Front Page
-
James Taylor Is Alive And Kicking
Another July 4th At Tanglewood
By: - Jul 05th, 2018The traditional James Taylor July 4th Concert was like a high school reunion. Fans returned to see JT and his All-Star Band at Tanglewood. Yet again he was knee high on the Fourth of July and as corny as Kansas in August.
-
Support Group for Men at Goodman Theatre,
By Melancholic Ellen Fairey
By: - Jul 05th, 2018For 95 minutes, Ellen Fairey explores current social issues and angst from gender identity to aging and loneliness, cultural appropriation, men in crisis and the #metoo movement. This takes place in mid-2017 in a second-floor Wrigleyville apartment above an alley where all sorts of shit happens.
-
Knot an Opera by Constantin Basica
Freshly Squeezed Opera Provokes
By: - Jul 03rd, 2018Knot an Opera is an amusing and provocative presentation by Freshly Squeezed Opera. The company is committed to genre pushing new works of the highest caliber that explore the depths of the opera form.
-
The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp
Williamstown Theatre Festival PremieresTwo Plays
By: - Jul 01st, 2018The Williamstown Theatre Festival started its 2018 season with two new plays on June 26/27, both billed as World Premieres. 'The Closet,' a comedy or farce, is presented on the main stage and 'The Sound Inside,' a two person drama, fills Nikos Stage. Mary-Louise Parker plays the protagonist, Bella Baird, and Will Hochman is Christopher Dunn, her 'curious' student.
-
Everyone's Fine with Viriginia Woolf
Kate Scelsa Re-constructs Martha at Elevator Repair Service
By: - Jun 30th, 2018Elevator Repair Service is presenting Kate Scelsa's Everyone's Fine with Virginia Woolf. This production at the Abrons Art Center is a re-construction of Martha in Edward Albee's play. Director and company founder John Collins takes us seamlessly back into the world of Albee, Tennessee Williams and Samuel Beckett to deliver an hilarious and scathing 21st century production.
-
Pilobolus at Jacob’s Pillow
Taking Nature Back Inside
By: - Jun 29th, 2018Recalling seeing Pilobolus over the years one readily recognized its DNA but with the realization of how it has evolved and remained fresh. Just when you think that you know what Pilobolus is about, with a tool kit and vetted skill set, they do something different. You are challenged to revise and update assumptions as an audience or critic.
-
Van, Van the Used Up Man
Berkshire Museum Director Shields Retires
By: - Jun 28th, 2018In a tersely worded press release, offering no explanation, the Berkshire Museum announces parting ways with its controversial director, Van Shields. He was hired in 2011 and presided over the decline and potential extincton of the museum. His strategy to sell key works from the permanent collection and launch his New Vision was met with protest and global media attention. Some will praise him for "saving" the museum and endowing its future. For others he leaves behind a pariah shunned by other museums. His departure and potenial board restructuring are essential as the museum mends fences and fine tunes drastic plans for renovations and gimmicky reinstallatons.
-
Denver's Museo de las Americas
Celebrating Era of Pachucos y Sirenas
By: - Jun 26th, 2018Museo de las Americas, begun in 1992 as one room in a cabinet shop, now occupies a 12,000 sq. ft. building in the heart of Denver's Santa Fe Art District.
-
An Afternoon With Audra McDonald
Perfection at Tanglewood
By: - Jun 25th, 2018A special concert with an unparalleled talent at her peak. Audra McDonald captivated the audience at Tanglewood with her voice, charm, wit and humor. A mother, storyteller and musical ambassador, McDonald prevailed at the nearly full house in Lenox, Massachusetts.
-
Music Man at Canada's Stratford Festival
Not Just Shakespeare in Ontario
By: - Jun 25th, 2018When the performance is as admirably enjoyable as this one is, even a “Music Man” without a commanding Music Man is worth making a real effort to see.
-
ICA Launches Watershed in East Boston
Expansion Shuttles Across the Harbor
By: - Jun 25th, 2018When the ICA opened its new home on the edge of Boston Harbor its fatal flaw was immediately obvious. While praised for dramatic design with development of surrounding towers it was soon hemmed in with no space for expansion. In a bold move it has now reached across the harbor to fast changing East Boston. A former factory has been reconfigured as Watershed. It combines generous exhibiton space with opportunities for meetings, education, and community programming. A long time community activist Frank Conte covers the launch which opens with free admission on July 4.
-
I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard
Play by Halley Feiffer in South Florida
By: - Jun 25th, 2018I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard mixes absurdism, tragedy and pathos. Halley Feiffer's two-hander receives a mostly strong production at suburban Miami's GableStage. A strong pair of actors triumph in riveting production.
-
Jeff Becker's Sea of Common Catastrophe
Irondale in Brooklyn Presents
By: - Jun 21st, 2018The Sea of Common Catastrophe by Jeff Becker is playing at Irondale, a dramatic and inviting space on South Oxford Street in Brooklyn. Becker was inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ short story and invites the audience to suspend disbelief and immerse themselves in the beautiful images and dance of the performers. The words of Marquez and poet Jessica Henricksen are spoken in snippets as lights dance and the waters of the ocean swirl around. This is immersion theater at its best.
-
Gift Theatre’s Hamlet
Shakespeare in a Chicago Storefront Theater
By: - Jun 21st, 2018Gift’s Hamlet is staged with a predominantly African American cast and yet the play isn’t about racism…. or is it? It’s not explicitly, yet it reminds us that it’s only in recent years that African Americans have routinely been cast in classic roles. (And diversity in casting is still a serious and divisive issue in the theater community.)
-
The Aesthetics of Practical Elegance
Objects of Use and Beauty in Japanese Culinary Tools
By: - Jun 20th, 2018The Fuller Craft Museum is one the few specifically craft museums in the United States. Ranging from the traditional to the high tech, its appealing and thoughtful current exhibit showcases a wonderful assemblage of diverse Japanese utensils and accessories used in domestic as well as professional kitchens.
-
Laramie Project
20th Anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s Death
By: - Jun 19th, 2018AstonRep Theatre Company marks the anniversary with a stirring production of The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. It’s a documentary-style play that gives voice to members of the Laramie community—a roster of more than 60 citizens played by 12 actors.
-
Good, Better, Best, Bested
Play a Panoply of Vegas Types.
By: - Jun 19th, 2018Jonathan Spector’s world premiere Good, Better, Best, Bested depicts one night in the lives of a cluster of people in Las Vegas. With a serio-comic look at situations profound and mundane, the play is provocative, engaging, and well produced.
-
The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar
At TheaterWorks in Hartford
By: - Jun 19th, 2018The very talented playwright Ayad Akhtar has combined multiple viewpoints with a political thriller to create the compelling The Invisible Hand now getting an excellent production at TheaterWorks in Hartford through Sunday, June 24.
-
Tony Winner Glenda Jackson
Edward Albee's Three Tall Women
By: - Jun 15th, 2018As with any Albee play, one can spend hours dissecting the lines and the characters. Glenda Jackson and Laurie Metcalf won Tony's for their preformances.
-
Woman and Scarecrow at the Irish Repertory Theater
Marina Carr, an Important Irish Playwright
By: - Jun 14th, 2018It is now in the Midlands of Ireland. A bitter middle aged woman drifts in and out of the multi-layered consciousnesses. She is dying. Ireland's emerging premier female playwright Marina Carr invites us into attend her last moments.
-
The Royal Family of Broadway at Barrington Stage
Is This All Star Production Headed for Broadway
By: - Jun 14th, 2018Barrington Stage Company has assembled a dream team for the world premiere of The Royal Family of Broadway. It is a musical makeover of the 1927 play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. When word gets out about the first smash hit of the Berkshire season tickets may be hard to come by between now and July 7. This production was home grown by Barrington's Musical Theatre Lab.
-
Secret Life of Humans at 59E59 Theaters
David Byrne is Entertaining and Provocative
By: - Jun 13th, 2018Secret Life of Humans at 59E59 Theaters is a thoroughly engaging, funny and thoughtful evening of theater. David Byrne and Kate Stanley have asked in a fresh style: Can we humans survive?
-
Mt. Greylock’s Bascom Lodge
I Could See for Miles and Miles and Miles
By: - Jun 13th, 2018It was a picture perfect Sunday afternoon when we took a long and winding drive to the 3,491 foot summit of Mt. Greylock. It's rustic Bascom Lodge was constructed as a WPA project in the 1930s. It fell into neglect but was renovated and the road repaired in 2009. There are dorm and private rooms for hikers. In season three meals a day are served and dinner on weekends is generally sold out. There are free events on the porch and we attended a mashup organized by Berkshire Playwrights Lab. At 7 PM we joined the family style dinner. For spectacuar views and a sense of adventure it's a summe treat that's hard to beat.
-
Director Laurie Norton Moffatt of Rockwell Museum
What His Legacy Means to the Berkshires
By: - Jun 12th, 2018The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge has just launched “Keepers of the Flame: Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell and the Narrative Tradition.” During a recent press preview we enjoyed an unencumbered view of the scholarly and superbly installed exhibition. Founding director, Laurie Norton Moffatt, discussed what the Rockwell legacy means in light of the controversy of the sale of two of his works by the Berkshire Museum. One of those works "Shuffleton's Barber Shop" was acquired by George Lucas who is loaning it to the Norman Rockwell Museum for the next 18 months.
-
The Father by Florian Zeller
West Coast Premiere at North Coast Repertory Theatre
By: - Jun 10th, 2018Florian Zeller’s latest play, a tragic/comedy with a translation from multi-award winning Tony and Oscar playwright/translator Christopher Hampton, practically guarantee’s one an evening of stimulating quality theatre. Hampton does all the translations for French/Iranian playwright Yasmina Reza of “Art” and “God of Carnage” fame, as well as Zeller’s plays.
<< Previous Next >>