Theatre
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Aoife Duffin Embodies A Girl Half-Formed
Irish Words Affecting and Harrowing
By: - Apr 21st, 2016A Girl is a Half-formed Thing has been translated from novel to stage by Annie Ryan, who also directs. A solo performance by the brilliant Aoife Duffin evokes the world of a young Girl, growing up with an older brother who is dying of brain cancer. Her mother's absorption with the boy leaves the Girl unprotected, but also free to spread her wings. Astonishing images arrest the ear.
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American Repertory Theatre 2016/ 17 Season
Award Winning Theatre in Cambridge
By: - Apr 20th, 2016“Our 2016/17 season features work that will engage our audiences in current conversations around gender, class, and identity; pivotal moments in Irish and Argentinian history; and the crisis in our American education system.” stated A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus. “I am delighted to welcome back to the A.R.T. Anna Deavere Smith, Bill Rauch, and Jo Bonney, and to introduce many new artists.” She continued, “Incubating and developing new work is critical to our mission of expanding the boundaries of theater. Instead of helming a production next season, I am excited to be dedicating my time to the development of new work, which will result in productions for future seasons.”
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Steppenwolf Premieres Mary Page Marlowe
Six Actors Portray Tracy Lett's Main Character from 12 to 69
By: - Apr 20th, 2016Tracy Letts’ script for the Steppenwolf Theatre world premiere production, Mary Page Marlowe, explores her identity in 11 scenes and 80 minutes. In his dramatic deconstruction of a life, the scenes are not performed in any ordered way and Mary Page is represented from age 12 to 69 by six different actors. (And a baby doll. Originally three actual infants were to alternate as infant Mary Page, but director Anna D. Shapiro decided during previews that was too much verisimilitude. Shapiro has children herself, so I don’t know why she thought a baby would do what it was being directed to do. Directing babies would be like herding cats.)
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ATCA in Philly
2016 Theatre Conference
By: - Apr 19th, 2016"In our time, theater here began to blossom about 25 years ago," wrote Howard Shapiro, a Philadelphia-based theater critic and ATCA's conference chairman in a welcome note to attendees. "And about 15 years ago the scene exploded. Of the 50-plus stage companies that pay their actors, designers and creative teams, about 35 hold Actors' Equity contracts at any given time. Metropolitan Philadelphia is now home to more than 1,000 Equity members, plus sizable communities of scenery, costume, lighting and sound designers; directors and playwrights. The theater community is a minor Philadelphia industry."
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Eugene O’Neill Theater Center
2016 Season
By: - Apr 12th, 2016Waterford, CT – The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center announced today the 2016 summer season of plays, musicals, and other works in development at the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Puppetry Conference, and Cabaret & Performance Conference.
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Laurence Holder's Sugar Ray
Woodie King, Jr. Directs Reginald L. WIlson
By: - Apr 12th, 2016Legendary actors Wesley Snipes, Laurence Fishburne, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson took their first steps on the stage directed by Woodie King, Jr. before they blasted onto the Big Screen. Woodie has found a new giant, Reginald L. Wilson, who he directs in a mesmerizing performance at Harlem Besame, on the exact spot that Sugar Ray Robinson, arguably America's greatest boxer, conducted his enterprises in Harlem.
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Can You Forgive Her At Huntington Theatre
A Social Comedy About Making Mistakes at the Calderwood
By: - Apr 12th, 2016On Halloween night, various individuals are weighing their life questions and answers. Sparky Miranda is desperate for a way out of her situation. She’s up to her neck in debt, she might be actually falling for the man who pays her bills, and now her week-end date has threatened to kill her. A seemingly sweet stranger offers shelter and a drink. Where will the night end? With dark humor, two-time Pulitzer finalist Gina Gionfriddo presents complicated and somewhat incomplete characters wrestling with love, money, and their past. This sometimes awkward show is about people making strategically bad life choices and mostly talking about it. Using contemporary themes roughly juxtaposed, the playwright uncomfortably lays out no easy answers.
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I Will Look Forward to This Later at New Ohio
Both Funny and Tragic
By: - Apr 11th, 2016When the famous and respected literary lion Wyatt Holloway suddenly passes away, his wife, sons and lovers are left to figure out how to relate to each other and find direction in their lives. “I Will Look Forward to This Later” will be playing at The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher St., NY, NY) through April 23.
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ATCA Celebrates Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone
Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award
By: - Apr 10th, 2016The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has selected Qui Nguyen’s “Vietgone” as the winner of the 2015 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2014.
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Six Characters in Search of a Puppeteer
At La Mama Theodora Skipitares Creates Families Thru Eons
By: - Apr 09th, 2016No classic drama remains unexplored by the gifted puppeteer Theodora Skipitares. Now at La Mama, she presents Six Characters in Search of More than an Author. Or Actor for that matter. An intriguing take on Pinocchio, Oedipus, Rhoda (the Bad Seed), and the Louds, America's first reality family. Margaret Mead is a surprising tour guide.
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Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo
Chicago's Remy Bumppo
By: - Apr 09th, 2016Remy Bumppo’s new production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo is the powerful story of the famous mathematician whose findings about the structure of the universe defy church teachings. His story is supremely relevant today because it poses crucial issues such as science vs. religion and government control of expression.
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A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles
By: - Apr 08th, 2016One can’t help but enjoy the sparkling and inventive on-stage musical comedy machinations of ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ in one of the Ahmanson’s slickest and audience-pleasing productions this season. The musical runs in LA through May 1.
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No Vote for Votes
Sequel to "The Last Temptation of William Jefferson"
By: - Apr 08th, 2016Jacqueline S. Salit and Fred Newman’s new take on a Clinton Presidential candidacy struggles to define itself. Is it a play? A musical? A satire? A serious morality play? It ends with a distasteful and irresponsible message.
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Brian Dennehy Special Guest for P'Town Gala
Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival
By: - Mar 30th, 2016The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival (TWP Fest) announces that the multi-award-winning actor Brian Dennehy, recognized for his interpretation of many of Eugene O’Neill’s complex characters, will be the guest of honor at their annual dinner. The gala is to support this fall’s 11th festival, Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams: Beyond Success with performances from theaters around the world throughout the charming seaside town from Sept 22 – 25, 2016. The Gala will take place on June 4.
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O'Neill's Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Court Theatre Production in Chicago
By: - Mar 30th, 2016If Eugene O’Neill is the master of dysfunctional family plays, then Long Day’s Journey Into Night is the masterpiece of the genre. Recognized as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, the play won the Tony for best play and the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1957. Currently it is being produced by Court Theatre in Chicago through April 10.
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Jonathan Norton's Mississippi Goddam
Wins ATCA's 2016 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award
By: - Mar 30th, 2016The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) announces that Jonathan Norton has won its 2016 M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award for an emerging playwright. The award will be presented at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville on April 9.
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Tom Stoppard's Arcadia
Launches New Writers Theatre in Glencoe, Illinois
By: - Mar 29th, 2016Writers Theatre opened its spectacular new theater in Glencoe this week with an appropriately spectacular production of a play by Tom Stoppard one of today’s greatest playwrights, smartly directed by Michael Halberstam. It was almost a four-star evening.
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Blackbird Not Broadway-Worthy
Disappointing Despite All-Star Cast
By: - Mar 25th, 2016The combination of Michelle Williams (Una) and Jeff Daniels (Ray) should have been Broadway gold. When the curtain went down at the Belasco Theatre my companion’s comment was “well there was a whole lot of garbage on the stage.” Indeed the entire play takes place in a lunchroom strewn with leftover food wrappers and empty paper cups. For a play about the damaging relationship between a 40+ man and the woman he had sex with when she was a girl of 14, there were no surprises and little character development. The play was a disappointment given such a potentially explosive topic and talented cast.
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Big Year for Bill Russell, One of Broadway's Best!
BCEFA Benefit Premieres an Exciting 2016 for Lyricist Russell
By: - Mar 25th, 2016Writer/Lyricist Bill Russell has brought us some of the best of on and off Broadway – yet many do not recognize his name. Creator of the moving and critically acclaimed Side Show, Russell recently staged a benefit performance of Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens (for Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS) at the Birdland Jazz Club in NYC which was spectacular. 2016 will be a big year for Russell, with world premieres and revivals of three of his shows (Side Show, Pageant, and premieres of both Brave New World and Unexpected Joy) in London and across the U.S. from Cape Cod to the Carolina's and the Black Hills of South Dakota!
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Disney’s The Little Mermaid at Theatre 29
Theatre Still Delivers on Its Mission Statement
By: - Mar 24th, 2016“Disney’s The Little Mermaid” is one of the most ambitious productions Theatre 29 has tackled. And they have succeeded admirably. The California production continues through April 9.
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Endangered Species by Tony Padilla
Pearl McManus Theatre in Palm Springs
By: - Mar 24th, 2016“Endangered Species” written and directed by Tony Padilla stars Bonnie Gilgallon as Tina, a suburban Chicago housewife married to David a successful businessman played by Alan Berry. The couple married over twenty years are in New York on a holiday where they plan to relax and recharge their romantic batteries.
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Sex with Strangers at LA's Geffen Playhouse
Talky Two-hander by Laura Eason
By: - Mar 24th, 2016In “Sex with Strangers, the plot revolves around Olivia (Rebecca Pidgeon), an intelligent, mid-career, one-book novelist who is having second thoughts about her ability is a writer, and Ethan (Stephen Louis Grush), a wildly successful, young, hyper-energetic stud/blogger with an ego to match, who meet in a mutual friend’s borrowed cabin on a snowy winter night in Michigan.
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Lucy Prebble's Compelling The Effect
Off Broadway at Barrow Street Theatre
By: - Mar 20th, 2016Lucy Prebble selects topics of heightened interest and then makes of them marvelous plays. Enron on the collapse of a fake US energy company is now followed by an exploration of drug trials and what they tell us about human beings.
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Lorca's Blood Wedding
Anemic Production at Chicago's Lookingglass
By: - Mar 18th, 2016Blood Wedding was part of Federico Garcia Lorca’s plan for a “trilogy of the Spanish earth”—unfinished when he was killed in 1936. Most critics include Yerma and The House of Bernada Alba in the “rural trilogy” but Lorca did not include the latter. The decision to set this production in the more-realistic Depression-era U.S. diminishes the mythic nature of Lorca’s story.
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Off Broadway Musical Ruthless
Falling In Love Again Is Simply Marvelous
By: - Mar 16th, 2016That NY critic, Edward Rubin, is a bit gonzo and over the top is no secret to his friends who know him as Fast Eddy. He refers to us as kids in a flurry of daily notes and links to reviews and articles of interest. In general we deplore the use of personal pronouns for reviews. Professional standards and decorum strive for objectivity. Now and then, as is the case here, his passion and enthusiasm know no bounds. Regarding an Off Broadway musical Ruthless he gushes "I loved, loved, loved Ruthless." That's just for openers.
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