Shubert’s ‘Book of Mormon’

Stratford’s Square One Theatre for ‘The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey’

Summer Theatre of New Canaan’s ‘Singin’ in the Rain’

Westport Community Theater

Westport Community Theater for ‘A View from the Bridge,’ ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ and ‘Moon Over the Brewery’

Westport Country Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse for ‘Man of La Mancha,’ ‘The Understudy’ and ‘Grounded.’ And- a final tip- get your tickets now for ‘The Pianist of Willesden Lane’ returning to Westport Playhouse in December. It’s excellent! You can thank me later.

Get your tickets for this now!

Speaking of thanks, I want to thank everyone at WICC who has been so helpful and supportive of me and Katz Reviews: first, program director Danny Lyons, for giving me this opportunity and allowing me the latitude to choose what I reviewed; Tony Reno and Mike Bellamy- for so graciously allowing me onto their show every week; Chris Marker and Bob Marrone who have both been great to record with; Jason Li in sales, who is also a friend; Greg Bilotta- for encouraging the idea of my reviews here early on, and general manager Steve Chessare for his support. And, to everyone I have met here at the station- this is a really great group of people and it has been a pleasure even being a small part of your team.

I want to thank my wife, Ann, for being so good about me doing this each week. And a heartfelt thanks to you listeners- and readers- of Katz Reviews. I hope I helped you find some worthy plays, musicals and movies…and I hope I also helped you by warning you about some of the bad ones.

I appreciated all of you catching my reviews right here this time each week and on my Facebook page and website, Katz Reviews dot com, where all my WICC 600 reviews are still available for you to read- or hear.

A final wish- I hope you patronize and support the arts and your regional theaters! As I just mentioned, there are many really talented people here in southern Connecticut working hard to bring quality productions to you and they could really use your support.

It has been a pleasure creating Katz Reviews for you each week for the past 18 months. This is Ed Katz for WICC 600.