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Theatre

  • Being Alive - A Sondheim Celebration

    TheatreWorks Bright World Premiere Revue of Sondheim Love Songs

    By: Victor Cordell - Jun 11th, 2024

    Now that Stephen Sondheim has passed, this poignant collection of 36 songs is the first revue to span his whole life of works, from towering anthems to obscure hidden gems. Performed by an ensemble of six as a run through followed by a dress rehearsal with little additional commentary, it lets the songs do the telling.

  • Dial M for Murder at the Alley Theatre

    A Witty Thriller

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 11th, 2024

    Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, in association with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, is presenting Dial M for Murder as a warmup to their annual Summer Chills programming.  Based on the original play by Frederick Knott that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder, the current version has been updated by Jeffrey Hatcher.

  • Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve

    Legacy Theatre

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 13th, 2024

    How would the first woman and man on earth think about the world around them? Mark Twain, in two short novellas, imagined what Adam and Eve would write in their diaries as they experienced the Garden of Eden.

  • Toni Stone

    Playhouse on Park

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 14th, 2024

    Toni Stone is a woman who loves to play baseball, and she is very good at it. She is recruited to join the barnstorming Indianapolis Clowns, who tour the region playing mainly white teams. They are expected not only to play baseball (and supposedly lose) but also to dance and sing during the fifth-inning break.  It was unclear if they played in what was considered the Major League of the Negro Leagues or were more like a minor league team.

  • Clue LIve in Stage

    Comic Murder Mystery on Tour

    By: Aaron Krause - Jun 16th, 2024

    A national equity touring production of "Clue: Live on Stage" delights. The production is just finishing a run at Ft. Lauderdale's Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The production will return to Florida in December at Sarasota's Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.

  • Abe Lincoln in Stockbridge

    Revival of 1938 Pulitzer Prize Winner

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 16th, 2024

    In producing a play that is two years older than I am director, David Auburn, has been faithful to the text but made changes, the de rigeur legerdemain that contemporizes the production. There has been gender and race switching with mixed results. Those role changes range from muddled and gratuitous to truly brilliant and inspired. It’s a long evening in three acts that lags as well as has its brilliant and inspired moments.

  • La Cage aux Folles Sizzles at Barrington Stage

    Forty Plus Drag Show Gets Fresh Mascara and Falsies

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 17th, 2024

    For over-the-top camp hilarity and flat out fun nothing tops the outrageous musical, La Cage aux Folles, which is getting a swing for the rafters production at Barrington Stage Company through July 6. This is likely to be a boffo summer smash with a too-brief run.

  • A Streetcar Named Desire

    Southeast Florida's New City Players

    By: Aaron Krause - Jun 18th, 2024

    Southeast Florida-based New City Players mounted a production of "The Glass Menagerie" in 2016, the company's first year. Today, eight years later, the company will stage a production of another Williams masterwork -- "A Streetcar Named Desire."

  • La Jolla Playhouse Ballad of Johnny and June

    Wonderful Cash Musical in San Diego

    By: Sharon Eubanks - Jun 17th, 2024

    The La Jolla Playhouse presents The Ballad of Johnny and June, a musical about the lives of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.  Narrated by John Carter Cash, played by Von Hughes, the play begins with John trying to decide if he wants to get married.  John Carter Cash was the only child of the union of Johnny and June.  As John contemplates marriage, he tells the love story of his famous parents and their challenges with fame and addiction. 

  • Sandra, by David Cale

    At TheaterWorks in Hartford

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 19th, 2024

    Sandra, the owner of a coffee house/café in New York City, can’t stop thinking about Ethan, her best friend after she receives a phone call: someone needs to get in touch with him, but can’t. She’s listed as his emergency contact.

  • Seeing Stars

    Steve Budd's Personal Memoir at The Marsh Berkeley

    By: Victor Cordell - Jun 18th, 2024

    Most people are unaware of the dedication and sacrifices that actors make to pursue their passion. In this brief insight, we learn of the struggles of one man to put bread on the table while seeking the limelight. We also learn of mental health issues that have plagued his family.

  • 2.5 Minute Ride

    At Hartford Stage

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 20th, 2024

    Our lives are filled with memories. Lisa, the main character in 2.5 Minute Ride, wants to share memories of her father, his life, and her relationship with him. The autobiographical play by Lisa Kron is at Hartford Stage through Sunday, June 23.

  • A Tender Thing By Ben Power

    What If Romeo and Juliet Had Survived

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 29th, 2024

    A Tender Thing, by Ben Power, explores an interesting premise. What if the star-crossed lovers had survived? He assembled the text by reordering and conflating excerpts of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and a number of sonnets. Hence Elizabethan language has been conveyed in a contemporary context.

  • Young Frankenstein at the Colonial

    Smash Hit Mel Brooks Musical in Pittsfield

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 30th, 2024

    Gerry McIntyre has directed and choreographed a flawless production of Mel Brooks’ hilarious musical Young Frankenstein. On opening night, it rocked a full house at the Colonial Theatre, where it will be fun, fun, fun until July 21.

  • Evita

    Rags to Riches and Glamor Foreshortened

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 04th, 2024

    In this Weber/Rice musical biography, the charismatic and adulated Eva Peron insinuates herself into the highest level of Argentinian politics while in her 20s. Deploying an unusual device, an activist narrator, Che, skulks about and cynically undermines the public face of the title character.

  • Experiments in Opera at HERE

    New York Gets Four Delicious Mini Operas

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 05th, 2024

    The world premiere of “Five Ways to Die” took place at HERE in New York. If the subject is “death,” it must be an opera. Tosa jumps to her death from the walls of  Castel Sant'Angelo. Aida and her lover die in an airless Egyptian tomb. La Traviata coughs herself to death in a Parisian garret.  Defying death, all these women sing marvelously.  We suspend disbelief, carried away by gorgeous tunes. Experiments in Opera, a successful and innovative company, takes a different approach.

  • The Lifespan of a Fact

    Do Facts Constitute Truth? Is Truth Objective and Unassailable?

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 06th, 2024

    In this account of a true story, essayist John D'Agata wrote a piece about the suicide of Levi Pressley who jumped from the top of Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas. Fact checking showed that D'Agata fabricated numerous but inconsequential details for the sake of style. The philosophical differences between the author and the fact checker provoke a thoughtful consideration of what constitutes truth. It's more complex than you might think.

  • Dragon Mama at Williamstown Theatre Festival

    Sara Porkalob in Solo Performance

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 10th, 2024

    “Dragon Mama,” a one-woman show by Sara Porkalob, is but one of three staged productions in this season of the venerable Williamstown Theatre Festival. With a brief run it is presented on the black box Center Stage. It has been used only once preciously.

  • Mystic Pizza

    Ivoryton Playhouse

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jul 10th, 2024

    You will recognize the tunes that are well integrated into the plot – “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Addicted to Love,” “I’m the Only One,” “Into the Mystic,” “Lost in Your Eyes,” “Smalltown” and “Never Gonna Give You Up,” among others.

  • South Pacific at Goodspeed Musicals

    An Audience Favorite

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jul 11th, 2024

    South Pacific is a show for romantics. It is one of my favorite shows and the audience’s cheers on opening night showed that they, too, loved it.

  • Death, Let Me Do My Show

    Rachel Bloom at Williamstown Theatre Festival

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 12th, 2024

    Standup comedian, Rachel Bloom, is a really big deal. Her rom-com “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” ran for four seasons on The CW with poor ratings but a solid fan base. She brought a standup piece “Death, Let Me Do My Show” to Williamstown Theatre Festival. The routine was filmed for future release on Netflix.

  • La Voix Humaine and Dido & Aeneas

    Festival Opera Fine Production of Divergent Works

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 14th, 2024

    Carrie Hennessey gives a sterling performance in the Francis Poulenc work, "La Voix Humaine," as a woman who talks to her lover on the phone while learning that she is losing him. Henry Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" is given a fine treatment as well, led by the chorus and orchestra.

  • Accused!

    The Victorian Ladies Detective Collective Trilogy is Complete With a Case Involving Terrorism

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 15th, 2024

    London is under threat. One woman has been murdered and another killed in a bombing, with anarchists being implicated. Three intrepid female sleuths find evidence that suggests otherwise. Patricia Milton's script is literate and replete with revelations about social and political issues of the day.

  • Elevator Repair Service Creates a New Ulysses

    Summerscape at Bard Presents Staged Novel

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 15th, 2024

    Elevator Repair Service, an innovative theater producing group, presented a staged version of James Joyce’s Ulysses in the Luma Theater at the Fisher Center as part of Bard’s Summerscape 2024 whuich commissioned the work.

  • The Best of The Second City

    Residency at Berkeley Rep for Storied Improv Troupe

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 19th, 2024

    The vaunted Chicago-based troupe performs sketches, quick-hitters, and enough improvisation to display their fast reaction chops. Old skits are updated, and enough local references are integrated for the production to feel home grown. The cast of six operates black-box fashion, effectively and entertainingly employing mime to represent invisible props.

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