Theatre
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Shakespeare Globe's Merchant of Venice
Jonathan Pryce a Complicated Shylock
By: - Jul 24th, 2016Man’s cruelty to man is central to this comedy. This production wraps the audience into its web with humor, shock and awe.
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Peerless by Jiehae Park in Pittsfield
Affirmative Action Via Macbeth
By: - Jul 25th, 2016In a raucous, energetic, daunting production of Peerless by Jiehae Park Barrington Stage has boldly brought twentysomething, off off Broadway to the Berkshires. This assault to the senses may not be appealing to older audiences. It gives us a lively glimpse into the mind set of evil twns evoking Macbeth to murder their way to acceptance at the colleges of their choice. Does that make sense?
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1927's Golem at Lincoln Center
Modern, Modern Times Are Here
By: - Jul 27th, 2016Golem One looks part Botero in the lobby of the Time Warner building, where kids play with the tiny penis all day. Golem 2 is more like Chaplin in a St Exupery aviator outfit. Golem 3 is an amalgam of all the visuals we’ve seen. Intriguing. This enchanting theatrical drama uses every imaginable tool to achieve its ends.
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The Stone Witch
A Play That Deals With Fame, Ambition and Aging
By: - Jul 29th, 2016An ambitious unpublished author is guided to meet his writing idol through an editor. What unravels reveals how fame can isolate, and how ambition can move one to do unexpected things. Judd Hirsch is a marvel, Kristin Griiffith shines and Rupak Ginn turns in a nuanced performance.
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Or, by Liz Duffy Owens in Lenox
The First Woman Playwright Aphra Behn at S&Co;.
By: - Jul 30th, 2016In A Room of One's Own, a speech delivered to college women, by Virginia Woolf, I first learned of Aphra Behn (1640-1689). During the bawdy period of Restoration comedy she was the first British woman to earn a living writing plays. In addition to a play about her Or, and a play by her, The Emperor of the Moon, through the efforts of Shakespeare & Company we now know a lot more about this pioneer of women in theatre.
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Foreign Affairs 2016 in Berlin, Germany
A Commentary
By: - Aug 01st, 2016"Foreign Affairs," the international performing arts festival at the Berliner Festspiele is history, literally. This year's festival was the last one of its five-year run. The last three years were under the artistic leadership of Matthias von Hartz and brought ever-expanding public involvement and an increasingly frenetic search for innovative alternatives to theater practices at large. Here is an overview and musings about the final festival as named.
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Let the Good Times Roll
Summer Fun in Charleston
By: - Aug 02nd, 2016For fabulous summer fun Let the Good Times Roll at Charleston's Music Hall.
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Grey Gardens at Ahmanson Theatre
Eccentric Relatives of Jackie O
By: - Aug 03rd, 2016Grey Gardens” is once again being staged by the award-winning director Michal Wilson who helmed the production back in 2007. His cast in this 2016 production stars a sensational Rachel York as ‘little’ Edie Beale/Edith, and a terrific Betty Buckley as Edith Bouvier Beale.
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Cry "Havoc" by Stephan Wolfert
Must See Theatre at S&Co;.
By: - Aug 04th, 2016Last year the one-man-show Cry "Havoc" by Stephan Wolfert was given a couple of performances at Shakespeare & Company. It has returned with a longer but limited engagement. A number of individuals during a post performance talk back indicated that they returned to see it again. This is an astonishing and visceral experience that one simply must see at least once. It is arguaby the most compelling show of the Berkshire season. It has been hinted that it may become an annual event for the company.
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Butler by Richard Strand in New York
How Fort Monroe Launched Emancipation
By: - Aug 04th, 2016Dusting off a proud fact of VIrginia's history, playwright Richard Strand provides a hugely entertaining evening of theatre on the dour subjects of the Civil War and slavery.
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Stalking the Bogeyman at GableStage
David Holthouse Play in South Florida
By: - Aug 06th, 2016The play, “Stalking the Bogeyman,” by David Holthouse illustrates to what extent silence can aggravate, anger and agonize. The piece is a gripping, thought-provoking, bold theatrical work running through Aug. 28 in a riveting Southeastern premiere production by GableStage in Coral Gables, Florida.
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An American Daughter at Williamstown
Revival by Pulitzer/Tony Winner Wendy Wasserstein
By: - Aug 07th, 2016Tony and Pulitzer winning Wendy Wasserstein, who died ten years ago at 55, was among the most successful and admired playwrights of her generation. One of her lesser Broadway plays, An American Daughter, is being revived at Williamstown Theatre Festival. It features a strong woman and candidate for high office who, because of a gaffe on camera, is being crucified by the media. Does this sound familiar?
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Sol Theatre in Boca Raton
By: - Aug 08th, 2016In a traditional production of “Midsummer,” the setting of law and order is the palace of Duke Theseus. In this production, that setting becomes Hermia’s house and the nearby school.
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Gregorian by Matthew Greene at Walkerspace Theatre
Armenian Genocide Based Drama
By: - Sep 09th, 2016Gregorian, Matthew Greene’s latest play, produced by Working Artists Theatre Project at the Walkerspace Theater, digs deep into the painful history of the Armenian people, examining the century long effects of the 1915 genocide on four generations of the Gregorian family, in which the Ottoman Empire slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians.
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St. Germain’s Camping with Henry and Tom
Barrington's Revival Seems Ripped from the Headlines
By: - Oct 10th, 2016The 1993 Mark St. Germain play, Camping with Henry and Tom, is as fresh as a daisy in a timely revival at Barrington Stage Company. With an update of just five lines Henry Ford, originally inspired by third party candidate Ross Perot, has an uncanny resemblance to the worst aspects of Donald Trump.
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Perennial Favorite The Fantasticks
At Pasadena Playhouse
By: - Sep 24th, 2016The Pasadena Playhouse has produced a lively version of the longest running musical The Fantasticks. Even if you have seen it this is a woderful chance to again be enchanted and "Follow, Follow, Follow."
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How Walt Disney Lost His Head
Dark Comedy by Lucas Hnath in Ft. Lauderdale
By: - Sep 25th, 2016“A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney,” by playwright Lucas Hnath, turns upside down the positive image of the man popular culture has ingrained in our minds.
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Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
August Wilson Play at Mark Taper Forum in LA
By: - Sep 25th, 2016‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ now on the boards of the Mark Taper Forum is fabulously acted and brilliantly staged by Tony winner Phylicia Rashad.
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The Cocktail Hour by A. R. Gurney
Launches North Coast Repertory Theatre’s 35th Season
By: - Sep 26th, 2016In ‘The Cocktail Hour’ A.R. Gurney hits the vanishing cultural nail of privilege right on the proverbial head.
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Michael Cristofer’s Man in the Ring
Riveting Premiere at Chicago's Court Theatre
By: - Sep 26th, 2016Michael Cristofer’s Man in the Ring, having its world premiere in Chicago, is a play about boxing with a dark and riveting under card.
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Mahabharata as Battlefield via Peter Brook at BAM
A Startling Message from the Distant Past
By: - Sep 30th, 2016Mahabharata is older and many times as long as the Bible. Its message of man's impulsive thrust to war and destruction is as fresh today as it must have been when it was first composed. Brook has tackled the piece before. This short form packs a powerful punch.
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Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife
From Stratford Festival to Chicago's Timeline
By: - Oct 01st, 2016The Last Wife premiered last year at the Stratford Festival in Ontario and Timeline snagged it for its first US production. The 2.5 hour play is smart and funny and will have you turning on your phone at intermission to look at Katherine Parr’s Wikipedia page.
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October Sky at Old Globe
Musical is Outasight
By: - Oct 03rd, 2016“October Sky” is an uplifting, feel-good type of musical that boasts 19 songs with such numbers as “Look to the Stars”, “We’re Gonna Build a Rocket”, “Stars Shine Down”, “The Man I Met”, and “The Last Kiss Goodbye”, the latter number being especially poignant as sung by the miners’ wives and girlfriends.
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Tony and Emmy Winner Hal Linden
Now 85 in Fantasticks at Pasadena Playhouse
By: - Oct 03rd, 2016I think because the writing was solid, not “trendy”, and always very relatable. I recently put together a clip reel for a concert appearance I was doing, and I had to sit down and watch over 100 hours of “Barney Miller” episodes. I was amazed at how substantial they were, and that they still hold up almost forty years later.
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New Victory's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Captain Nemo Makes His Case
By: - Oct 03rd, 2016The New Victory uses every imaginable tool to go to the depths of the ocean in a 19th century submarine. Jules Verne tells his story with present references to the throttling of the sea by plastic and a case for democratic leadership.
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