Theatre
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How the Other Half Loves by Sir Alan Ayckbourn
Classic Comedy at North Coast Repertory Theatre
By: - Apr 19th, 2018There ought to be a law stating all British farces and comedies must be staged by British-trained directors in order to get the full impact of their special, zany, erudite, and/or silly brand of comedy. “How the Other Half Loves” by Sir ASlan Ayckbourn is blessed in having six talented actors who know their stuff; perform on NCRT’s stage and have fun in doing it.
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The Wanderes at The Old Globe
Premiere of Hsssidic Play by Anna Zeigler
By: - Apr 19th, 2018The subject of ‘arranged marriage’ is still practiced in some places and cultures in the world. But in the West, and especially here, in America, one might have some difficulty finding small enclaves of religious separatists that still cling to the old ways of religious observance.
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Age of Innocence at Hartford Stage
Douglas McGrath Adapts Edith Wharton Novel
By: - Apr 18th, 2018Douglas McGrath has taken Edith Wharton’s novel of constricted high society in New York City in the 1870s and condensed it to 100 minutes. By focusing on specific scenes with little connection between them, at times it feels episodic and lacks flow.
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Arts Journalist Glenn Loney at 89
Beloved Member of American Theatre Critics Association
By: - Apr 17th, 2018Glenn Loney’s massive resume in 2006 listed more than 1,000 magazine and journal articles, 530 reviews, 7 books, 6 unpublished plays, 2 detailed show program notes, editing or contributions to 22 books, and 39 in-depth interviews for Cue magazine. Among the books is a two-volume "20th Century Theatre," a day-by-day chronology of American, British, and Canadian Theatre activity from 1900 to 1980. He is rembered by William Hirschman, president of American Theatre Critics Association.
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Martyna Majok wins 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Apr 17th, 2018Congratulations to playwright, Martyna Majok, and Mandy Greenfield, artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival, Her harrowing play, Cost of Living, had its world premiere in Williamstown in July, 2016. The production moved to New York's Manhattan Theatre Club in 2017. The play has won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. We have reposted the review in Berkshire Fine Arts.
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Steinberg/ATCA Award Winner
Lauren Gunderson Play The Book of Will
By: - Apr 15th, 2018A play about preserving Shakespeare's words honored with ATCA/Steinberg awards. The American Theatre Critics Association award goes to Lauren Gunderson for The Book of Will.
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King Lear Strips at BAM
Crowning Performance by Antony Sher
By: - Apr 15th, 2018In Antony Sher's take on the role, Lear divests himself of authority as well as land. Faced now with relationships which reveal the true characters of not only his daughters, but his friends, his allies and a wise, poetic fool he meets along the way, Lear is stripped to his essence.
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Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson
World Premiere Play in South Florida
By: - Apr 14th, 2018Edgar & Emily is an intriguing new play by William McDonough. The finely-tuned world-premiere production is running at Palm Beach Dramaworks in Florida. Actors and technical elements are strong in the debut staging
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Bridges of Madison County
Produced by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
By: - Apr 11th, 2018“You could have driven into someone else’s driveway.” These words summarize not only the randomness of events that leads to a torrid but compassionate love affair in Bridges of Madison County, but to life itself. Under Robert Kelley’s direction, it is extremely well crafted schmaltz with excellent production values that should appeal to a broad audience.
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Birdland by Simon Stephens
Look Inside Rock Music Business
By: - Apr 11th, 2018Simon Stephens has said that Birdland is influenced by Radiohead’s OK Computer tour in 1997 and the rockumentary, Meeting People Is Easy. Stephens said in an interview, “Thom Yorke’s very present in Birdland.” Like Yorke’s, Paul’s band went from venues of 2,000 to 20,000 and 75,000 over a short time span. “You watch him lose all sense of self.”
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Be Here Now Staged in South Florida
Deborah Zoe Laufer Play Receives Second Production
By: - Apr 10th, 2018One month after Be Here Now's world premiere in Cincinnati, Deborah Zoe Laufer's Play flies south to the Sunshine State. FAU Theatre Lab's production is a noticeable improvement over the play's debut. Piece's second mounting features multi-faceted performances and sensitive direction of an engrossing, thought-provoking play.
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Timon of Athens at Cutting Ball Theatre
A Rarely Performed Shakespeare Play
By: - Apr 08th, 2018Timon of Athens ranks as one of Shakespeare’s least performed plays. While the dialogue is definitely Shakespearean, Timon lacks the popular quotes and hooks of the greater plays – no “pound of flesh” or “out damned spot” or “lean and hungry look” or “slings and arrows.”
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Clybourne Park in Ft. Lauderdale
Bruce Norris' Meaty Play at New City Players
By: - Apr 07th, 2018Clybourne Park's issues take on an urgency with racial strife, other problems plaguing our world. Bruce Norris' Pulitzer Prize winning sequel to A Raisin in the Sun is receiving a mostly commendable production in South Florida. Fireworks light up New City Players' stage to open New City Players 2018 season
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Motherhood Out Loud
Produced by Dezart Performs,
By: - Apr 07th, 2018Under the smart and crisp direction of Artistic Director/Actor Michael Shaw, “Motherhood Out Loud” brings insights and revelations to the males in the audience and smiles and a multitude of laugh-out-loud- moments from the ladies in the audiences; be they mothers or not.
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A.R. Gurney's The Cocktail Hour
Directed by David Youse at the Annenberg Theatre
By: - Apr 07th, 2018A.R. Gurney's “The Cocktail Hour”, is a semi-autobiographical comedy that offers a peek into the world of one upper-crust waspish family as they engage in their nightly ritual – the cocktail get together before dinner.
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Twist's Symphonie Fantastique at HERE
O'Riley's Liszt and Anniversaries Galore
By: - Apr 06th, 2018It's Berlioz. It's puppets. It's a supershow. The twentieth anniversary production of Basil Twist's remarkable Symphonie Fantastique is at the ever enterprising and surprising HERE in New York. Christopher O'Riley performs Liszt's piano transcription of Berlioz's love letter/nightmare. Twist performs his magic in an aquarium filled with 1,000 gallons of water.
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Chicago Theatre Critic Nancy Bishop
Sharing a Life in the Arts
By: - Apr 06th, 2018We met Chicago theatre critic Nancy Bishop during a conference of American Theatre Critics. In the past few years she has covered theatre for us. This is an interview posted to the website she edits Third Coast Review.
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Luisa Miller at the Metropolitan Opera
Mixing Old and New
By: - Apr 03rd, 2018The Metropolitan Opera's revival of its 2001 production of Luisa Miller looks backwards and forwards at once. It features Placido Domingo singing the latest in a line of Verdi baritone roles that the aging tenor has used to extend his already distinguished career. (It was also supposed to re-unite the singer with James Levine, but the conductor's firing due to repeated accusations of sexual misconduct by multiple parties spoiled that happy event.) It looks forward in that its two leads, Piotr Beczala and Sondra Yoncheva, represent the cutting edge of a new generation of opera singers that are having their well-deserved moment in the spotlight.
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The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe
At Marin Theatre Company
By: - Apr 03rd, 2018In The Wolves, Sarah DeLappe has written a play about a group of high school girls on a soccer league team that can satisfy theater goers of many ilks. It triggers waves of laughter and perhaps some amazement and embarrassment to those who haven’t peeked behind the curtains of young girls’ social behavior.
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Brecht's Round Heads and Pointed Heads
At Chicago's Red Tape Theatre
By: - Apr 03rd, 2018Is Bertolt Brecht the playwright for the Trump era? We will argue that he should be so designated. Round Heads is more a pageant than a play; there are few plot intricacies and little character development.
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Re-imagining The Sound of Music
World Premiere Play in South Florida
By: - Apr 02nd, 2018The Radicalization of Rolfe shines a spotlight on The Sound of Music's minor characters. Andrew Bergh's intriguing, suspenseful and humorous play imagines what supporting characters might have been doing or saying when they're not part of the main action. The world premier production at Island City Stage achieves mixed results
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Old Stock at 59E59 Theaters
Mixing Klezmer and the Bible
By: - Apr 01st, 2018A big box sits on the stage at 59E59 Theaters before the show begins. Has an Amazon drone has delivered it before the audience is admitted? Curtain time and the door of the box swings open to reveal a band, playing their hearts out in familiar klezmer style, impassioned and soulful. A sign reads, Halifax, Nova Scotia. A boat load of immigrants has landed, with all the hopes of a new life threaded into the notes of song.
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Iron Shoes a World Premiere
Shotgun Players and Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble
By: - Apr 01st, 2018The story lines of Iron Shoes are simple and somewhat predictable with feminist tropes. However, they are delivered with great enthusiasm and charm and provide delightful entertainment as good fairy tales should.
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Three Tall Women By Edward Albee
On Broadway with Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalf and Alison Pill
By: - Apr 01st, 2018It’s only a few months before the 26th anniversary of the first American appearance of Edward Albee’s masterpiece, Three Tall Women, yet we’ve seen surprisingly few revivals. Certainly those who love Albee’s plays can rejoice at this masterful new version with the legendary actress Glenda Jackson.
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Kelley Faulkner in Always Patsy Cline
Juke Box Musical at Milwaukee Rep
By: - Apr 01st, 2018After two near fatal car crashes Patsy Cline confided in friends that she sensed her number was up. She drew up a will on TWA stationary and gave away personal possessions. That was not unusual as she was notably generous to family, friends and emerging women performers. A month later, at 30, she was dead in a plane crash. At Milwaukeee Rep in the two hander Always Patsy Cline we had a vivid evening of her unique and stunning music.
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