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  • HIR By Taylor Mac

    Transitional Theatre at Shakespeare & Company

    By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 16th, 2018

    HIR by Taylor Mac, at Shakespeare & Company, demonstrates that we are now well beyond LGBT. The new acronym is LGBTTSQQIAAF. For Maxine who is transitioning to Max the correct pronoun is hir passing through ze. The playrwight answers to the pronoun judy. The play which took 17 years to create is described as Mac's most biographical.

  • Echo and Narcissus Updated by Satellite Collective

    Kevin Draper Re-Imagines an Ancient Myth

    By: Susan Hall - Sep 15th, 2018

    Satellite Collective is an adventurous group of artists from every medium who combine dance, art, music and theater into a unified work. Echo and Narcissus is a full-length collaborative event at BAM Fisher.

  • Agnes Howls at 59E59th

    Lesser America Presents a Play Centered on Autism

    By: Susan Hall - Sep 15th, 2018

    Hurricane Agnes is raging outside the small living space of a group of friends in their early 20s. The play focuses on Charlie, who has been diagnosed at the upper end of autism. We see him struggle to become just like everyone else, or getting as close to more conventional people as possible. His perspective is surprising and dramatic.

  • The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

    Edward Albee Play at Chicago's Interrobang Theatre Project

    By: Nancy Bishop - Sep 15th, 2018

    The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? is certainly a problem play, in the classic sense in which characters debate critical social issues in a realistic context. Think Ibsen, “kitchen sink drama” and the socialist plays of the 1920s and ‘30s. Albee also makes many references to classical tragedy, literature and Greek mythology throughout The Goat.

  • Fresh Acts At Fresh Grass

    The Three Day Festival Is In Full Swing

    By: Philip S. Kampe - Sep 15th, 2018

    The Fresh Grass Festival,which takes place in a wide array of venues at Mass MoCA, in North Adams,Massachusetts, offers bluegrass music that is both traditional and cutting edge. There are four stages, three outdoors and one indoors that cater to the musicians and the family friendly audience. Workshops abound in the galleries with members of the bluegrass community sharing knowledge with their fans.

  • Now & Then

    World Premiere Musical at Wilton Theater Factory

    By: Aaron Krause - Sep 15th, 2018

    A New musical has its touching moments, but is hampered by cliches, sentimentality. The world premiere of Now & Then runs through Sept. 30 at the newly-named Wilton Theater Factory near Ft. Lauderdale. A strong, versatile cast performs in Now & Then's first-ever production in South Florida.

  • Schoenberg in Hollywood at Boston Lyric Opera

    Tod Machover World Premiere

    By: Matt Robinson - Sep 14th, 2018

    From November 14-18, Boston Lyric Opera will bring Arnold Schoenberg back east with the world-premiere production of Tod Machover’s “Schoenberg in Hollywood.” Machover has been hailed for his compositions and also for creating new technologies that allow the boundaries of music to be taken beyond even the atonal heights Schoenberg attained.

  • Pretty Woman the Movie as Musical

    Hooker as Hoofer with a Heart of Gold

    By: Karen Isaacs - Sep 13th, 2018

    The producers of Pretty Woman probably thought they had a sure fire hit. After all, the 1990 movie made Julia Roberts a major star and Richard Gere more of a star. It combines familiar elements: the hooker with a heart of gold, a Cinderella story, and the redemption of a man consumed by greed (think Scrooge).

  • Chicago on Stage

    Four Short Reviews

    By: Nancy Bishop and Matthew Nerber - Sep 13th, 2018

    Chicago critics Nancy Bishop and Matthew Nerber team up to cover four plays with brief reviews. This is one approach to focus on the wealth and diversity of productions in the Windy City.

  • Dostoyeksky’s Crime and Punishment

    At Chicago's Shattered Globe Theatre

    By: Nancy Bishop - Sep 12th, 2018

    Dostoyeksky’s Crime and Punishment is a thriller, a slow-paced intellectualized thriller. If you haven’t read the novel since college days, Chris Hannan’s 2013 adaptation—on stage at Shattered Globe Theatre—will sneak up on you.

  • The Naturalists, A World Premier

    Intimately Understanding Terrorism

    By: Susan Hall - Sep 11th, 2018

    The Pond is an adventuresome young producing group whose mission is to seek out bold playwrights from Ireland and the UK and give American audiences a chance to know them. Playwright Jaki McCarrick deserves wide exposure. Terrorist acts are more familiar to the Irish than Americans, Yet the impact of these events on the families of terrorists is new territory and a fascinating one in The Naturalists.

  • Separate and Equal at 59E59th Street

    Things Get Bad Before They Get Better

    By: Rachel de Aragon - Sep 10th, 2018

    Birmingham passed an Ordinance in May of 1951 which prohibited blacks and whites from playing games together, among other injunctions. Boys will be boys. Often in the South they are allowed to play together until they reach puberty. An empty lot with two baskets was too tempting for six boys, three black and three white, to resist. The consequences are tragic.

  • A Gewurztraminer From Alsace Worth Buying

    A Thriving Family Business

    By: Philip S. Kampe - Sep 10th, 2018

    Since the early 1800's, the Baur family from near Colmar, in France's Alsacian region, has owned several plots of land in this rich, limestone and clay soil area, known for Gewurztraminer (white wine). The family started bottling the wine in 1950 and now thrives with great grandson, Arnaud running the operation.

  • Roberto Devereux by Gaetano Donizetti

    At San Francisco Opera

    By: Victor Cordell - Sep 10th, 2018

    Gaetano Donizetti is recognized as a master of bel canto, with its vocal ornamentation, agility, vibrato, glissando, and precise demands on breath and register control. Although not designed as companions, he wrote operas of three queens in that style, now known as the Tudor Trilogy – Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Roberto Devereux.

  • Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci

    A Twofer at San Francisco Opera

    By: Victor Cordell - Sep 10th, 2018

    In an unusual alteration, perhaps opera’s most famous closing line, “La commedia è finita” which is written for Canio, is spoken by Mamma Lucia, who is a character from Cavalleria. This change is the most explicit link between the two operas, and it also suggests that the speaker represents humanity, demanding an end to the destructive chaos of primitive morality evidenced in both pieces.

  • Tanz im August, Berlin 2018

    Dance in August Ended September 2nd

    By: Angelika Jansen - Sep 09th, 2018

    One of the big international dance festivals, the Berlin based Tanz im August, celebrated its 30th anniversary with a thought-provoking and breath-taking array of works.

  • Detroit ’67 by Dominique Morisseau

    Produced by Aurora Theatre

    By: Victor Cordell - Sep 09th, 2018

    Dominique Morisseau’s scintillating Detroit ’67 encapsulates that tragic time through a lens that never leaves the basement of a black ghetto home over several days that July. Set near the corner of 12th Street and Clairmount, this intersection would become the epicenter of death and destruction in Detroit.

  • La Cage Aux Folles

    At South Florida Company's New Venue

    By: Aaron Krause - Sep 08th, 2018

    La Cage Aux Folles marks first show at Stage Door Theatre's brand new venue in South Florida. Popular Broward County company makes a triumphant debut at its new facility. Theater company imbues Jerry Herman, Harvey Fierstein classic with glamor, humanity and heart

  • Mesa Verde National Park

    Visiting Southwest Colorado

    By: Susan Cohn - Sep 07th, 2018

    Spread over 52,000 acres on high plateaus (7,000 to 8,500 feet), Mesa Verde National Park offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans who built their homes there from around 650 until about 1300 AD.

  • Do Bourbon Barrels And Zinfandel Mix

    Nice Nuance

    By: Philip S. Kampe - Sep 07th, 2018

    A new group of wine drinkers prefer their Zinfandel aged in bourbon barrels. It's the small nuances of charred vanilla on the palate that makes the difference. To achieve that consistantly, makes me want to jump on the bandwagon.

  • 2018 Theatre Season in Connecticut

    Hamilton on Tour

    By: Karen Isaacs - Sep 07th, 2018

    Connecticut is blessed with an abundance of fine professional theaters – from the major regional companies (Yale Rep, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Goodspeed, TheaterWorks, Westport Playhouse) to more locally oriented theaters (Ivoryton Playhouse, Playhouse on Park in West Hartford, Connecticut Repertory Theater at UConn, Sharon Playhouse, Seven Angels in Waterbury, MTC in Norwalk and ACT-CT in Ridgefield). Plus there are the major presenting house that bring in national tours – the Bushnell in Hartford, Shubert in New Haven and the Palace in Waterbury.

  • Talking to Jay and the Americans

    Founding Member Sandy Yaguda

    By: Matt Robinson - Sep 06th, 2018

    Despite occasional lineup changes, the band has always had a “Jay.” Even so, the original name that was bestowed upon them by the legendary songwriting and producing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller did not use any of the bandmembers’ names. What's in a name? The vintage band is on tour this fall.

  • Topsy Turvy on Mt. Greylock

    Bascom Lodge Reading and Book Launch

    By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 04th, 2018

    Astrid Hiemer contributed 19 photo illustrations for my fifth book of gonzo poems Topsy Turvy. On Sunday of Labor Day weekend we collaborated for a reading and book launch at historic Bascom Lodge on Mt. Greylock. There was a nice turnout on the porch. Jose, Alvin, Rick and Art joined us for the jazz dinner that followed. We stayed the night and had breakfast with hikers. It was an adventure we need to have more often.

  • Seize the King at La Jolla Playhouse

    World Premiere by Will Power Reconfigures Richard 111

    By: Jack Lyons - Sep 04th, 2018

    Young award-winning Playwright Will Power (he’s 37), has made a bold decision to roll the dice of ‘reinterpretation’ with his brassy new play “Seize the King”, directed by Jaime Castaneda, now on stage of the La Jolla Playhouses’ Potiker Theatre.

  • Comic Gary Gulman Plays Rochester

    At Boston's Wilbur Theatre in November

    By: Matt Robinson - Sep 04th, 2018

    Gary Gulman was a finalist on NBCs’ “Last Comic Standing” and regular on late night shows and other vaunted venues. The former Boston College football player and high school teacher combines bruising punchlines with intelligent humor as he tours the world. He appears at Comedy at the Carlson in Rochester, New York, September 6 to 8.

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