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  • Boston Country Singers Annie Brobst & Samantha Rae

    Country Women for Women’s Cancer Benefit at Hard Rock Cafe

    By: Doug Hall - Oct 28th, 2019

    Boston’s country singers Annie Brobst & Samantha Rae are behind the Country Women for Women’s Cancer Benefit at Hard Rock Café. The sold out event will occur on Saturday, November 2 at 8PM. The fundraiser will help the Susan F. Smith Center Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

  • The Musician John Hiatt

    A Nashville Artist

    By: Philip S. Kampe - Oct 29th, 2019

    I was invited to a 'pop-up' John Hiatt show the Noho section of Manhattan. It was a solo rooftop performance.

  • ATCA at Sardi’s 2019

    Marisa Tomei & Charles Busch Headline Broadway Luncheon

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 05th, 2019

    When Marisa Tomei developed her role in Rose Tattoo at Williamstown Theatre Festival Mandy Greenfield made sure that she was off limits to local critics. That made it all the more exciting to get up close and personal with the her during the annual ATCA lunch at Sardi's. We also enjoyed quality time with the outrageous Charles Busch. He proved to be accessible, charming and down the earth.

  • Wrong Man Off Broadway Musical

    By 2015 Pop Songwriter of the Year Ross Golan

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 06th, 2019

    Several years ago, 2015 Pop Songwriter of the Year Ross Golan, who has written for Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Michael Bublé, and many more, developed a concept album called The Wrong Man. The project morphed into a one-man theatrical show that won Ovation Awards in Los Angeles. Now, a compelling, fully-formed, dark, rock opera appears Off Broadway.

  • The Height of the Storm on Broadway

    Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce Struggle With Loss and Memory

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 06th, 2019

    This mind-bending drama is performed by a great, almost all-British cast headed by two of contemporary theater’s most renowned artists. Jonathan Pryce is André, the father. The equally formidable Eileen Atkins plays his wife.

  • Derren Brown - Secret

    Cort Theatre, Broadway

    By: Astrid Hiemer - Nov 08th, 2019

    The Master Illusionist, Derren Brown, currently excites audiences at the Cort Theatre on Broadway with his extra ordinary performance in SECRET. He and his show have been imported from London's West End and promise sold out performances for a very long time. Who would not like to be thoroughly entertained and perplexed at still reasonable Broadway prices?

  • ATCA NY Conference 2019

    Day of Panels at MCC Theatre

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 08th, 2019

    Located in the belly of the beast the annual Anerican Theatre Critics Association New York conferences consistently feature superb programming. The best and brightest of American theatre are as accessible as a phone call and cab ride away. This year a day of panels were held for some 60 national members and guests at the new MCC theatre complex. Where else can you encounter a Pulitzer winning playwright interviewed by a fellow Pulitzer Prize winner. The panels. convened from 9 to 5, were varied, provactive and galvanic.

  • Victoria Bond's Opera Clara

    A Child Prodigy Negotiates Career and Marriage

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 09th, 2019

    Victoria Bond's Clara on the life of the pianist and composer who was married to Robert Schumann premiered at the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden Germany last spring. The German Forum offered a concert version in New York. It is a superb exploration of this important musician.

  • Bishop on Broadway

    Coverage During NY ATCA Conference

    By: Nancy Bishop - Nov 09th, 2019

    I spent a long weekend in New York, including a meeting of the American Theater Critics Association. Busy days but time for theater at night, of course. Somehow I managed to stay on Broadway (or close) for five plays. Here are mini-reviews of the plays I saw.

  • Country Women Concert for Women’s Cancer

    Rocked Boston's Hard Rock Cafe

    By: Doug Hall - Nov 09th, 2019

    Taking the stage for a “blow-out” sold-out performance, both Massachusetts-area country singers Annie Brobst and her band and Samantha Rae with Whiskey-6 delivered an over-charged performance from the heart. Full throttle voices reminded the Hard Rock Café audience of the importance of funding research for women’s cancer.

  • Berkies 2019

    Fourth Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 13th, 2019

    On a night that was colder than a witch's tit the faithful packed the pews of Zion Lutheran Church in Pittefield. We gathered for the fourth annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. Because the heating system failed baby it was cold inside. But an evening in honor of great theatre proved to be a stellar and heart warming occasion.

  • Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma

    Broadway's Circle In The Square Theatre

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 14th, 2019

    Revival of Oklahoma unearths a darker tale.Brightness and tension combine to create a memorable production. The production, directed by Daniel Fish, runs through January.

  • Verdi's Requiem with Tedor Currentzis at The Shed

    New Views on a Great Work

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 14th, 2019

    A hundred-member orchestra and an 80-member chorus from Perm Russia perform Verdi's Requiem at The Shed in Hudson Yards, New York. Direct from Salzburg where it received rapturous reviews this re-imagining has been eagerly awaited. For ten days prior to the performances on November 19-24, Jonas Mekas' filmed response to the music was screened. It was at first a shocking take, beautiful images of flower blossoms one after another. The Requiem is a work of sublime beauty. It also has Dylan Thomas's rage at death. Mekas shows this in black screens and sometimes winds raging through branches and dessicating leaves.

  • American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

    Jamie Barton Featured in Ives' songs

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 14th, 2019

    Jamie Barton showed up at Carnegie on the wings of her tweet, "Be there or be square." Nothing about her performance of some of her favorite songs by Charles Ives was square. She is a gorgeous performer who ventures always to the edge of experience.

  • Linda Vista By Tracy Letts

    Broadway at Helen Hayes Theatre

    By: Karen Isaacs - Nov 15th, 2019

    It may not be totally successful, but a Tracy Letts play, particularly one performed by members of the Steppenwolf company, is always an interesting evening in the theater.

  • A Broadway Holiday

    Thumbnails of Recent Shows

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 15th, 2019

    Recently, while attending the New York Conference of American Theatre Critics Association we saw six shows. What follows are capsules of those experiences.

  • Don Juan

    Westport Country Playhouse

    By: Karen Isaacs - Nov 16th, 2019

    Westport Country Playhouse is giving us a delightful performance of a new adaptation of the Molière play written by Brendan Pelsue and wonderfully directed by David Kennedy.

  • Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

    Joyce Di Donato Superb as Cleopatra

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 16th, 2019

    Thrilling moments of the New York fall music season include the arrival of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. They do not disappoint. The first concert brought forward the superb brass section of the Orchestra in an unjustifiably overlooked early work by Georges Bizet, Roma. No one knows where the title came from.

  • Michelle Wiley et Les Garcons

    Evening of Eclipse Cabaret

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 17th, 2019

    It was standing room only last night for a packed cabaret in the gallery of the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. The chanteuse, Michelle Wiley et les Garcons, (Opie O'Brian. Carl Oman and guest guitarist) regaled us with two long sets. The program conflated Edith Piaf with Irving Berlin. Dancing was encouraged.

  • Artist Jane Hudson at Tourists

    Birthday Celebration on Becoming Jane

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 21st, 2019

    The upscale Tourists a hip, designer savvy resort in North Adams, has launched a program of evenings with artists. Last night there was a cozy, well attended fireside chat with artist and musician Jane Hudson. She and her husband Jeff operated Hudsons Antiques formerly at MASS MoCA. They also perform music as Jeff and Jane. Both are widely exhibited artists. She discussed phases of her career which I have followed as friend and commentator since the late 1960s. It was also her birthday.

  • Popular Artists at Tanglewood

    From Ringo to Arlo and Judy Collins

    By: BSO - Nov 21st, 2019

    It's time to mark your calendar. Tanglewood has annpunced the Popular Artists for the 2020 season. More to be announced later. By Popular Artist the BSO differentiates them from what we assume to be the unpopular ones. Its notable that so far the uber popular James Taylor is not a part of the lineup. But is likely to slip in late, As of now his usual slot for the July Fourth holiday weekend ia wide open. What's announced so far is the Popular prequel.

  • Conrad Tao Debuts at Carnegie Hall

    Barefoot and Brazen Tao Makes a Case for the Piano

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 21st, 2019

    The young musical polymath Conrad Tao made his debut at Carnegie Hall. In an ambitious program, designed in part to display the elements of virtuoso performance on the piano, Tao played representative composers from J. S. Bach to David Lang and Julia Wolfe.

  • Teodor Currentzis Brings Verdi to The Shed

    Dramatic Performance Accompanied by Jonas Mekas Images

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 22nd, 2019

    The Verdi Requiem conducted by Teodor Currentzis with the musicAeterna Orchestra and Chorus is performed at The Shed through November 24. The McCourt is a grand space and can seat 1,250 and hold 2000 standing. Designed to be flexibly conformed, this performance has bleacher seats extending from the floor before the stage up to the rafters, or heavens if you will. This program's music is both other-worldly and very much in the now.

  • A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

    Classic Sondheim Musical in South Florida

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 25th, 2019

    A highly physical and playful production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is on stage at MNM Theatre Company. The West Palm Beach-based nonprofit company features equity and non-equity Florida actors. Cast members shine in their roles, but the sound system needs improvement. The production runs through Dec. 8 in a South Florida theater season featuring several Sondheim works.

  • Critic Herbert Simpson 1934-2019

    Covered Theatre Insight Out

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 26th, 2019

    During conferences of American Theatre Critics Association the Rochester based critic, Herbert Simpson, was a raconteur and noble presence. Rooted in the classics he had little patience for current foibles. His opinions were always crusty, witty, scholarly, loquacious and well crafted. As a correspondent we were honored to repost his reviews.

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