Theatre
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Barrington Stage Touts Boffo Season
A Million Plus in Ticket Sales
By: - Oct 18th, 2012Single ticket sales exceeded $1M for the second time in BSC’s 18-year history, even breaking last year’s total (the first time was in 2011). Total season pass sales for 2012 are 30% greater than 2011 season pass sales. St. Germain Stage passes alone increased 44% from 2011 to 2012 (after nearly doubling from 2010 to 2011) – representing an all-time record number of season passes. 2012 attendance is more than 51,000, representing a 6% increase over 2011.
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Now Or Later Timely At Calderwood Theatre
Huntington Theatre Company Presents Riveting Political Drama
By: - Oct 17th, 2012During election season, the Huntington Theatre Company has scheduled a timely play about politics when all hell broke loose. Now or Later is set on election night. A presidential candidate's son sends his father’s political team beyond crisis mode when controversial photos of him at a college party go viral over the web. They potentially spark an international incident. This smart topical drama examines inherited religion, freedom of expression and personal responsibility in a time of electionmania.
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WAM Theatre Premieres The Old Mezzo
Susan Dworkin Play Stars Eileen Schuyler
By: - Oct 15th, 2012The emerging WAM Theatre has taken on the challenge of a world premiere of The Old Mezzo by the renowned feminist writer and one of the Ms Magazine founders, Susan Dworkin. It is an ambitious but uneven collaboration between the feminists, Kristen van Ginhioven, a co founder of WAM and the Berkshire based Dworkin. The production has been staged at the Berkshire Museum through October 28.
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Rock Wilk's Broke Wide Open at 45th Street Theatre
Monodrama Brings You Home
By: - Oct 14th, 2012Rock Wilk is mesmerizing in his monodrama “Broke Wide Open.†The image of his arm pumped up in a power gesture immediately gives hope to a bleak beginning. Wilk was turned over by his birth mother to be passed, swadled, from foster home to foster home, and finally settled in a wonderful Jewish family, where he was treasured. Love or no love, he grapples with his identity as he tries to find home
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By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at LA's Geffen Playhouse
Play by Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage
By: - Oct 14th, 2012Since her breakthrough play “Intimate Apparel†in 2003 (seen at the Mark Taper Forum in 2004), and her Pulitzer Prize winning drama “Ruined†in 2009, playwright Lynn Nottage now makes a 180-degree turn in subject matter with an interesting and provocative serio-comedy entitled “By the Way, Meet Vera Starkâ€. It just opened at the prestigious Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.
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Under My Skin at Pasadena Playhouse
Gender Bender by Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser
By: - Oct 14th, 2012Eve Ensler, playwright and author of the popular play “The Vagina Monologuesâ€, had better watch out if she wants to retain her “favorite playwright status†with females around the globe. The Hollywood husband and wife writing team of Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser, have written an extremely funny and tightly crafted, gender-bending, comedy entitled “Under My Skinâ€, currently rocking the house at the venerable Pasadena Playhouse. And it’s closing the gap fast.
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The Exit Interview by William Missouri Downs
San Diego Repertory Theatre Through October 21, 2012.
By: - Oct 14th, 2012“The Exit Interview†written by William Missouri Downs and directed by Woodhouse, is a perfect example of controversy, political theatre, and entertainment coming together in the Lyceum Space, in San Diego.
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The Lily's Revenge Flowers At A.R.T
Pushing the Boundaries of Theatrical Experience
By: - Oct 14th, 2012This is a marathon performance by many gifted performers who sing, dance and do comedy schtick. The narrative theme is a theatrically variated and vegetative allegory for love without boundaries. Featuring a 30+ person ensemble, The Lily's Revenge integrates movement, film, performance art, and music into five unique acts that shatter cultural expectations and social norms. A sparkling theatrical experience that embraces the conflict of tradition and stability, love and fulfillment as well as transvestite flower girls and sexual mores.
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November at LA's Mark Taper Forum
David Mamet's Election Farce Stars Ed Begley Jr.
By: - Oct 10th, 2012In “November†David Mamet delivers his hilarious, over-the-top commentary on fictitious American President Charles Smith, as he and his staff prepare for his reelection campaign. The one that no one wants to even think about, let alone work on. Ed Begley, Jr. stars in a hilarious Mark Taper Forum production in Los Angeles.
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Lord of the Flies at Barrington Stage to Oct. 21
Boys Will Be Boys
By: - Oct 08th, 2012During the run of Lord of the Flies some 2,500 students will attend five morning performances. This experience, combined with reading the classic William Golding novel, will be the focus of class room discussion. The production with a cast of ten boys is full of sanguine energy and exuberance. The play ends a strong season for Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield.
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Allegiance a New Musical at Old Globe
George Takei of Star Trek Premieres Play in San Diego
By: - Oct 06th, 2012“Allegiance†is a new American musical inspired by the true-life family experience of actor George Takei (Mr. Sulu of “Star Trek†fame). Takei, along with his parents and other family members were removed from their Salinas farm in 1942 and were placed in a government internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. The musical premieres at Old Globe in San Diego, California through October 21.
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Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway
High Camp for Everyone
By: - Sep 30th, 2012Peter and the Star Catcher is a prequel to Peter Pan and won five richly deserved Tony’s this season. If you want to see what J. M. Barrie was dreaming about before he put pen to paper to write Peter Pan, try this terrific show. .
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Shakespeare & Company Spoofs 39 Steps
Classic 1935 Hitchcock Film as Farce
By: - Sep 30th, 2012In a sendup of the Hitchock classic 39 Steps a game and lively cast of four play a combined 32 characters. This fast paced production, directed by Jonathan Croy, slams and careens about from London to Scotland and back again. In the fall production at Shakespeare & Company superb actors are let off the leash in over the top, flat out farce.
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Playwright Mark St. Germain Part Two
Works in Progress
By: - Sep 27th, 2012Mark St. Germain left a lucrative gig with The Cosby Show to devote full time to writing for the theatre. Over the past 27 years he has written a dozen plays, six musicals, ten screenplays, and a children's book. There are at least twelve projects in varying degrees of development. He has been a board member and adviser to artistic director Julianne Boyd since Barrington Stage was formed some 18 years ago. Currently, his play, Freud's Last Session, is being produced all over the United States as well as abroad. We engaged in this dialogue while he was in Pittsfield for the second run of Dr. Ruth All the Way.
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Glengarry Glen Ross at La Jolla Playhouse
Christopher Ashley Directs Mamet Play
By: - Sep 26th, 2012California correspondent covers the classic David Mamet play Glengarry Glen Ross at La Jolla Playhouse. Artistic Director Christopher Ashley has assembled a wonderfully talented and gifted cast of diverse looking actors, who fit their back-stories to a T. It’s fascinating to watch this ensemble group of performers who thoroughly understand the playwright’s dramatic intentions and dialogue, which has been referred to over the years as “Mametspeakâ€. Translation: it’s vulgar at times (loaded with f-bombs), but always honest, and it’s usually delivered at warp speed.
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Mark St. Germain 's Dr. Ruth at Barrington Stage
The Process of Developing Plays
By: - Sep 24th, 2012The premiere run of Dr. Ruth All the Way by Mark St. Germain sold out at Barrington Stage Company. A return, through October 7, allows for fine tuning the one woman play which stars Debra Jo Rupp. During this first of two installment of a recent dialogue St. Germain also discussed a work, Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah, commissioned for next summer's Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
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Red Dogs Howls at the New York Theater Workshop
The Great Kathleen Chalfont in a Commanding Performance.
By: - Sep 24th, 2012The Armenian genocide hasn't gotten the attention either the holocaust or Darfur have. This play tells its story in very personal terms. Chalfont playing a survivor is brilliant.
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Randy Harrison Supports Hunter Bell’s Found
Colonial Theatre Workshops New Musical
By: - Sep 23rd, 2012Berkshire Theatre Group regular Randy Harrison was on hand to support his pals playwright/ actor Hunter Bell and members of the New York based theatre/ education collective Story Pirates. The mostly younger audience found this second ever performance of the workshopped musical Found just hilarious. While youth must be served it was a tad too raunchy for grownups.
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Marie Antoinette: Piece of Cake Headtrip at A.R.T.
A Spectacular Contemporary Take on Queenly Excess
By: - Sep 22nd, 2012Marie Antoinette at the A.R.T. is a quirky, surreal and profane tragicomedy that provides a look into the life of cake enthusiast and infamous queen starring a stunning Brooke Bloom as Marie. By David Adjimi, playwright of last year’s Off-Broadway phenomenon, Elective Affinities, A.R.T. presents this world premiere in a co-production with Yale Repertory Theatre. This is history drama as part rock opera, comedy and Samuel Becket surrealism with stream of consciousness autobiography thrown in for good measure. A brilliant theatrical event.
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Sensational Good People At Huntington Theatre
A View of Southie As Origin, Fate and Poignancy
By: - Sep 19th, 2012In working class, Irish-American South Boston, each month’s paycheck barely covers last month’s bills, bingo at the Parish Church is a night on the town (thank you, Father), and put-upon sharp-tongued single-mom Margaret Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. At times poignant, this is a compelling humor-filled drama full of twists of fate and human foibles. Brilliantly cast and beautifully staged, it was created by Boston-born Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire. This play is a must-see.
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Barrington Stage Company's On the Town
2013 Season Passes Now on Sale
By: - Sep 18th, 2012For the 2013 Season, Barrington Stage is introducing the Premium Combo Pass which includes seven shows for the price of five. This pass is the best value of the season and provides a savings of up to 31% off the 2013 single ticket price. Combo passes include front orchestra section
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Mikado Sings at Lyric Stage Company
Gilbert and Sullivan's Classic Brilliantly Contemporized
By: - Sep 16th, 2012When it was first produced in 1885, the Mikado brilliantly resurrected the careers of Gilbert and Sullivan. It brought the recently unveiled exotic far away Japan to a very understandably human level. It is universally considered Gilbert & Sullivan’s most beloved work. With a contemporary twist, wonderfully and energetically staged by Spiro Veloudos, this is a witty musical satire of social mores and politics that is as contemporary today as it was 125 years ago. In great voice, the cast sings mischievous and clever 2012 American-election-year rhyming patter and lyrics.
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Terry Teachout Part Five
New Haven and Long Wharf Theatre Then
By: - Sep 12th, 2012In this fifth and final installment of a dialogue with Terry Teachout we discussed plans for the production of his first play Satchmo at the Waldorf which moves from Shakespeare & Company to Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven. So far it has been seen by a number of artistic directors of regional companies and New York producers are expected to attend the production in New Haven. What happens next for Satchmo will become clear after opening night in New Haven. As teachout puts it "The word is out on this play."
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Terry Teachout Part Four
Taking Satchmo to the Next Level
By: - Sep 10th, 2012After opening night the Shakespeare & Company production of Terry Teachout's new play Satchmo at the Waldorf was "frozen." Teachout attended a number of performances and took notes for revisions working with director, Gordon Edelstein, and the actor, John Douglas Thompson, for the next production which opens at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven in October. For this installment Teachout discusses the primary sources researched for the harsh language of Louis Armstrong and his gangster manager Joe Glaser.
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Terry Teachout Part Three
Mood Indigo a Duke Ellington Bio in Progress
By: - Sep 08th, 2012Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout has written and produced an opera The Letter and a play Satchmo at the Waldorf. He has written two plays and another libretto since then but refuses to reveal details. We discussed his next music bio Mood Indigo, about Duke Ellington, which he hopes to finish in January. He did admit that he had a multi character idea for a play that would not include Ellington.
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