Theatre
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Flight of the Monarch by Jim Frangione
Soars at Shakespeare & Company
By: - Aug 10th, 2024For a first attempt, however, Frangione is a promising playwright with a great gift for dialogue. On every level this was a delightful performance. The director, Braha, evoked the best from two superbly trained classical actors, Burrows and May, seen here in vernacular form.
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A Shonda in South Florida
World Premiere at The Foundry
By: - Aug 10th, 2024The world premiere production of a musical adaptation of Wendy Graf's play "A Shonda" is underway in South Florida The winning production runs through Sept. 1 at The Foundry in Wilton Manors, near Ft. Lauderdale. This is a visceral production in the intimate Foundry space.
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Pipe Dream at Unicorn Theatre
Rarely Produced Rodgers and Hammerstein Musical
By: - Aug 08th, 2024Pipe Dream is an obscure, rarely produced musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II based on novels by John Steinbeck. Berkshire Theatre Group is making a strong and risky case for why we should take another look at a musical with a flawed book but richly compelling music.
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The Prom
At Sharon Playhouse
By: - Aug 08th, 2024The Prom is not a great musical, but it is an entertaining show that goes way above what is sometimes created.
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N/A by Mario Correa at Mitzi Newhouse Theater
Past, Present and Future of US poitics
By: - Aug 07th, 2024Mario Correa’s play N/A is thoroughly entertaining. The two-hander is at the Mitzi Newhouse in New York through September 1. Holland Taylor and Ana Villafane star. Diane Paulus directs.
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Legend of the Ring
West Edge Opera Produces Wagner's Condensed Ring Cycle for a Third Time
By: - Aug 06th, 2024In four operas and over 15 hours of running time, Richard Wagner's epic Ring Cycle spins historic Germanic legends embellished by the composer's own fancy. David Seaman edited the compendium into a 3 1/2hour condensation. The flavor of Wagner's rich romantic music is retained, but while the general plotline is honored, it is jumpy and loses some continuity. Nonetheless, this piece gives a strong flavor of the highly respected yet controversial body of work.
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Bulrusher - The Opera
World Premiere Pulitzer Finalist Play by West Edge Opera
By: - Aug 05th, 2024A black female foundling with a gift for telepathy is becoming a woman. Her world of isolation in a white, northern California town is pierced by the arrival of another young black woman from Alabama. Multiple conflicts ensue among the diverse characters. The lush music appeals and performances are first rate.
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Mark St Germain Explores Forgiveness
World Premiere for Barrington Stage Company
By: - Aug 04th, 2024Inspired by a newspaper article, Forgiveness is set in Minnesota where prisoners are allowed to plead their case in front of the Governor, in a bid to be returned to society. In this interactive production, audiences help determine who is worthy of forgiveness.
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The Islanders by Carey Crim
World Premiere at Shakespeare & Company
By: - Aug 01st, 2024Carey Crim has written a slow, intricate two-hander that takes patience to absorb us into the incremental pace of the Island. Director Reggie Life and a superb cast (Michelle Mountain and "ranney") have meticulously involved us in their struggle for meaning and endurance.
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The Prom
At Playhouse on Park
By: - Jul 30th, 2024The Prom is worthwhile seeing because of the fine performances and choreography.
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Victor Hugo's Masterpiece Works Well as a Stage Musical
By: - Jul 29th, 2024The deformed hunchback Quasimodo has suffered a life of abuse and isolation as the cathedral bell ringer. When he has the chance to interact with other people, he endures scorn from many, but the beautiful Roma girl Esméralda is kind. Quasimodo's cruel guardian Frollo, the Deacon of the Cathedral, who despises the Roma but is smitten by Esméralda, intercedes with unhappy consequences.
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Pamela Palmer by David Ives
World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Jul 27th, 2024The highlight of a scaled back Williamstowm Theatre Festival season was the world premiere Pamela Palmer by the renowned playwright David Ives. With a noir approach he would have us accept the improbable. His tale of class struggle is set in the mansion of the unhappy housewife who has hired a detective.
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Boeing Boeing at Barrington Stage
Comedy Takes Flight
By: - Jul 25th, 2024Now retired Julianne Boyd returns to Barrington Stage Company to direct the comedy/ farce Boeing Boeing. She has selected a dream team of BSC frequent flyers, Christopher Innvar as the scheming bachelor, Bernard, the nubile Mark H. Dold a visiting long lost friend Robert, and Debra Jo Rupp, a comedic national treasure as Bernard’s maid, Berthe.
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The Great American Mousical
The Legacy Theatre
By: - Jul 24th, 2024The plot is simple; a Broadway theater is about to be demolished while in the basement, a company of mice rehearses their own “musical.”
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A Streetcar Named Desire
New City Players near Ft. Lauderdale
By: - Jul 23rd, 2024New City Players' current professional production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" sizzles. The production runs through Aug. 4 in Island City Stage's blackbox theater. The company uses space and budget limitations to the production's advantage.
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The Best of The Second City
Residency at Berkeley Rep for Storied Improv Troupe
By: - Jul 19th, 2024The vaunted Chicago-based troupe performs sketches, quick-hitters, and enough improvisation to display their fast reaction chops. Old skits are updated, and enough local references are integrated for the production to feel home grown. The cast of six operates black-box fashion, effectively and entertainingly employing mime to represent invisible props.
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Accused!
The Victorian Ladies Detective Collective Trilogy is Complete With a Case Involving Terrorism
By: - Jul 15th, 2024London is under threat. One woman has been murdered and another killed in a bombing, with anarchists being implicated. Three intrepid female sleuths find evidence that suggests otherwise. Patricia Milton's script is literate and replete with revelations about social and political issues of the day.
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Elevator Repair Service Creates a New Ulysses
Summerscape at Bard Presents Staged Novel
By: - Jul 15th, 2024Elevator Repair Service, an innovative theater producing group, presented a staged version of James Joyce’s Ulysses in the Luma Theater at the Fisher Center as part of Bard’s Summerscape 2024 whuich commissioned the work.
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La Voix Humaine and Dido & Aeneas
Festival Opera Fine Production of Divergent Works
By: - Jul 14th, 2024Carrie Hennessey gives a sterling performance in the Francis Poulenc work, "La Voix Humaine," as a woman who talks to her lover on the phone while learning that she is losing him. Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" is given a fine treatment as well, led by the chorus and orchestra.
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Death, Let Me Do My Show
Rachel Bloom at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Jul 12th, 2024Standup comedian, Rachel Bloom, is a really big deal. Her rom-com “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” ran for four seasons on The CW with poor ratings but a solid fan base. She brought a standup piece “Death, Let Me Do My Show” to Williamstown Theatre Festival. The routine was filmed for future release on Netflix.
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South Pacific at Goodspeed Musicals
An Audience Favorite
By: - Jul 11th, 2024South Pacific is a show for romantics. It is one of my favorite shows and the audience’s cheers on opening night showed that they, too, loved it.
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Mystic Pizza
Ivoryton Playhouse
By: - Jul 10th, 2024You will recognize the tunes that are well integrated into the plot – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Addicted to Love,” “I’m the Only One,” “Into the Mystic,” “Lost in Your Eyes,” “Smalltown” and “Never Gonna Give You Up,” among others.
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Dragon Mama at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Sara Porkalob in Solo Performance
By: - Jul 10th, 2024“Dragon Mama,” a one-woman show by Sara Porkalob, is but one of three staged productions in this season of the venerable Williamstown Theatre Festival. With a brief run it is presented on the black box Center Stage. It has been used only once preciously.
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The Lifespan of a Fact
Do Facts Constitute Truth? Is Truth Objective and Unassailable?
By: - Jul 06th, 2024In this account of a true story, essayist John D'Agata wrote a piece about the suicide of Levi Pressley who jumped from the top of Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas. Fact checking showed that D'Agata fabricated numerous but inconsequential details for the sake of style. The philosophical differences between the author and the fact checker provoke a thoughtful consideration of what constitutes truth. It's more complex than you might think.
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Experiments in Opera at HERE
New York Gets Four Delicious Mini Operas
By: - Jul 05th, 2024The world premiere of “Five Ways to Die” took place at HERE in New York. If the subject is “death,” it must be an opera. Tosa jumps to her death from the walls of Castel Sant'Angelo. Aida and her lover die in an airless Egyptian tomb. La Traviata coughs herself to death in a Parisian garret. Defying death, all these women sing marvelously. We suspend disbelief, carried away by gorgeous tunes. Experiments in Opera, a successful and innovative company, takes a different approach.
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