Theatre
-
Karen Zacharias' Spoof of Telenovela.
Destiny of Desire at Oregon Shakespeare
By: - Mar 05th, 2018On the surface, Destiny of Desire can certainly be enjoyed as a frivolous cream puff and that alone. But the playwright is going for something more. Played in a campy style, the laughs cascade like a thundering waterfall, and the audience howls of recognition and appreciation make you think you’re in Guadalajara rather than Ashland, Oregon.
-
This Random World by Steven Dietz
At North Coast Repertory’
By: - Mar 03rd, 2018“This Random World”, written by prolific playwright Steven Dietz, draws from the idiosyncrasies of ‘American Millennials’ and ‘Generation X’ -ers on how they process information, situations, and unexpected opportunities in our digital age.
-
Steinberg/ATCA Finalists Announced
Award Honors Promising New Plays
By: - Mar 03rd, 2018A panel of critics has narrow down a list of new plays to receive the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Annual honor singles out most promising works which premiered professionally outside NYC during 2017. This year's crop of plays tackle topics from preserving Shakespeare's words to refugees fleeing wars
-
Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill
Produced by Oregon Shakespeare Festiva
By: - Mar 02nd, 2018In the Jane Austen catalogue, Sense and Sensibility has always played poor sister to Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps it’s a marketing issue with the latter having the more powerful packaging (i.e.: its title). At the core of this story is a searing indictment of 19th century British laws, mores, and practices that contemporary feminists should cleave to in remembrance of the bad old days.
-
Henry V by William Shakespeare
Produced by Oregon Shakespeare Festival
By: - Mar 02nd, 2018Oregon Shakespeare Festival has cleverly organized the productions of the three plays which involve King Henry V. Two were offered last summer – Henry IV – Part 1 and Henry IV – Part 2. In those plays, one of the main characters is Prince Harry, also known as Hal, who would become King Henry V. Despite being heir to the throne, Hal was a dissolute wastrel who consorted with Falstaff and his derelict followers.
-
In The Body Of The World by Eve Ensler
Diane Paulus Directs New Post Vagina Monologue
By: - Feb 28th, 2018Eve Ensler is best known for The Vagina Monologues. In The Body of The World, a theatricalization of her 2013 book by the same name at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York City Center currently running through March 25, Ensler returns to the stage with a vengeance.
-
Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel
At Conn's Playhouse on Park
By: - Feb 25th, 2018In Intimate Apparel we see four women, three of whom have learned to abandon their fantasies and make choices based on the reality of the world. Each has made a “bargain” and each longs for what she has sacrificed.
-
Jerry Springer, the Opera at The New Group
Smash London Hit Transfers to New York
By: - Feb 22nd, 2018An obsession with the Jerry Springer show grew into Jerry Springer, the Opera. The show was a smash hit on London’s West End over a decade go. Tentative stabs at transfer across the pond are now fixed in a production by The New Group. Scott Elliott, artistic director of The New Group sensed that the time was now. After all, we have a reality show host in the White House.
-
Breach by Antoinette Nwandu
At Victory Gardens Theater in LIncoln, Illiinois
By: - Feb 22nd, 2018Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate is a world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater. The play’s long title might mislead you into thinking you’re going to see a different sort of play. Lisa Portes directs a solid cast of five in this funny, moving, but somewhat predictable play by Antoinette Nwandu.
-
Uncle Vanya
San Diego’s The Old Globe Theatre
By: - Feb 21st, 2018Check it out. , San Diego’s The Old Globe Theatre is presenting a new translation and a new way of staging Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece dramedy “Uncle Vanya”.
-
Philip Dawkins’ The Burn
Steppenwolf for Young Adults
By: - Feb 21st, 2018The Burn by terrific Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins. I think you'll be hearing that name again. It is a tense and smoothly choreographed play, directed by Devon de Mayo. All five characters are on stage at all times in the 90-minute production.
-
Lucia Berlin: Stories
Produced by Word for Word in San Francisco
By: - Feb 20th, 2018As stories not written with each other or the stage in mind, Lucia Berlin: Stories lacks the cohesiveness and unswerving trajectory that you would expect in a good play. But this production delivers the sharp-eyed insights of an empathetic and accomplished story teller in a well-crafted, entertaining manner.
-
If I Forget in Suburban Miami
Meaty Comic Drama by Steven Levenson
By: - Feb 19th, 2018Thought-provoking themes will keep If I Forget in your mind. A relateable Steven Levenson play will make you laugh and cry at suburban Miami's GableStage.
-
Harriet's Return at New Federal Theatre
Karen Jones Meadows Writes and Acts
By: - Feb 17th, 2018Harriet’s Return, written and performed by Karen Jones Meadows, is presented by the New Federal Theatre through March 4 in New York. Harriet Tubman was recently suggested to replace Alexander Hamilton on the US twenty dollar bill, but this honor has been delayed. We are left to remember, even more significantly the life of a remarkable woman.
-
Toe Pick at Dixon Place
Zachary Grady Creates the Fantasy World of Tonya Harding
By: - Feb 17th, 2018Tonya Harding’s story just won’t go away. Surrounded by media frenzy that fanned the fires around OJ Simpson's trial, which occurred at about the same time, it is a big, ugly, fascinating tale. Harding’s main competitor in figure skating competition got whacked in the leg. There enough images and tales to last for a long time. Toe Pick by Zachary Grady, who also plays Tonya, creates the frenzy in video images.
-
Opera Parallèle's Trouble in Tahiti
Leonard Bernstein’s Modest One-act Opera
By: - Feb 17th, 2018The always innovative Opera Parallèle has taken Leonard Bernstein’s modest one-act opera Trouble in Tahiti from 1952 and framed it with complementary wrapper to produce an exciting entertainment. This evening of opera is not traditional in many ways, but it is delightfully sophisticated and well executed
-
Fear and Misery in the Third Reich
Timely Brecht at Chicago's Haven Theatre
By: - Feb 15th, 2018Fear and Misery in the Third Reich can be described as Bertolt Brecht’s ghost arriving to warn us about the United States of Donald Trump turning into a fascist dictatorship. The play, now being staged by Haven Theatre, is a series of 18 loosely related scenes illustrating the progression of the German dictatorship from Breslau 1933 to Hamburg 1938.
-
John Lithgow: Stories By Heart
Smash Solo on Broadway
By: - Feb 15th, 2018Now 72, John Lithgow is a charming and much loved, award winning actor. His solo show Stories by Heart is both hilarious and poignant. It conveys stories told by his father during Lithgow's childhood. The show continues at American Airlines Theatre on Broadway through March 25.
-
L'Elisir d'Amore at the Metropolitan Opera
A Swig and A Miss
By: - Feb 13th, 2018The soprano Pretty Yende is one of the more sensational discoveries at the Metropolitan Opera this decade, wowing audiences with her sweet tone and superlative bel canto technique since making her debut in the company’s January, 2013 revival of Rossini's Le comte Ory. This month, she sings Adina in the revival of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, a charming love story that maintains its front rank among the most popular Italian operatic comedies.
-
One Drop at Theater for a New City
Andrea Fulton Develops a Folk Musical
By: - Feb 13th, 2018One Drop is a family drama with music by Andrea J. Fulton. It brings to life the politics of a young mixed-race man in post-reconstruction Louisiana. He bravely risks love despite the bigotry of the community around him.
-
The Revolutionists in Boca Raton
By Steinberg/ATCA Winner Lauren Gunderson.
By: - Feb 13th, 2018History comes to vibrant life in Theatre Lab's fun, funny and touching production of The Revolutionists. Colorful, visually appealing production is on stage at university's professional resident company through Feb. 25. Gunderson is the most-produced playwright for the 2017-2018 theater season in the U.S., according to American Theatre magazine.
-
Berkshire Museum: Monday Morning Quarterback
Sifting Through the Rubble
By: - Feb 12th, 2018The news of a "compromise" that really wasn't on Friday sent shock waves through the local, national and global art world. Other than the sale of Rockwell's "Shuffleton's Barber Shop" to an undisclosed museum, the Berkshire Museum got a green light to sell the 39 other works at Sotheby's. While morally and ethically flawed director, Van Shields, and board chair, Elizabeth McGraw, will proceed with catastrophic plans to gut the collection to raise $50 million. They will trash and rebuilid the museum creating its populist/ vulgarian New Vision.
-
Opera Philadelphia Mounts Written on the Skin
A Stunning Production at the Academy of Music
By: - Feb 12th, 2018The tall grey walls which harbor the rotating rooms of a medieval manor are striking. They contain the action in the manor and offer opportunities for hide and seek. The Lord is known here as The Protector. Oddly in the medieval time, one of the King's services to the Lord was protection. The use of this word is one of the deliciously ambiguous elements of George Benjamin's opera, Written on the Skin, which has arrived in the US in Opera Philadelphia.
-
Reel to Reel by John Kolvenbach
World Premiere at Magic Theatre
By: - Feb 09th, 2018Playwright John Kolvenbach is a New Yorker with a strong spiritual link to Magic Theatre as a major interpreter of his plays. “Reel to Reel,” directed by Kolvenbach, is their fourth production of his work and the second world premiere. Its novel structure and content reveal a compact, intimate conversation piece of sharp ripostes that excites and provokes. The acting and creative designs of this production are stellar.
-
Constellations by Nick Payne
Brief Evocative and Frustrating at TheaterWorks in Hartford
By: - Feb 08th, 2018This brief but problematic play by Nick Payne has overly ambitious content. It has top heavy themes from the time/space continuum, to the infinite possibilities of human interactions and quantum physics. There are mixed results supported by an excellent production at TheatreWorks. While frustrating to sit through its ambitious themes linger in aftershocks long after leaving the theatre.
<< Previous Next >>