Front Page
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Romeo and Juliet
At San Diego's Old Gold Theatre
By: - Aug 21st, 2019Barry Edelstein, the Old Globe Theatre’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director, is not only a recognized scholar of the Shakespearean canon, He’s also the author of “Thinking Shakespeare” a book that has become the standard text on American Shakespeare Acting in universities and academies across America. Who better, then, than Edelstein to direct the Bard’s famous and tragic story of star crossed lovers, “Romeo and Juliet,.”
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Topdog/Underdog by Susan-Lori Parks
Riveting Pulitzer Prize Drama at Shakespeare & Company
By: - Aug 22nd, 2019Directed by Regge Life Shakespeare & Company is presenting a riveting, superbly acted production of Topdog/Underdog by Susan-Lori Parks In 2002, Parks received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Outer Critics Circle Award for the play. The actors Booth (Deaon Griffin-Pressley), and Lincoln (Bryce Michael-Wood) give astonishing performances. This is on the short list of best dramas of the 2019 Berkshire season.
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Gershwin Alone By Hershey Felder
A Musical Seance at the Colonial Theatre
By: - Aug 25th, 2019Gershwin Alone by Hershey Felder has been performed on Broadway and toured globally. Too briefly this remarkable musical seance is at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. Felder is actor/ entertainer, musicologist and biographer switching from schtick to instructive. With a "that's not all folks" surprise the ninety minute performance was followed by an eclectic engagement with the audience. That included a couple of sing alongs from The Great American Songbook.
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Sea Wall/A Life at Hudson Theater in NYC
Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal
By: - Aug 27th, 2019Sea Wall/A Life, two-one act plays now at the Hudson Theater in New York City through Sept. 29 takes you on an emotional roller coaster. In part, this is due to the spectacular performances by Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal.
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Tanz im August 2019, Berlin
Produced by HAU, 9 - 31 August
By: - Aug 31st, 2019Eagerly awaited, but somewhat disappointing, could be the short assessment of the 31st International Dance Festival 'Tanz im August' in Berlin, a performance marathon. The sold out festival drew18,000 visitors. This is a must read for all dance enthusiasts!
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The Flick by Annie Baker
Shotgun Players in Berkeley, California
By: - Sep 01st, 2019One weakness in the storyline of Annie Baker's The Flick is the playwright’s inability to edit down from a three-hour running time to a length reasonable for the topic matter. Like many contemporary movie directors, she seems unable to abandon story elements that may stand well on their own but dilute the overall effect. One tract that is an unnecessary waste of 10 or 15 minutes is the opening scene. Not only does it bore to tears, but it takes some time for the audience to put that experience behind them and hope that things will get better. Fortunately, they do.
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Reba McEntire at Tanglewood
Packed Shed Ends 2019 Season
By: - Sep 02nd, 2019From 4:20 PM to an exit at 5:45 PM country music star Reba McEntire laid down a vapor trail of a jet charged fifteen tunes. It was the final performance of a record setting 2019 Tanglewood season.
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Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Live from Lincoln Center Presents first International Broadcast
By: - Sep 04th, 2019The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is upward bound, on an odyssey filmed by Live From Lincoln Center as they journeyed through Greece. We visit the remote hills of Pelion and churches in Volos and Milies. Unusual and exotic locations are the setting of performances: from a Bach violin solo performed movingly by Aaron Boyd in a magnificent amphitheater to the wonderful Octet for strings that Mendelssohn composed at 16 years of age as he embarked on his classical career.
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Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition
North Adams Events in September and October
By: - Sep 06th, 2019The Eclipse Mill Artists Annual Exhibition will be held September 6 to September 29 at 243 Union Street in North Adams, Mass. 01247. This serves as a preview for Open Studios on Saturday and Sunday, October 19 and 20. The complex, which houses forty live/ work lofts, is the epicenter of an ever growing community of artists in Northern Berkshire County.
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Connecticut Theatre
Highliighting the Fall Season
By: - Sep 08th, 2019Karen Isaacs previews what's on tap for fall theater in Connecticut.
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Murder for Two
Musical on Stage in Walnut Creek, California
By: - Sep 08th, 2019While this is a well-crafted production of a well-designed and recognized work, it is not for everyone. For theater goers seeking fast-paced, forget-your-troubles entertainment, it will probably fill the bill. For those looking for meaning, social commentary, complexity of character, and the like, it may not fill much of anything.
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Britten's Billy Budd Based on Melville
At San Francisco Opera
By: - Sep 09th, 2019Michael Grandage’s production has been revived several times since its inauguration almost a decade ago, and it’s easy to see why. The staging is sensational, dominated by the depiction of the innards of the man o’ war. Although Billy Budd underwent revisions after its debut in 1951, it is surprising that the American premiere didn’t occur until 1970.
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When She Had Wings
Family-Oriented Play In South Florida
By: - Sep 11th, 2019When She Had Wings brings history to life in a fun way. This play about a young girl who wishes to regain her ability to fly should appeal to all ages. Boca Raton-based Theatre Lab is mounting a charming, magical production.
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John Zorn World Premiere at Columbia University
Pianist Stephen Gosling Paints in Notes
By: - Sep 12th, 2019The first of a series of monthly pop up concerts at the Miller Theatre at Columbia University presented the world premiere of John Zorn’s 18 Studies from the Later Sketchbooks of JMW Turner. This expansive work embraces a variety of styles and forms, all inspired by the watercolors of 19th-century English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner. Pianist Stephen Gosling, a masterful interpreter of contemporary music and particularly Zorn's, performed.
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Reggae Band Steel Pulse
The Cabot Theater, Beverly, Mass.
By: - Sep 14th, 2019Performing at the Cabot Theater in Beverly, to a packed and “on your feet” audience, David Hinds (vocals, guitarist) and longtime bandmate Selwyn Brown (keyboardist) kept an edge to their message of social and political outrage. The evening featured the first release by Steel Pulse in over a decade "Mass Manipulation" (2019, Rootfire Cooperative / Wiseman Doctrine).
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Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater
Interviews by Mark Larson
By: - Sep 14th, 2019Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater is a book you can enjoy in two ways. You can read it from beginning to end, as you would any narrative of fiction or nonfiction. Or you can dip in and out and read Mark Larson’s marvelous interviews with Chicago theater people in any order—and to any stage of completion—that you like.
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Amadeus at North Coast Repertory Theatre
Sir Peter Schaffer’s Musical Still Rocks Mozart
By: - Sep 15th, 2019Director Baird’s bold vision required him to strip-down the script to 10 performing characters without sacrificing any of the drama and/or light comedy moments that run throughout Shaffer’s illuminating, potent, tragic story concerning the early death, at 35 years of age, of musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (an astonishing Rafael Goldstein).
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Boston Rocker Ric Ocasek at 75
With Ben Orr Founded The Cars
By: - Sep 16th, 2019The counterculture in Boston geared up in the summer of 1968. The music scene, WBCN, and alternative media were well established when The Cars emerged with a self titled album in 1978. They went on to record a string of hits breaking up a decade later. After kicking around with a variety of folk/ rock configurations Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr established a mega group that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. Orr died in 2000 and Ocasek died yesterday at 75. They were an integral part of a golden age of Boston rock.
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Time Stands Still By Donald Marguiles
Ends Season for Shakespeare & Company
By: - Sep 16th, 2019Instead of a brief essay from the director the Shakespeare & Company playbill uses that space to list journalists killed "on assignment in 2019." Ten years ago Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies earned two Tony nominations. Four fine performances, and superb direction, were squandered on a play that is not aging well. Taking on an important subject, the bravery and sacrifice of journalists covering war zones, the play is contrived and reaches for cheap tricks entailing reversal and deception.
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Romeo and Juliet by Charles Gounod
Produced by San Francisco Opera
By: - Sep 17th, 2019Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet faithfully follows Shakespeare’s dramatic narrative and adds a score of great beauty that has graced the repertory since its spectacular debut in 1867. San Francisco Opera’s faithful production possesses sterling artistry and striking staging that honor this compelling opera.
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Martin Moran's One Man Show, All the Rage
The Barrow Group Presents the Award-WInning Mono Drama
By: - Sep 18th, 2019Martin Moran performs his one-man show, All The Rage, at the Barrow Group through October 5. Thoroughly entertaining, it tackles one of the deepest of subjects: forgiveness for unforgivable offenses. Seth Barrish directed this award-winning show.
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Sea Wall/A Life at Broadway's Hudson Theatre
With Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge
By: - Sep 19th, 2019Sea Wall/A Life, two extraordinarily powerful one act plays, presented in monologue form, are holding court at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. Fueled by strong reviews, and the star power of film and stage actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Strurridge, it is one of the most deeply moving productions currently gracing the stage here in New York City.
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Skintight at LA's Geffen Playhouse
Broadway Star Idina Menzel
By: - Sep 20th, 2019The promise of high energy singer/actor Idina Menzel’s debut on the Geffen’s stage is sure to lure her fans. Playwright Joshua Harmon’s newest and talky comedy play “Skintight” is directed by Daniel Aukin. Geffen’s artistic director, Matt Shakman, may have missed the mark by selecting “Skintight” for the Geffen’s 2019/2020 season opener.
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Opera Philadelphia Presents Denis and Katya
Philip Venables and Ted Huffman Update Romeo and Juliet
By: - Sep 23rd, 2019Opera Philadelphia presents Denis and Katya, the world premiere of a new opera by Philip Venables and Ted Huffman. Keenia Ravvinia is credited both with creative contributions and translation of the events surrounding the dual death of two fifteen year old Russians. The teens had holed up in a cabin where weapons were stored and used them to attack the police. No one really knows what happened, but it was an event that was covered by the young couple in smart phone videos and periscope posts and widely picked up by the media.
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Opera Philadelphia's Love for Three Oranges
Prokovief's American Opera Mounted Like Lollipops
By: - Sep 24th, 2019Apparently the audience for the Sunday performance of Love for Three Oranges at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia was only the second best audience so far. The best, 1,300 school children who had earlier found this work irresistible. It is.
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