Theatre
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Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Guide to Evolution
At Williams '62 Center for Theatre and Dance Feb. 8 & 9
By: - Jan 17th, 2013The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance presents a novel species of theatre that combines the wit, poetry, and charisma of a great rapper with the accuracy and rigor of a scientific expert, Baba Brinkman’s The Rap Guide to Evolution uses hip-hop as a vehicle to communicate the facts of evolution while illuminating the origins and complexities of hip-hop culture with Darwin as the inspiration.
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Modern Theatre's Spring Programming
In Boston's Theatre District
By: - Jan 15th, 2013The Modern Theatre at Suffolk University announces the programming lineup for its spring 2013 season, featuring world premiere performances and innovative explorations of classic works. The theatre is located at 525 Washington St. in Downtown Boston.
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Poignant Other Desert Cities At SpeakEasy
Penetrating Dark Secret of Conservative Family
By: - Jan 14th, 2013After a six year absence, the seemingly prodigal daughter returns to her conservative parents' home for Christmas in 2004. Brooke has been living and writing in New York, politically and culturally far from the isolated Palm Springs desert family home. Recently leaving rehab, her mother's sister Silda is now living belligerently with her parents. Brother TV producer Trip is there as well. It is at first an expected holiday character mix of a disfunctional family, but the drama becomes a whole lot more. This is a story of family, dignity and things that are not what they seem.
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A Crucible Deconstructed
Miller, Misfits, Monroe, Clift, Warhol and Pregnant Teens
By: - Jan 14th, 2013Deconstruction was not the intent of this wild play, but if you needed to follow its elements to understand the real purpose, looking at theatrical 'zones' over time. While there were compelling performances, and many enjoyable elements to this production, an enjoyable whole was not the sum of its parts.
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10×10 New Play Festival at Barrington Stage
Pittsfield Winter Festival February 14 to 24
By: - Jan 11th, 2013The 10×10 Upstreet Arts Festival returns to downtown Pittsfield for the second year from February 14-24, 2013, and features music, theatre, dance, film, visual art, spoken word, comedy and more, including BSC’s 10×10 New Play Festival.
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The Wonderful Wizard of Song
Music of Harold Arlen at NY's St. Luke's Theatre
By: - Jan 11th, 2013Harold Arlen’s career spanned the 20th century, so it is not surprising that he wrote the song most often awarded best of the last hundred years, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.†This song alone could open our hearts to this new production showcasing Arlen’s work.
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Invisible Man Resonates At Huntington
Ralph Ellison's Brilliant Story of Racism and Dignity
By: - Jan 09th, 2013This well-acted play is the journey of an idealistic young African-American man searching for identity and his place in the world in pre-Civil Rights America. Based on Ralph Ellison’s landmark American novel about race, power and ultimately personal freedom, it is presented as an eloquent theatrical experience.
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The Liar at Shakespeare & Company
David Ives Adapts Pierre Corneille’s Farce
By: - Jan 09th, 2013The Liar has all of the ingredients of a perfect French farce. The truth will set most people free, but for Dorante (our disingenuous hero) a series of fibs may pave a convoluted road to happiness. The Liar was originally penned by the classic 17th Century playwright Pierre Corneille, in 1664. This translation by award-winning American playwright David Ives merges the iambic humor of classic verse with a contemporary twist.
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Kelli O'Hara Returns to Williamstown in 2013
Bridges of Madison County Debuts in August
By: - Jan 07th, 2013For the second season in a row Williamstown Theatre Festival will premiere a film transformed into a musical. Last summer Kelli O'Hara starred in "Far From Heaven." She returns to the Berkshires in "The Bridges of Madison County." The film paired Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood,. A co star for O'Hara is yet to be announced.
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33 Variations At Lyric Stage
Spanning Obsessions, 200 Years And Painful Lives
By: - Jan 06th, 2013Separated by 200 years, a mother is coming to terms with her daughter as well as her health and a composer is coming to terms with his hearing and genius. These two share an obsession that transcends the boundaries of time. Moisés Kaufman play is focused on passion, parenthood and the moments of beauty that somehow transform life.
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Pippin Spellbinding At American Rep
A Brilliant Re-Creation of Iconic Show
By: - Jan 04th, 2013From the first note of the overture to the final bow, this Diane Paulus directed revival of Pippin at A.R.T. is a magnetic effervescent theatrical treat. This is musical theatre as scrumptious life is a circus delight. Along with incredibly talented supporting players, Patina Miller, Andrea Martin and Matthew James Thomas bring athleticism, humor and just plain talent to a new interpretation of a now classic musical score and narrative. This is must-see before it goes to Broadway. There is Magic to do here.
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2012 Theatre Highlights
Berkshires and Beyond
By: - Dec 29th, 2012With a diverse staff of contributors Berkshire Fine Arts strives for national theatre coverage. In this year end roundup we provide an overview with highlights rather than a top ten or best of list. There are numerous links to plays, features and interviews. Overal,l it was a great year that include a week in Chicago for the meeting of the American Theatre Critics Association as well as in depth coverage of the Berkshires and a taste of Broadway.
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Black Angels Over Tuskegee
Layon Gray’s Play in Third Year Off Broadway
By: - Dec 18th, 2012For an entertaining, intimate, insightful evening of theatre it doesn’t get much better than Black Angels Over Tuskegee. Leon Gray wrote, directed, and acts in this award winning play now in its third year Off Broadway.
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Dezart Performs’ Play Reading Series
Three Winning One Act Plays
By: - Dec 16th, 2012Dezart Performs’ Play Reading Series is an annual event held every spring in Palm Springs and receives playwright entries from all over the country. This year the organization received 121 submissions. The three One-Acts in this year’s festival are: “Feeding Time at the Human Houseâ€, written by David Wiener and directed by Lenny Ripps. “The Blind Dateâ€, written by Tanis Galik and directed by Don Cilluffo, and “Mourning Glory†written by Rich Orloff and directed by Dezart’s artistic director, Michael Shaw.
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Other Desert Cities at Mark Taper Forum
Jon Robin Baitz Play Fails to Impress
By: - Dec 15th, 2012As a Palm Springs-based theatre critic, I felt I had the inside track on Jon Robin Baitz’s insight concerning his latest play “Other Desert Citiesâ€, now on the stage of LA’s Mark Taper Forum. I was partially correct. Listlessly directed by Robert Egan, features a nice cast in a less than stellar vehicle.
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Dead Accounts By Theresa Rebeck
Show Me the Money
By: - Dec 14th, 2012With her third Broadway production, Dead Accounts, Theresa Rebeck is running on vapors. Perhaps this half backed, ersatz sit-com is a part of the collateral damage of last season's struggles with the brilliant but embattled TV series Smash. She has departed from the show which she originated. Whatever the reason this new play entirely lacks focus. It is little more than a one liner and gag stretched out in two miserable acts. It does however have the star power of Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz and tabloid regular Katie Holmes to sell tickets.
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Zelda Fitzgerald in P.H. Lin Play
Lost Generation Icon Remains Missing
By: - Dec 13th, 2012Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was the wife and muse of author F. Scott Fitzgerald whose The Great Gatsby helped to define the Jazz Age of the 1920s. P. H. Lin's play Zelda at the Oasis portrays her as a deranged drunk washed up in a down and out New York bar during the Great Depression. In her New York debut Gardner Reed brings passion and energy to Zelda matched by Edwin Cahill in a variety of roles.
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Our Town At Huntington Theatre Enthralling
Rethinking Thornton Wilder's American Masterpiece
By: - Dec 12th, 2012In 1901 Grover's Corners, George and Emily fall in love, marry, and live out their lives as one New England town becomes a microcosm of everyday life. Or maybe not? Cleverly conceived and directed by David Cromer, this is a wonderfully intimate yet contemporary staging of the Thornton Wilder American classic. In several ways, Our Town is everyone's town. Due to demand the show has been extended to January 26.
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Mamet on Broadway
Hit and Miss
By: - Dec 10th, 2012As a testament of "America's greatest living playwright" there is a currently a double header of plays by David Mamet on Broadway. A proven chestnut "Glengarry Glen Ross" starring Al Pacino is just up the street from a new work "The Anarchist" with Patti LuPone and Debra Winger. With mixed reviews "Glengarry" is a hit while following dreadful reviews "The Anarchist" is a flop. But "The Anarchist" may have suffered a particularly vicious treatment by the NY media. Perhaps in another life in regional theatre productions it will come to be regarded as a great work in the late oeuvre of Mamet.
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Barrington Stage Announces 2013 Season
On the Town and New Play by Mark St. Germain
By: - Dec 10th, 2012Barrington Stage Company will launch its season with the musical On the Town from June 12 to July 13. It will be followed by The Chosen, Chaim Potok’s acclaimed novel has been adapted for the stage by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok. A rare for Barrington Shakespeare play completes the main stage season with Much Ado About Nothing. The St. Germain Stage features The Chosen, Chaim Potok’s acclaimed novel which has been adapted for the stage by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok. Followed by the musical Southern Comfort and a premiere of Scott and Hem in the Garden of Allah by Mark St. Germain.
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Donald Margulies at Geffen Playhouse
Holiday Show in LA
By: - Dec 10th, 2012Journeyman playwright and 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner in Drama, Donald Margulies, the author of such notable plays as “Time Stands Stillâ€, “Collected Storiesâ€, “Brooklyn Boyâ€, and “Sight Unseenâ€, among others – all dramas, by the way – now sails into less turbulent waters with “Coney Island Christmasâ€, a delightful Christmas season show.
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Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Challenging Musical at La Jolla Playhouse
By: - Dec 10th, 2012This is the 21st century, and “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots†is designed for younger audiences who really dig the Internet, video games, and Blackberry phones along with the many and various “apps†as a way of connecting or communicating and/or learning. “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robotsâ€, is definitely not your father or grandfather’s musical.
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Ching•lish Speaks Volumes At Lyric Stage
Brilliant Show of Manners & Mores in Contemporary China
By: - Dec 02nd, 2012One of Time Magazine’s 10 best plays of 2011, Ching•lish cleverly follows the journey of an American businessman as he tries to cash in on Chinese booming economic potential. This is a hilarious well-made comedy of mistranslation and manners by Tony Award-winning playwright, David Henry Hwang, author of M Butterfly. Using humor, sex and heartache, there is a poignancy to the profound isolation and terrible vulnerability of people who don't share a common culture or language.
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Zelda at the Oasis by P.H. Lin
Play Focuses on Complex Wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald
By: - Nov 28th, 2012F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald were the heart and soul of the Lost Generation of the Roaring Twenties. Wildly eccentric the brilliant and witty Zelda was the muse for Scott. It is often implied that he stole her ides for his best selling novels and short stories. Both of their lives devolved in tragedy as the era for which they were signifiers passed. This new play by P.H. Lin focuses on her alone and on the prowl at the Club Oasis in New York City during the Depression years of the 1930s.
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Chicago Shakespeare Theatre 2013
Four New World Stage Presentations
By: - Nov 21st, 2012Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announces four new World’s Stage presentations in 2013—bold theatrical events from across the globe, each in its own voice, provoking discussion on issues of international significance. On the heels of celebrating the Year of Creative Scotland with two critically acclaimed National Theatre of Scotland productions this fall, Chicago Shakespeare Theater continues to demonstrate its commitment to engage audiences in global issues.
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