Theatre
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Uncanny Valley at San Diego Repertory Theatre
New Play by Thomas Gibbons
By: - Apr 27th, 2015San Diego Repertory Theatre has mounted a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of “Uncanny Valley,†written by award-wining playwright Thomas Gibbons; performed in their Lyceum Space theatre. The intellectual think-piece, seamlessly directed by Jessica Bird, stars Rosina Reynolds and Nick Cagle in a riveting pas de deux involving avatars and their human creators.
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Hold These Truths at CV Rep
Last of Series Focused on Immigration
By: - Apr 27th, 2015“Hold These Truthsâ€, is the last production in CV REP’s series of plays centered around the theme “America’s Melting Pot†– the plays and the stories of the American immigrant experience.This is one of CV REP’s most technically ambitious productions to date.
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Man of La Mancha Is Bulletproof
At The Palm Canyon Theatre
By: - Apr 27th, 2015“Man of La Mancha†written by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion had ‘Blockbuster†written all over it when it debuted on Broadway in 1965 (running for over 2300 performances). The show nabbed five Tony Awards winning The Tony for Best Musical, and Best Actor, making a star out of Richard Kiley for his Don Quixote portrayal.
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Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets
The Provincetown Theater Launches Season
By: - Apr 25th, 2015Inspired by the New York City Taxi Strike of 1934 the agit-prop play “Waiting for Lefty†by Clifford Odets was set for its Town Hall premiere that summer in Provincetown. The event was cancelled by the Board of Selectmen stating that “the play is about strikes and things, and gives people the wrong kind of ideas.†Recently the iconic play received its long overdue premiere at the Provincetown Theater.
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2015 Drama Desk Award Nominations
John Douglas Thompson's Special Award
By: - Apr 25th, 2015During the 2015 Drama Desk Awards a special award will be given to John Douglas Thompson: For invigorating theater in New York through his commanding presence, classical expertise, and vocal prowess. This season he demonstrated exceptional versatility in Tamburlaine the Great and The Iceman Cometh. He is familiar to Berkshire audience for outstanding performances for Shakespeare & Company. The renowned actor will return to Lenox this summer.
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Raul Castillo's Chicago World Premiere
Between You, Me and the Lampshade at Teatro Vista
By: - Apr 20th, 2015Family secrets and dreams are explored in Raul Castillo's Between You, Me and the Lampshade in a world premiere being staged by Teatro Vista. Set in a barren area of Rio Grande County in south Texas, the play addresses immigration issues as well as family tensions.
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An Unfortunate King and I at Lincoln Center
Ken Watanabe, Kingly, Sexy and Touching
By: - Apr 19th, 2015Some moving performances sung beautifully graced the Lincoln Center stage. Standouts were Ruthie Ann Miles as Lady Thiang, Conrad Ricamora as Lun Tha and Jon Viktor Corpuz as Prince Chulalongkorn. Attempting to make the story more ordinary does not help. It is after all about a King and a son who will be King and a woman of aristocratic bearing who teaches both of them. A stylish idea that requires style.
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Laura Eason at the Rattlestick Playwrights
Right Now Has an Undeniable Sound
By: - Apr 18th, 2015Rattlesnake Plawrights and Womens Project Theater collaborate to present the world premier of Laura Eason's new play. Twenty years ago Eason was a singer, song writer and bass player in a pop band in Chicago. Her band Tart played in venues like Hank's Bar, the setting of this play. Eason has a deep feeling for the pwoer of music to exist in the right now.
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Come Back, Little Sheba At Huntington's Calderwood
A Poignant Story of the American Dream Unmet
By: - Apr 16th, 2015A play about dreams and desires unmet, it is the story of Doc and Lola Delaney's rather somber middle class life. To make ends meet, they rent a room in their cluttered Midwestern home to Marie, an unapologetic young college student. Her youthful vitality stirs up forgotten dreams and missed opportunities. Directed by David Cromer, this is an intimate and heartrending portrait of a marriage and painful life partnership fading from youthful exuberance to middle age stasis. The acting is superb and the stagecraft is appealing.
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The Grown-Up at Shattered Globe Theatre.
Chicago Production of Jordan Harrison's Play
By: - Apr 15th, 2015The Grown-Up, Jordan Harrison's 12th play, premiered in 2014 at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre in Louisville. This is its second production.
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Rebecca Gilman Wins Steinberg New Play Award
Tom Coash of Atlanta Wins Osborn Award
By: - Apr 15th, 2015During the recent Humana Festival in Louisville American Theatre Critics Association presented the Steinberg and Osborn awards. Rebecca Gilman won for Luna Gale as the recipient of the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2014. The M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, which recognizes emerging playwrights, went to Tom Coash of Atlanta for his play Veils.
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Tony Simotes Conflates Classical and Contemporary
Move from S&Co. to Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Apr 15th, 2015Tony Simotes was summarily ousted from Shakespeare & Company when he got on the wrong side with a micro managing now former board president Sarah Hancock. Significantly, she is a close friend of founding artistic director, Tina Packer, whose vision of the company was very different from Simotes who replaced her. Rick Dildine who was brought in with a mandate for change soon realized the chain of command and hastily departed. In a matter of months the company went from plan B to plan C. When we met with Simotes for a long lunch he was not inclined to sort out those loose ends. He is upbeat about new possibilities as second in command to Kate Maguire and the richly enhanced Berkshire Theatre Group.
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Lisa D’Amour's Airline Highway
Chicago's Steppenwolf Production Transfers to Broadway
By: - Apr 14th, 2015Lisa D’Amour's Airline Highway begins performances at Broadway's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on April 1. Directed by Joe Mantello, Manhattan Theatre Club’s presentation of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s ensemble production will officially open on April 23. This is Nancy Bishop's Chicago review.
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Ghosts by Ibsen Physicalized by Richard Eyre
Leslie Manville, Tender and Tough
By: - Apr 12th, 2015Richard Eyre’s fresh and visceral take on Ghosts brings powerfully to the stage not a play set in the end of the 19th century, but a play which resonates in any time present. The cast matches each other beat for beat.
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Kristoffer Diaz's The Upstairs Concierge
New Farce Not All That Funny at Chicago's Goodman
By: - Apr 10th, 2015Kristoffer Diaz's The Upstairs Concierge, having its world premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, is not a witty French farce. Its celebrity- and baseball-driven plotline doesn't work as a contemporary comic romp. The plot is a mish-mash and the dialogue is flat and rarely funny.
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What I Learned in Paris
Indiana Repertory Theatre
By: - Apr 09th, 2015"What I learned in Paris" at the Indiana Repertory Theatre, set in Atlanta in 1973, deals with issues of race, gender, and romance .Evie, played by Erika Lavonn, is one of the most charismatic characters I've come across in years.
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Pygmalion at Pasadena Playhouse
Witty Shaw Comedy Skewers Pretentions
By: - Apr 08th, 2015“Pygmalionâ€, Shaw’s best known work on this side of the Atlantic shouldn’t be confused with the love child of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Lowe – “My Fair Ladyâ€.
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End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer
Chicago's New Windy City Playhouse
By: - Apr 08th, 2015End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer is the first production in the sparkling new Windy City Playhouse in the Irving Park neighborhood. It's a worthy outing for this new Equity theater company.
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The Amazing Max Darwin, Magician
Conjuring Truth
By: - Apr 08th, 2015No wonder Max packs ‘em in. With an unerring eye for talent and courage, his audience assistants fall into their new role with ease. They all caught the wand tossed to them with the cavalier ease of Yogi Berra.
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Travesties at Remy Bumppo
Chicago Production of Stoppard's Play
By: - Apr 07th, 2015Stoppard's "Travesties" in a new production at Remy Bumppo Theatre is a brilliantly conceived, acted and produced surrealist comedy -- and the language still makes me gasp.
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Anne Carson's Antigonick
At Chicago's Sideshow Theatre
By: - Apr 02nd, 2015Time and measurement are of the essence in Sideshow Theatre's new production of Anne Carson's Antigonick, described as freely translated from Sophocles' original Antigone.
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Cannibalizing Tennessee Williams
Performances and Events in New Orleans
By: - Apr 01st, 2015The conference of the American Theatre Critics Association overlapped and interacted with the 29th annual Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival. David Kaplan the curator of the Provinctown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival was on hand to direct a co production of the "Hotel Plays." September will mark the 10th anniversary of the Provincetown event.
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OBERON for April & May
Second Stage for A.R.T.
By: - Apr 01st, 2015OBERON, the American Repertory Theater’s (A.R.T.) second stage and club theater venue on the fringe of Harvard Square, announces all the offerings to be presented at OBERON during the months of April and May, in addition to the previously announced productions, including Visiting Artists, Artists in Residence, and Usual Suspects.
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City of Angels Glowing At Lyric Stage
A Wonderful Film Noir Spoof Set in 1940s Hollywood
By: - Mar 31st, 2015With clever lines, lyrics as well as songs and set in the seductive Hollywood of the late 1940s, City of Angels chronicles the misadventures of Stine, a disillusioned young novelist attempting to write a screenplay for a tyrannical, egomaniac movie producer. As his marriage falls apart, we follow Stine’s film alter-ego, the dashing detective Stone, who is haunted by the memory of the girl that got away. With a wonderful evocative score, City of Angels simultaneously spoofs the superficially glamorous world of old Hollywood and the edgy film noir world of thugs and femme fatales. This is a funny, witty and very clever theatrical experience.
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New Orleans Theatre After Katrina
ATCA and Tennessee Williams Conference and Festival
By: - Mar 31st, 2015The annual conference of the American Theatre Critics Association was recently held in New Orleans. It overlapped and interacted with Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival. In addition to panels and dialogues there were a number of insightful performances. In another report we will focus on Williams.
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