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Theatre

  • Berkshire Museum Releases Auction List

    Two Rockwells and 38 Other Works

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 24th, 2017

    Initially the Berkshire Museum disclosed plans to sell two paintings by Norman Rockwell but declined to reveal the other works. Under intensive media scrutiny and concerns from the community the museum has posted responses to frequently asked questions on the website and has released the full list of deaccessioned works. The lot has a pre auction estmate of $50 million toward a goal to "reboot" with $20 milion in renovation and $40 million for endowment. The remaining $10 millions will be raised apart from the sale of works of art.

  • Taking Steps by Alan Aykbourn

    Farce Rocks Barrington Stage

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 24th, 2017

    Leaving our thinking caps at home there was no heavy lifting in the delicious British farce, Taking Steps, by the redoubtable Alan Ayckbourn. At last count he has written 77 plays. After the knockout job that director, Sam Buntrock, and a truly gifted cast did with this one, one hopes that over time Barrington will produce the other 76.

  • Romy Nordlinger Delves into Nazirova

    Woman Filmmaker's Career Dramatized

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 23rd, 2017

    Alla Nazirova was a theater and film original, who came to the US and stormed Broadway Leaving for Hollywood, she became Tinseltown's highest paid talent. She was Queen of Sapphic Los Angeles and that cost her. Now she is brought to life by Romy Nordlinger at 59E59 Theaters.

  • Conflating Early with Late Edward Albee

    Interesting Mismatch at Berkshire Theatre Group

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 23rd, 2017

    In 1958 the one act play Zoo Story launched the career of playwright Edward Albee. In 2004 he added a first act. That version , retitled At Home at the Zoo (Zoo Story), is being produced by Berkshire Theatre Group on its intimate Unicorn stage in Stockbridge.

  • CompagnieXY at Lincoln Center

    French Acrobats Create Dance

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 21st, 2017

    In N'est Pas Le Minuit by Compagnie XY, a group of acrobats whose physical feats demands cooperation and trust. They take that spirit and make it into a global miniature.

  • Finding Mona Lisa in Coral Gables

    World Premiere Play at Actors Playhouse

    By: Aaron Krause - Jul 21st, 2017

    Finding Mona Lisa is a fun-filled, quick-paced play with colorful characters. Six actors skillfully portray multiple roles in new Michael McKeever historically-based drama. The new play about the world's most famous painting produces plenty of laughs.

  • At the Old Place by Rachel Bonds

    At the La Jolla Playhouse

    By: Jack Lyons - Jul 21st, 2017

    In “At the Old Place”, the story, set in rural Richmond, Virginia, centers around Angie (Heidi Armbruster) who is trying to come to grips with any guilt and closure that occurs following the death of her mother and the unrequited issues that linger and eventually fall to her for resolution. One unfinished piece of business that takes her back is the sale of her mother’s house.

  • The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga

    By Min Kahng in Palo Alto

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 20th, 2017

    The bouncy, Vaudeville-influenced opening number "The Four Immigrants" theme sets the early tone of the hope for success in the new land. The men struggle, as most immigrants will, but then the first major setback occurs, San Francisco's 1906 earthquake.

  • Lela & Co. by Cordelia Lynn

    At Chicago's Steep Theatre

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jul 20th, 2017

    Cordelia Steep’s U.S. premiere of Lela and Co. is set in some unnamed wartorn region of the world—perhaps central Europe. It’s Lela’s story, beginning with her birth, when she learns that a woman’s role is “to sing the songs, the early songs and the late songs, the songs of sleeping and the songs of mourning.

  • Taylor Mac’s Hir

    At Steppenwolf in Chicago

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jul 20th, 2017

    Hir is a family story, a chaotic kitchen-sink story. Playwright Taylor Mac describes it as absurd realism, with a simple plot: The prodigal son returns home from the war and finds nothing is as it was when he left. Isaac (Tyler Olwin) has been away for three years, working on a mortuary crew in Afghanistan.

  • Syrian Drama at Lincoln Center Festival

    Into the Heart of Damascus

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 20th, 2017

    Syrians are spreading across the world as civil war rages on in their country. We who greet, house and share our countries with them are curious about the country from which they have come and what it feel like to live there during this period of torture and destruction. The theater of Syria helps us understand what prompts exodus.

  • Speech & Debate at Barrington Stage

    Coming of Age Comedy by Stephen Karam

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 19th, 2017

    Speech and Debate is a 2007 play by Tony winner Stephen Karam (The Humans). Since then there have been more than a hundred productions. It is being refreshed at Barrington Stage. It focuses on the bonding of three high school misfits. The awkward and insecure Howie (Austin Davidson) came out when he was nine. The uptight, preppy Solomon (Ben Getz) is a closeted wannabe investigative reporter. Diwata (Betsy Hogg) is a plain Jane, nerdy teen, passed over by the drama club, who wants to be a star. This makeover of a popular play slogs along until coming alive when the amazing Hogg takes the bit in her mouth and races hell for leather to a remarkable finish. Fasten your seat belts.

  • 1984 On Stage in Pompano Beach

    Adaptation of Orwell Novel in South Florida

    By: Aaron Krause - Jul 18th, 2017

    Outre's production depicts a future-- and even a present -- in which surveillance is becoming more prevalent. Actors fare better after intermission in Outre Theatre Company's 1984. Interrogation scene not as graphic as what audiences are reportedly witnessing on Broadway.

  • Where Storms are Born in Williamstown

    World Premiere by Harrison David Rivers

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 17th, 2017

    In its smaller Nikos Stage the Williamstown Theatre Festival features another, homegrown, world premiere. Last summer playwright Harrison David Rivers was a fellow at the renowned festival. The play that he was developing Where Storms Are Born is being produced this season. Again there is a focus on diversity and plot points hinged on gay characters, There is risk taking in this strategy wih bold and progressive but unresolved results.

  • Tender Napalm by Philip Ridley

    Anton's Well Theater Company in Oakland

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 16th, 2017

    Several recurring themes frame the arc to provide color to the story telling. Detailed sexual activity with graphic anatomical references as well as analogies such as bullets and exploding grenades are often described. Unfortunately, the tsunami of f-bombs reduce their effectiveness and seem like a child's learning a nasty word and mindlessly repeating it until it becomes meaningless.

  • East of Edinburgh New Plays at 59E59th

    Two Matters of Life and Death

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 15th, 2017

    59 East 59th Street Theaters is presenting New York’s annual Edinburgh Festival Preview. The acting in the plays is terrific. While these are works in process, the directors give us engaging productions on provocative themes.

  • Another Palm Canyon Theatre Hit

    Tony Winner Lin Manuel Miranda's In the Heights

    By: Jack Lyons - Jul 15th, 2017

    “In the Heights” by Lin Manuel Miranda chronicles the daily struggles of the neighborhood in its day to day existence of raising families, paying the rent and trying to keep one’s business from going bankrupt, along with the age-old frustration of the younger residents in not being able to make their own choices in their searches for love, romance, and marriage.

  • The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga

    World Premiere of Min Kahng Musical in Bay Area

    By: Aaron Krause - Jul 15th, 2017

    New musical based on comic book focuses on the Japanese immigrant experience in the turn-of-the-century San Francisco The how's scenic design draws inspiration from comic strips. The world premiere production of The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga by Min Kahng runs through Aug. 6

  • Sleeping Water by Saburo Teshigawara

    Transforming Dance at the Rose Theatre

    By: Susan Hall - Jul 14th, 2017

    Saburo Teshigawara of Karas is a choreographer with a special vocabularly, focusing on the arms and hands, which we discover are the most expressive parts of the body.

  • William S. Burroughs Naked Lunch with Live Score

    When Typewriters Talk

    By: Paul J. Pelkonen - Jul 13th, 2017

    Naked Lunch is never going to be a mainstream film, but the opportunity to peer into the twisty subconscious of the creative mind and the keen brilliance of a jazzman the caliber of Ornette Coleman was a perfect coming together of two seemingly opposed forces. And no Interzone insectoid typewriter would argue with that.

  • Vignettes on Love by David Steele in Frisco

    Produced by PlayGround at Potrero Stage

    By: Victor Cordell - Jul 11th, 2017

    The world premiere of the dark dramedy "Vignettes on Love" by David Steele provides enjoyable entertainment as it explores the dynamics of love from its giddiness to its hurt. It is produced by PlayGround and plays at Potrero Stage in, San Francisco, through July 30.

  • Erik Jensen Stars at Steppenwolf Theatre

    How to Be a Rock Critic (Based on the Writings of Lester Bangs)

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jul 10th, 2017

    Lester Bangs tells us the story of his life, how he got turned on to words reading Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs, how he discovered the music that changed his life, and how he began to write music reviews. Also how he began to consume pills by the handful (acid, with beer) and Romilar cough syrup by the bottle.

  • Sondheim on Sondheim

    A Magical Evening at Tanglewood

    By: Maria Reveley - Jul 10th, 2017

    Sondheim on Sondheim presents a multi-media scrapbook on the life and work of Broadway's genius, Stephen Sondheim. A unique personal glance at not only Sondheim's life, but his creation of Broadway musicals. This evening provides insight into Sondheim's process and the life experiences that influenced his work. The eight vocalists, including four Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Fellows, deliver Sondheim's music with feeling and vocal power.

  • Cymbeline Directed by Tina Packer

    Rarely Produced Shakespeare Play

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jul 09th, 2017

    With Cymbeline it seems that Tina Packer, the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, has completed her personal cycle of the canon. Although rarely performed, arguably Packer has saved the best for last. This is a complex and messy play but with brilliant direction, a gifted cast and super production that welter of confusion has been turned on its head with stunning results. This is the must see play of the Berkshire season and is on the short list of best productions by Packer and S&Co.

  • Twelfth Night in Ft. Lauderdale

    New City Players' Production of Shakespeare

    By: Aaron Krause - Jul 08th, 2017

    Ft. Lauderdale company's Twelfth Night achieves mixed results. Production of Shakespeare comedy is highly energetic, entertaining. The play is staged in intimate space through July 23

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