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Theatre

  • Still Waiting for Godot

    Irish Production at Chicago Shakespeare Theater

    By: Nancy Bishop - May 29th, 2018

    Druid Theatre of Galway, Ireland, has brought its radiant production of Samuel Beckett’s Godot to Chicago Shakespeare Theater for an abbreviated run. Directed by Garry Hynes, Druid’s artistic director, the play stars four renowned Irish actors. The stars are Didi and Gogo (Vladimir played by Marty Rea with Aaron Monaghan as Estragon), the two souls waiting at a country crossroads for someone named Godot.

  • Shrek The Musical Near Miami

    Stage Adaptation of Popular Animated Film

    By: Aaron Krause - May 29th, 2018

    Minimalism proves magical in Area Stage Company's production of Shrek The Musical. It's easy to buy into the world onstage despite visible and simple theatrical magic. Director's approach frames the show as a troupe of players at a modern Renaissance faire.

  • David Henry Hwang Musical Soft Power

    World Premiere at The Ahmanson Theatre in LA

    By: Jack Lyons - May 29th, 2018

    Playwright David Henry Hwang’s newest musical play “Soft Power”, now enjoying its world premiere on the stage of The Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, is an excellent example of readdressing the domination of White culture of the West to the rising prominence and influence of Asian societies along the ‘silk roads’ of the East. Hwang is a prolific American-born playwright of Chinese ethnicity.

  • Exquisita Agonía at Repertorio Español

    De Nilo Cruz Weaves Magic

    By: Rachel de Aragon - May 30th, 2018

    Exquisita Agonía at Repertorio Espanol is a tour de force take on modern science mixed with the age old questions about who we are and what we leave behind when we die. Director Jose Zayas has provided a perfect rhythm to the two-act piece by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz.

  • New Holocaust Play by Moisés Kaufman

    The Album at Miami New Drama's Colony Theatre

    By: Aaron Krause - May 30th, 2018

    The Album focuses on little-known collection of photographs of Nazis partying near Aushwitz.A play by Moisés Kaufman, of Tectonic Theater Project fame, is in development. South Florida audiences are seeing snippets of this new play, running for four performances.

  • Love Never Dies Actually Should Have

    Messy Sequel to Phantom of the Opera at Hartford's Bushnell

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 01st, 2018

    Love Never Dies, the sequel written by Andrew Lloyd Webber (music), Glenn Slater (lyrics) and Ben Elton (book) is based on the novel The Phantom in Manhattan. Of these, only Webber was involved in the original Phantom. It runs at the Bushnell, in Hartford, Conn. through Sunday, June 3

  • Freaky Friday the Musical

    Book by Bridget Carpenter, Music by Tom Kitt, Lyrics by Brian Yorkey

    By: Victor Cordell - Jun 02nd, 2018

    Based on Mary Rogers’ 1972 novel of the same name, Freaky Friday’s popularity is validated by the three film versions that have appeared, with each variant tweeking the storyline. This is the first stage musical effort, and award winning playwright Bridget Carpenter’s adaptation is well suited to the theater with integrated subplots and laugh lines throughout. Tom Kitt’s music is tuneful and bouncy in keeping with the musical theater pop idiom, while Brian Yorkey’s lyrics consistently drive the plot and are full of insight and humor.

  • Morning After Grace by Carey Crim

    Senior Moments at Shakespeare & Company

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 02nd, 2018

    Seniors are now living longer, healthier and better lives. Add to that little blue pills and it's not just kids who are hooking up. Morning After Grace by Carey Crim explores what happens when the old lady you wake up is just that.

  • Mark Brownell’s Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman

    Feminine Mystique at Chicago's Trap Door Theatre

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jun 03rd, 2018

    Trap Door Theatre’s production of Mark Brownell’s Monsieur d’Eon Is a Woman, directed by Nicole Wiesner, is a striking example of the company’s highly stylized, choreographed, madcap productions. Eleven performers are in constant motion.

  • An American Soldier at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

    Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang are Dynamite

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 04th, 2018

    Huang Ruo in music and David Henry Hwang in words ask: What will you do to become American? What will you endure? In a seamless wrought tale of a first generation Chinese American from Chinatown, we watch the world rect to a young man's wish. It is a horrifying story whose conseuqences we have only begun to grapple with. Huang Ruo and Hwang make great opera out of the story.

  • Mies Julie by Yaël Farber

    Adaptation of Strindberg at Victory Gardens Theater

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jun 05th, 2018

    In Mies Julie at Victory Gardens Theater, playwright Yaël Farber translates the relationship between a privileged young woman and a servant from Midsummers Eve in Sweden to the Karoo, South Africa, on Freedom Day in 2012, the day commemorating the end of apartheid.

  • Boston Expressionists Rehung at the MFA

    A Major Exhibition of Hyman Bloom is Scheduled

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 06th, 2018

    Until recently the Museum of Fine Arts has neglected artists of Jewish heritage known as The Boston Expressionists. There were a handful of works that were burried in storage. Major works by Hyman Bloom and Karl Zerbe were included in a gift from Saundra B. Lane and William H. Lane. The museum is planning a major exhibition and catalogue for Bloom. It is likely that there will be other projects and publications. There are no current plans for showing or collecting works by Zerbe and Jack Levine.

  • El Credito at Repertorio Espanol

    Both a Borrower and a Lender Be

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 09th, 2018

    In their current repertory season, Repertorio Espagnol is presenting the two hander, El Credito by Jordi Galeran. We meet a loan officer who can’t say yes and a clever borrower with no assets. No one has heard Polonius’ advice: neither a borrower or a lender be. The setup is classic.

  • City Theatre's Summer Shorts

    Popular Play Festival in Miami

    By: Aaron Krause - Jun 09th, 2018

    City Theatre's Summer Shorts is in its 23rd year of entertaining southeast Florida audiences This year's line-up is diverse. A pleasantly surprisingly, unseasonal "Short" opens this year's festival

  • The Father by Florian Zeller

    West Coast Premiere at North Coast Repertory Theatre

    By: Jack Lyons - Jun 10th, 2018

    Florian Zeller’s latest play, a tragic/comedy with a translation from multi-award winning Tony and Oscar playwright/translator Christopher Hampton, practically guarantee’s one an evening of stimulating quality theatre. Hampton does all the translations for French/Iranian playwright Yasmina Reza of “Art” and “God of Carnage” fame, as well as Zeller’s plays.

  • A Lesson from Aloes by Athol Fugard

    Presented by Weathervane Productions

    By: Victor Cordell - Jun 10th, 2018

    Betrayal through informing is at the core of Athol Fugard’s masterful A Lesson from Aloes, one of several penetrating plays that earns the South African playwright a position in the pantheon of modern authors. First produced in 1980, the play is set in 1963, a full three decades before the end of apartheid. Weathervane Productions renders this classic with exceptional skill.

  • Highlights of Connecticut Theatre Season

    Overview of Seventy Plus Productions

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 11th, 2018

    I didn’t think there were really any outstanding musical productions this season. By that I mean productions where the work itself and all elements of the production hit the mark. Most had flaws of some kind.

  • Into the Woods in South Florida

    Classic Musical by Lightning Bolt Productions

    By: Aaron Krause - Jun 11th, 2018

    New Southern Florida theater company's production of Into The Woods is mostly a success. The director's approach suggests the innocence our youth has lost in the aftermath of tragedies. Mostly, this production leaves Into the Woods intact.

  • Peace for Mary Frances by Lily Thorne

    The New Group Tackles Hospice

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 11th, 2018

    Peace for Mary Frances by Lily Thorne is produced by The New Group. It is in many ways a tough play, a domestic drama set during the final weeks of hospice at home. The cast featuring Lois Smith and J. Smith-Cameron is terrific.

  • Mt. Greylock’s Bascom Lodge

    I Could See for Miles and Miles and Miles

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 13th, 2018

    It was a picture perfect Sunday afternoon when we took a long and winding drive to the 3,491 foot summit of Mt. Greylock. It's rustic Bascom Lodge was constructed as a WPA project in the 1930s. It fell into neglect but was renovated and the road repaired in 2009. There are dorm and private rooms for hikers. In season three meals a day are served and dinner on weekends is generally sold out. There are free events on the porch and we attended a mashup organized by Berkshire Playwrights Lab. At 7 PM we joined the family style dinner. For spectacuar views and a sense of adventure it's a summe treat that's hard to beat.

  • The Royal Family of Broadway at Barrington Stage

    Is This All Star Production Headed for Broadway

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jun 14th, 2018

    Barrington Stage Company has assembled a dream team for the world premiere of The Royal Family of Broadway. It is a musical makeover of the 1927 play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. When word gets out about the first smash hit of the Berkshire season tickets may be hard to come by between now and July 7. This production was home grown by Barrington's Musical Theatre Lab.

  • Tony Winner Glenda Jackson

    Edward Albee's Three Tall Women

    By: Karen Isaacs - Jun 15th, 2018

    As with any Albee play, one can spend hours dissecting the lines and the characters. Glenda Jackson and Laurie Metcalf won Tony's for their preformances.

  • Woman and Scarecrow at the Irish Repertory Theater

    Marina Carr, an Important Irish Playwright

    By: Rachel de Aragon - Jun 14th, 2018

    It is now in the Midlands of Ireland. A bitter middle aged woman drifts in and out of the multi-layered consciousnesses. She is dying. Ireland's emerging premier female playwright Marina Carr invites us into attend her last moments.

  • Secret Life of Humans at 59E59 Theaters

    David Byrne is Entertaining and Provocative

    By: Susan Hall - Jun 13th, 2018

    Secret Life of Humans at 59E59 Theaters is a thoroughly engaging, funny and thoughtful evening of theater. David Byrne and Kate Stanley have asked in a fresh style: Can we humans survive?

  • FINKS by Joe Gilford

    Better Dead Than Red

    By: Victor Cordell - Jun 15th, 2018

    Under the guise of the Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), abrogated the rights of thousands of people. Their practice of denouncing their political opposites is little different from the same strategy used by the current presidency.

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