Theatre
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The Book of Merman at the St. Luke's Theatre
A Parody of a Parody is Brash and Fun
By: - Nov 12th, 2018The Book of Merman is an engaging musical playing at the St. Luke's Theatre in New York. A parody of a parody, it is fresh from the first moment the two Mormon Elders, who are very young indeed, start knocking on doors in the theater district.
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Mefistofele at the Metropolitan Opera
Christian Hale is the Devil
By: - Nov 12th, 2018The Devil always gets a bad rap. That's the premise behind Mefistofele, Arrigo Boito's lone completed opera. An ambitious setting of Goethe's Faust that retells the story from the Devil's point of view, Mefistofele used to prance its sulfur strut across the world's opera stages. But Thursday night's revival at the Metropolitan Opera was the first time that the opera had been seen, fully staged, in New York in eighteen years.
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Two Broadway Dramas
The Ferryman and The Waverly Gallery
By: - Nov 11th, 2018In town for the ATCA NY Theatre Conference our Chicago correspondent covered two compelling dramas. Both plays are in long runs. The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth continues through February 17 and Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery runs until January 27
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The Doctor in Spite of Himself at Odyssey Opera
Gounod's 200th Birthday Celebrated in Style
By: - Nov 10th, 2018Odyssey Opera mounted a terrific production of Charles' Gounod's A Doctor in Spite of Himself at the Huntington Theater in Boston. Gil Rose, the inspired founder of this company, points out that critics often blame institutions for riding the coattails of a big birthday of an musical original. If this is so, why is Gounod's 200th not being celebrated. It turns out that it is, in Boston.
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Thousand Pines, at Westport Country Playhouse
World Premiere by Matthew Greene
By: - Nov 10th, 2018I found this moving and fascinating. As the playwright said, “to be honest, I’d love for this play to stop being ‘relevant.’” Yes, it is a difficult subject but it is handled with such care by all involved that it is well worth seeing.
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Broadway Goes Ape For King Kong
Remake of Classic 1933 Rumble in the Jungle
By: - Nov 08th, 2018During the exposition of this retelling of the classic 1933 film there is an enervating response to a generic musical. It conveys the familiar tale of a pretty farm girl falling on hard luck trying to make it big in show business. Lured into a film shoot on remote and unihabited Skull Island things change big time. From the first thrilling appearance of Kong there is little doubt that he is the new King of Broadway.
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ATCA at Sardi’s
Critics Lunch with Broadway Stars
By: - Nov 07th, 2018The stars came out in droves for the annual luncheon with critics at Sardi's the show bis watering hole. Sixteen individuals representing thirteen current plays broke bread with the scribes.
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Robert Schenkkan's All the Way
Exploring LBJ's Presidency
By: - Nov 07th, 2018Playwright Robert Schenkkan explores the year from LBJ’s tragic ascension to the presidency through his election in the powerful and fast-paced, Tony Award winning All the Way. Michael Monagle tackles the many facets of President Lyndon Johnson with gusto.
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Waiting for Godot by the Druid Theatre
Lincoln Center's White Light Festival
By: - Nov 07th, 2018Waiting for Godot with the Druid Theater Company graces the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center. It is an evening full of laughs in a bunker. Beckett as a member of the French Resistance had escaped Paris when the Gestapo targeted him. This experience led him to create a new theatrical form after the War.
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Bringing King Kong to Broadway
Developing the 20' and 2000 Pound Gorilla in the Room
By: - Nov 06th, 2018During a session of the NY Conference of American Theatre Critics Association we met with creators of the soon to be smash hit musical King Kong. The star of the show stands 20' high, weighs 2000 pounds, and roars with a rage that is absolutely terrifying. He is one very pissed off great ape.
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Hungarian State Opera Arrives in New York
Superb Company Offers Seldom Heard Masterpieces
By: - Nov 06th, 2018The Hungarian State Opera is a company full of talented artists whose work has not been presented to American audiences, unless they are fortunate enough to have visited Buda and Pest, and cities throughout the country that presents opera all the time, everywhere. The troop is in New York for two weeks, presenting opera, their orchestra and also dance, for which the Hungarians are famous.
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Happy Birthday, Wanda June
Kurt Vonnegut Off Broadway
By: - Nov 06th, 2018If you’re a Kurt Vonnegut reader, Happy Birthday, Wanda June will sound familiar. If you’re in New York, or can get there by November 29, you have the chance to see this wacky dark satire of American culture and America’s propensity for war and death, filtered through Vonnegut’s mad genius lens
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Satyagarha by Philip Glass at BAM
Folkoperan / Cirkus Cirkör Add to the Meditation
By: - Nov 01st, 2018The Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music is presenting Philip Glass' Satyagraha at the Harvey Theater in Brooklyn. Not every opera can be mounted by a circus troop, but the forms are complimentary. When they meld, as they do here, it is a thrilling evening of theater. Folkoperan / Cirkus Cirkör from Sweden brings a matching visual rhythm and pace to the classical forms of Glass and extend our sense of this meditation on pacifism
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Kurt Vonnegut at 59E59 Theaters
Brian Katz Adapts Mother Night for the Stage
By: - Oct 30th, 2018Brian Katz' adaptation and direction of Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night puts the infernal specters of WWII on the stage at 59E59 Theaters. It is produced by The Custom Made Theatre Company with Executive Producers William & Ruth Isenberg and Leah Abrams, and Producer Jay Yamada. We find ourselves witnesses to the conscience of an American born-German playwright Howard W. Campbell, (Gabriel Grilli), who has spent his youth in Germany writing propaganda for the the Third Reich.
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One Night In Miami
Kemp Powers Play On South Beach
By: - Oct 28th, 2018Historic Night in Segregated Miami is depicted in One Night in Miami. Miami New Drama opens its season with Kemp Powers poet play featuring familiar real life, historical characters. In Powers' play, Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke, Malcolm X and Jim Brown spend a night at a Miami hotel when the city was segregated.
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Bernhardt/Hamlet by Theresa Rebeck
Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t
By: - Oct 27th, 2018Bernhardt/Hamlet is a new play by Theresa Rebeck that tries to capture both Bernhardt and comment on our modern era. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
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Dancing Lessons by Mark St. Germain
Produced by Center Repertory Theatre
By: - Oct 27th, 2018Despite the limits of 90 minutes, two characters, and mostly one room, Dancing Lessons covers a lot of ground. It’s about relationships and truth. A script full of laughs and things to think about; great direction by Joy Carlin and fine creative elements by her team; plus two terrific performances yield an entertaining evening.
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Marnie at the Metropolitan Opera
Nico Muhly's North American Premier
By: - Oct 26th, 2018Nico Muhly’s third opera, his second for the Metropolitan Opera, has its North American premiere this month and next. Muhly states clearly that when he was approached by director Michael Mayer about making the book Marnie into an opera, he was intrigued. At the end of opera, one wonders what happened to the screenplay of Alfred Hitchcock’s film based on the book.
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Arabella at San Francisco Opera
By Richard Strauss with Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
By: - Oct 26th, 2018Arabella does not artistically match the model it targeted, Der Rosenkavalier, nor does it replicate the earlier work’s market success. Despite some issues with this opera, it certainly deserves its place in the repertoire.
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The Drowsy Chaperone at Goodspeed
Fun on the Run
By: - Oct 25th, 2018You may not recognize the title or know much about the show; it arrived quietly on Broadway in April 2006 and immediately captured multiple Tony award nominations. It won for best book and best score but was beat out for Outstanding Musical by Jersey Boys.
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Jeffery Hatcher's Holmes and Watson
At North Coast Repertory Theatre
By: - Oct 23rd, 2018North Coast Rep artistic director David Ellenstein has a penchant for selecting interesting plays for his theatre audiences. With his selection of playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s new drama/mystery “Holmes & Watson”, and as the director of this clever play, Ellenstein subliminally tosses out a gentle unstated challenge to his patrons.
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Frankenstein Adapted by English Playwright Nick Dear
At Chicago's Remy Bumppo Theatre
By: - Oct 22nd, 2018The script for Remy Bumppo Theatre’s production of Frankenstein was adapted by English playwright Nick Dear from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. Ian Frank directs a warm and heart-wrenching production, staged on Joe Schermoly’s handsome minimalist set.
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The Barber of Seville
Launches Season of Boston Lyric Opera
By: - Oct 22nd, 2018Rossini’s classic story of the oppressed woman who upends the patriarchal dowry system to pursue true love, is wonderfully invigorated by BLO’s selection and cast of critically acclaimed singers. This production launches the fall season of Boston Lyric Opera with stunning panache.
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Admissions Near Miami
First Regional Production of Joshua Harmon Play
By: - Oct 22nd, 2018Coral Gables' GableStage is the first regional theater to mount Joshua Harmon's explosive 'Admissions.' A palpable urgency, tension hovers over the stage in this triumphant production. 'Admissions' is a highly complex, yet taut satire covering topics such as affirmative action.
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The Resting Place by Ashlin Halfnight
Produced by Magic Theatre
By: - Oct 20th, 2018The playwright, Ashlin Halfnight, touches a tender nerve with his exposé. So many bad actions by people in our real world have been telegraphed to others before they occurred. Antisocial attitudes. Deviant behavior. Threats. Fascination with the perverse. Collections of weapons. Memorabilia of cruelty. But how can one know at what point to interfere?
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