Theatre
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The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Dark McDonagh Play at Mark Taper Forum in LA
By: - Dec 12th, 2016“The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” a black comedy written by Martin McDoagh in 1996, and staged on Broadway in 1998, returns in a riveting revival production at the Mark Taper Forum, solidly directed by longtime McDonagh associate Garry Hynes; both veterans of the Druid Theatre in Galway, Ireland, as is the entire cast.
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In Transit on Broadway
Charming New A Capella NY Musical
By: - Dec 11th, 2016The refreshing new a capella musical, In Transit, evokes commuters not only on the move but in transition. There are poingant thumbnails of eager millenials reaching for the brass ring underground in the naked city.
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Mark Morris Cracks the Nut
Christmas Traditions Celebrated at BAM
By: - Dec 11th, 2016Mark Morris' The Hard Nut is a Christmas tradition at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It is easy to see why. Morris is true to E.T. A. Hofman's story and also the Tchaikovsky score. Bringing smiles to the audience, punctuated by fear, delight and humor Morris's Nut is terrific.
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Sondheim's Into the Woods
Touring Company
By: - Dec 09th, 2016A national equity tour of an acclaimed production of Sondheim's Into the Woods recently kicked off at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa and is on its way up north -- possibly to your city.
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Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
Pastiche of War and Peace
By: - Dec 07th, 2016What started Off Broadway at Ars Nova, with three steps in between, has transferred to Broadway. Based on a 70 page slice of Tolstoy's War and Peace the explosively inovative Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 is the one to beat as best musical come awards season.
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The Big Uncut Flick by Todd Michael
At NY's Theatre Row's Studio Theatre
By: - Dec 07th, 2016In the early days of television in the 1950s stations provided low budget filler by showing second rate B movies. The usual formula was to have a host, in this case a couple, who introduced the films and pitched products during breaks. This is the theme of Todd Michael's new play The Big Uncut Flick which is having an Off Broadway run.
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Isaac Mizrahi Narrates Peter and the Wolf
John Heginbotham and Ensemble Signal Are Icing
By: - Dec 05th, 2016Of course the costumes are terrific. Isaac Mizrahi, narrator and imaginer of this production, is a top flight designer. Each animal and human has a few eyecatching details. Prokofiev is always fabulous. All the elements come together in the Guggenheim's Works and Process Christmas celebration.
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Pygmalion in Chicago
Remy Bumppo Theatre's Production
By: - Dec 05th, 2016Remy Bumppo uses Shaw’s original script but adds some mid-century touches and a new character—an older version of Eliza, named Elizabeth, personified by Jane deLaubenfels. Elizabeth appears at beginning, middle and end of the play to honor the memory of what took place in the boxed-up rooms that used to be Higgins’ “laboratory” on Wimpole Street.
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Sandy at Sardi's
Broadway Stars at ATCA Lunch
By: - Dec 05th, 2016During the Fall meeting of American Theatre Critics Association there was the traditional lunch wih the stars at Sardi's. Our correspoindent Sandy Katz was on hand to soak up the fun and files this spirited report.
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Tom Wahl in Act of God
Florida"s GableStage
By: - Dec 05th, 2016Carbonell Award-winning actor Tom Wahl portrays the Lord in GableStage’s funny, engaging production of “An Act of God,” which is on-stage through Dec. 18 as the company’s first 2016-17 production.
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First Night Saratoga 2017
New Years Eve celebration of the Arts
By: - Dec 01st, 2016First Night is the most affordable, accessible, family-friendly, safe and exciting way to spend New Year's Eve in the region. On Saturday, December 31st join over 15,000 revelers as Saratoga Art’s presents one of the oldest and largest First Night celebrations in the country. Starting with the 5k roadrace at Skidmore College at 5:30pm, culminating with fireworks in Congress Park at midnight and packed full of live music, dance, comedy and magic in between, this event will be a highlight of your outgoing year.
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Acybourn's Bedroom Farce At Huntington Theatre
A Comedy of Manners, Wit and Whimsey
By: - Nov 24th, 2016When you put 4 couples and 3 bedrooms on one witty night, Alan Ayckbourn creates marital mishegoss with a British accent. Trevor and Susannah, with their marriage on the rocks, invade the bedrooms of their family and friends over the course of an evening, spreading chaos in their wake. Director Maria Aitken (The 39 Steps, Private Lives) returns to the Huntington Theatre for this light comedy of marital misunderstandings.
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Topher Payne’s Perfect Arrangement
At Florida's Island City Stage
By: - Nov 22nd, 2016The leadership of the multi-award winning Island City Stage, a bold and daring Wilton company near Ft. Lauderdale is dedicated to “producing theatrical experiences that positively impact the LGBT and general community,." “Perfect Arrangement” by Topher Payne centers on an effort to track down and fire homosexuals who worked for the U.S. government in the 1950s. .
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King Charles III At Chicago Shakespeare
After the Queen Dies
By: - Nov 21st, 2016This is a thoughtful drama (with comic lines) about the nature of law and constitutionality and father-son relationships. Director Gary Griffin takes Mike Bartlett’s carefully shaped story and brings out its drama, compassion and relevance to the day’s events.
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The Servant of Two Masters
At Brooklyn's Theatre for a New Audience
By: - Nov 20th, 2016The Polonsky Shakespeare Center mounts a charming production of Carlo Goldoni's famous play. Improvisation abounds. You'll hear about Flatbush and election night mares.
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Remembering Edward Albee
A Critic Recalls Interactions with the Playwright
By: - Nov 18th, 2016When Edward Albee died, the social networks were inundated with spontaneous comments. One admirer reminisced about the exquisite instructions on preparing the perfect crème brulee in Counting the Ways and made me realize how many such excerpts have stayed in my mind over the years. I’ve been thinking about them like memorializing snapshots – all those stimulating tricks with words, like Agnes wondering whether she can say “I dropped upstairs” and Jerry asking about saying “A dog I knew.”
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Tony Winning Play on the Road
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By: - Nov 18th, 2016The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time closed on Broadway in September after 800 performances (including 23 previews) and won five Tony Awards, including Best Play and garnering a host of other honors. Our correspondent reports on the touring company that performed briefly in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Jon Robin Baitz's Vicuna
World Premiere at Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City
By: - Nov 16th, 2016“Vicuna” is comedy rich in innuendo and roman à clef portrayals. I’ve seen several of Jon Robin Baitz’s plays in the past, but this one is a little different from his usually serious efforts as a dramatist.
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From Silence by Anne Marilyn Lucas
NY's Theater for the New City
By: - Nov 16th, 2016The brutally honest play From Silence by Anne Marilyn Lucas is based on her observations of second generation Holocaust survivors and their families. The piece centers on a Jewish Holocaust survivor who, as a coping mechanism, has remained silent about her experiences in detention.
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Playwright Lauren Gunderson Takes Action
An Offer We Cannot Refuse
By: - Nov 15th, 2016Any theatre company, group, or person who wants to do a reading of my feminist political comedy, The Taming, on Inauguration Day 2017 can do so for free, with thanks to Playscripts.
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First Annual Berkies Awards
Theatre VIPs Jam Mr. Finn's Cabaret
By: - Nov 14th, 2016The Berkshire theatre gilterrati crammed into Mr. Finn's Cabaret for a raucous evening celebrating The First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. Seventeen arts journalists voted on 120 nominees in 25 categories chosen from artists in the 75 live theatre productions mounted in Berkshire County and adjacent areas between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016.
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After by Michael McKeever
World Premiere at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center
By: - Nov 12th, 2016“Now what” are the words playwright Michael McKeever wants us to ponder after watching his devastatingly honest, explosive, unflinching and all-too-topical play titled simply “After.”
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Finian's Rainbow Arcs Over New York
Irish Repertory Mounts Charming Production
By: - Nov 11th, 2016FInian's Rainbow was first produced in 1947, but the tough issues it raises are very contemporary. In Southern United States blacks and whites live comfortably, but are challenged by land grabs, Sears Roebuck salesmen and a Senator ripe for conversion.
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White Lights Festival Presents All That Fall
Beckett's Radio Drama Re-imagined
By: - Nov 10th, 2016The brilliance of Samuel Beckett is captured by the Pan Pan Theatre Company of Dublin. Beckett's magical words never had more music and humor. The irony of death's grip is fully evoked in our mind's eye as we sit in rocking chairs, imagining figures. Beckett is laugh-inside funny, his words ricocheting around the room.
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The Little Flower of East Orange in Chicago
Play by Stephen Adly Guirgis at Eclipse Theatre
By: - Nov 10th, 2016Stephen Adly Guirgis opens the veins of family feelings in his plays, with his gritty, piercing dialogue. He writes scenes we usually don’t see in public, scenes that reveal long histories of family abuse that become painful memories. He does this in Between Riverside and Crazy and The Motherfucker with the Hat, He is is a member of New York’s highly regarded LAByrinth Theater Company. Little Flower premiered at LAByrinth in 2008, directed by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
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