Theatre
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Nice Girl by Melissa Ross
Finalist for Primus Prize at Raven Theatre
By: - Feb 07th, 2018Several years ago Nice Girl by Melissa Ross was a finalist for the Primus Prize for oustanding new plays awarded by the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA). It is being given a heartfelt and down-to-earth production at Chicago's Raven Theatre. The four actors carry off the middle class Boston accents almost perfectly, thanks to the work of dialect coach Jason K. Martin.
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Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin
Produced by San Francisco Playhouse
By: - Feb 06th, 2018Audiences will possibly find many behaviors in Born Yesterday less acceptable and more abhorrent than in earlier times. But along the way, they will be mightily entertained by a powerful production. And for those of us with a lot of miles on our shoes who wonder how a stage show can compete with the great 1950 movie cast of Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, and William Holden, just sit back and enjoy the performances.
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Williamstown Theatre Festival 2018
Five New Works and a Beloved One
By: - Feb 06th, 2018In a star studded program yet again Williamstown Theatre Festival brings Broadway to the berkshires. The season starts on June 26 and runs through August 19. There are three Main Stage productions and four on Nikos Stage. There will be a Main Stage world premiere musical;, Lempicka, as well as a new play , Seared, by Therese Rebeck on the Nikos Stage. Casting includes Mary-Louise Parker, Steven Pasquale, Jessica Hecht, Brooks Ashmanskas and Matthew Broderick.
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Mark Rylance in Farinelli and the King
A Broadway Pratfall for Multiple Tony and Oscar Winner
By: - Feb 06th, 2018The appearance of famed British actor and multiple Tony winner, Mark Rylance, is always a much anticipated event. Accordingly, the run of Farinelli and the King is mostly sold out though a run that ends on March 25. The script by his wife, Claire van Kampen, entails a bonkers king, and his queen allegedly having an improbable affair with the castrato, Farinelli, who has abandoned his career to perform nightly for the king. Our critic was not amused.
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Clark Gable Slept Here by Michael McKeever
Pitch Black Comedy by Talented South Florida Playwright
By: - Feb 06th, 2018Clark Gable Slept Here is an unabashedly penetrating satire about the cutthroat world of Hollywood. A talented cast shines in a production of the play at Main Street Players in Miami Lakes. The company, which turned professional last year, delivers a fast-paced, furiously funny mounting of Michael McKeever's play.
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Blind Date by Rogelio Martinez
Robert Falls Directs Goodman's World Premiere
By: - Feb 05th, 2018The blind date actually took place on November 19, 1985, in Geneva. Goodman Theatre’s world premiere of Blind Date by Rogelio Martinez, directed by Robert Falls, takes us through the tense period and the negotiations leading up to that summit—and finally, briefly, the summit itself.
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Julia Cho's Office Hour
Long Wharf Theater Co-production with Berkley Repertory Theatre
By: - Feb 04th, 2018Julia Cho’s play is often successful, yet the fantasies become less effective as the play goes on even though they are ratcheted up. Despite reservations about the play, the production is excellent.
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Red Speedo by Lucas Hnath
At Center Repertory Company
By: - Feb 04th, 2018Center Rep has produced a sharply drawn realization of Lucas Hnath’s Obie winning play. The story line is riveting, and director Markus Potter’s pace is brisk and assured.
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Ernest Thompson's On Golden Pond
At South Florida's Palm Beach Dramaworks
By: - Feb 03rd, 2018The classic comic-drama On Golden Pond is enjoying a funny, touching production at Palm Beach Dramaworks. Cast members and director create complex characterizations. This production set in 1988 looks homey and rustic
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Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau
Co-produced by Marin Theatre Company and Theatreworks Silicon Valley
By: - Feb 02nd, 2018Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau is set in an automobile stamping plant in Detroit in 2008. Its window to the greater world is the shabby break room of the laborers on one of the assembly lines, where the abiding concern is the rumor that the plant will shut down. And if so, when and how?
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Around the World in 80 Days
Seven League Boots for Solona Beach California
By: - Feb 01st, 2018North Coast Repertory Theatre (NCRT) of Solana Beach, CA is gifting its audiences with a ‘master class’ in farce/comedy ensemble acting with its delightful, whimsical, tongue-in-cheek, production of the Jules Verne classic tale “Around the World in 80 Days”.
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The Dining Room by A. R. Gurney
Produced by Sonoma Art Live
By: - Feb 01st, 2018Without the benefit of a narrative arc, A. R. Gurney has written a cohesive and compelling comedy/drama with a structure that moves successfully from one climax to another. Director Joey Hoeber has molded this small but significant play into a very convincing theater piece.
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Romance Romance by Barry Harman and Keith Herrmann,
At CV REP Theatre, of Rancho Mirage
By: - Feb 01st, 2018“Romance/Romance,” by Barry Harman and Keith Herrmann, is another stellar production that performs at CV REP Theatre in Rancho Mirage, through February 11, 2018. Emmy winning set designer Jimmy Cuomo doesn’t disappoint with another outstanding design
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Brett Neveu's Traitor Updates Ibsen
Based on 1882 Play An Enemy of the People
By: - Feb 01st, 2018Brett Neveu has taken Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play, An Enemy of the People, and transmogrified it into a contemporary setting. Neveu transplants a scandal surrounding the water flowing through the Municipal Baths in a Norwegian town to the soil underlying a charter school in an Illinois town. Traitor in a slashing world premiere at Chicago's A Red Orchid Theatre, is directed by the company's most famous alum, Michael Shannon.
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Adrienne Kennedy at Theatre for a New Audience
Compressed Memory Beautifully Staged
By: - Jan 31st, 2018Over the years, we have come to count on Theatre for a New Audience for superb productions of interesting work. They do not disappoint in their mounting of Adrienne's Kennedy's first play in a decade. At the Polonsky Center, the stage is configured with the audience on three sides. A very tall staircase looms in the center, bridging time and place.
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John Lithgow's Solo Show on Broadway
Stories by Heart Is Masterful.
By: - Jan 30th, 2018Stories by Heart is really Lithgow presenting two short stories to us. The first is by Ring Lardner, “Haircut.” It is essential the thoughts and words of a small town barber, circa 1925 talking to his customer who sits silently in the chair. With no props, Lithgow recreates the old-time barbershop experience from the hot towels, to the stropping of the blade, the lather and more.
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Feeding the Dragon at Hartford Stage
Written and Performed by Sharon Washington.
By: - Jan 30th, 2018Sharon Washington is a fine actress, but as she plays the multiple people in her story, including her mother, aunts, grandmother and others, her portrayals are good, but not great. This 90 minute play is heading to Off-Broadway’s Primary Stages
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Professional Wrestling as a Satiric Parable
Body Slamming Satire near South Beach
By: - Jan 30th, 2018The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity deftly uses professional wrestling to shine a light on racial stereotypes, politics and hypocrisy. Kristoffer Diaz's electric play is a bold statement on the darker side of America. Miami New Drama and Asolo Repertory Theatre shine in co-production of bitingly funny play.
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Megabytes! The Musical
At Shelton Theatre in San Francisco.
By: - Jan 28th, 2018Playwright and composer Morris Bobrow is the master of what San Franciscans might consider the Pier 39 musical, a light but entertaining diversion. His previous compositions include “Shopping! The Musical” and “Foodies! The Musical.” Can anyone detect a common theme here?
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Ride at South Florida Theater Company
Eric Lane Play Staged in Suburban Miami
By: - Jan 26th, 2018Ride depicts a physical and emotional journey while three young actresses shine in comic-drama. This is a coming of age play which is strongly mounted at Coral Gables' Area Stage Company.
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Man of La Mancha in San Francisco
By Custom Made Theatre
By: - Jan 26th, 2018Before its Broadway debut, the musical played at smaller theaters. So the transfer of this big, yet small, production to Custom Made Theatre’s intimate space is not only a sensible artistic decision, but the outcome is a winning one.
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Broadway in Winter
Museums by Day and Theatre at Night
By: - Jan 25th, 2018The motive was not to miss a once- in-a-lifetime exhibition Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman & Designer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It remains on view through February 12. In addition to visiting museums by day we enjoyed four nights on Broadway. During the Big Chill we avoided threeh our holiday lines at the Met. There was easy access and a good selection for half price TKTS in Times Square.
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David Lang's The Whisper Opera
Delicate Sounds at the Skirball Center
By: - Jan 25th, 2018david lang prefers lower case and the whisper opera is as lower case as a sound can be. it can almost be inaudible and invites you to lean your ear in as you sit like Winnie, in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, with most of your body below the level of the performance platform.
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Arthur Miller’s All My Sons
Charles Newell’s production at Court Theatre
By: - Jan 24th, 2018The play is set in 1947 in the back yard of the home of Joe and Kate Keller. The setting is usually a traditional mid-century back yard with plants, trees, a porch, outdoor furniture and the facades of two other houses partially visible. In the Court Theatre version, John Culbert’s scenic design suggests this back yard in a deconstructed, stylized way.
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Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera
Jennifer Rowley and Quinn Kelsey Shine
By: - Jan 24th, 2018What makes this Trovatore interesting for the regular Met-goer is that it imarks a sort of passing of the torch: from the Netrebko-Hvorostovsky school to a brave new world of lesser known singers taking on the opera's four difficult central roles.
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