Theatre
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Mouse Trap Mystifies
At Arthur Newman Theatre, in Palm Desert, California.
By: - Nov 09th, 2013The play written by Agatha Christie, which opened in November of 1952, is billed as the longest, continuously running play in theatre history. If I do the math correctly that’s sixty-one years. That’s a lot of performances.
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Smokefall at the Goodman Theatre
Provocative Descendant of Our Town
By: - Nov 05th, 2013Noah Haidle’s play Smokefall is a provocative Midwestern take on "Our Town." Punctuated with apt and engaging humor at every step of the way, it is a drama that is at times startling as well as poignant. Mike Nussbaum is a standout as the Colonel, the grandpater famiilas in Act I. He is losing his mind, but not so much so that he can’t remember having sex four times a day with his late wife Lenore. He often walks to the graveyard to celebrate the good times of yore. Mixing language from PBS programs and a good amount of birthing pain, the playwright gets our attention.
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Kurt Vonnegut's Make Up Your Mind
World Premiere of Clever Comedy At SpeakEasy
By: - Nov 05th, 2013Kurt Vonnegut was an American original. This new play by Vonnegut and assembled by writer Nicky Silver touches a bit of ourselves. Like Vonnegut's other work it borders between farce and absurdism punctuated by wit, humor and at times empathy. With wonderful sets and terrific performances, this is about making and not making decisions, good, bad and life changing. Written in a time of self-help and lifestyle gurus and groupings, it questions the notion of "expert" therapy and the ramifications of not following strict adherence. Like all of Vonnegut's works, humor and humanity win out.
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Goodman Theatre Sings Pullman Porter Blues
Cheryl L. West's Brilliant Play is Soulful and Brimful of Pleasure
By: - Oct 27th, 2013Pullman Porter Blues is richly textured entertainment. The show is comprised of a narrative orchestrated by twelve songs appropriately plucked from the blues literature, with a little barbershop intermixed, thread through the show. The emotional arc is clear from the start. ‘Women don’t take no shit.†Men have to learn how to follow suit. Set in the 1930s, it is focused on three generations of the Sykes family who work together as Pullman Porters. Here Blues and train travel intermingle to establish a special time and place.
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The Power of Duff Powerful at Calderwood
Playwright Stephen Belber Brings A New Voice to Theatre
By: - Oct 24th, 2013With often insightful humor and very human observations, Playwright Stephen Belber has added a new perspective to contemporary theatre. This very skillful play is set around the odd actions of burnt-out local TV newscaster Charlie Duff when he suddenly starts to offer a personal prayer at the end of his nightly broadcasts. Almost instantly he becomes a popular and controversial figure. But even as his prayers inspire millions, the anchorman wrestles with his own beliefs and his inability to sustain familial connections. This is a brilliant nearly mythic story with very personal concrete consequences.
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The Iliad at Indiana Repertory Theatre
Henry Woronicz in a Tour-de-force Performance
By: - Oct 22nd, 2013The Indiana Repertory Theatre's production of The Iliad, a one man show with with Henry Woronicz, is mesmerizing in its complexity, maintaining a comedic edge despite the serious material. Using Robert Fagles’ translation of Homer’s original work playwrights Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare create a completely new play. It runs through November 16.
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Water By The Spoonful Poignant At LyricStage
Forming A Family From Needy and Troubled Souls
By: - Oct 21st, 2013Water by the Spoonful is the beautifully written and performed Pulitzer Prize winning play by Quira Alegria Hudes. It is a visual and verbal montage of lives in crisis. Seemingly unrelated characters search for connection in a difficult world. They are looking for hope from their newly found family. Their troubled souls look for and try to find connection and redemption. This wonderful drama embraces great empathy and humor as well as a bit of hope.
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Will Any Gentlemen to October 27
College of the Desert’s Theatre
By: - Oct 21st, 2013Tres Dean, the director of “Will Any Gentlemen?â€, currently on the boards at College of the Desert’s Theatre Too stage, and the creative engine that runs the Theatre Department, is racking up credits and points as the desert’s go to guy for British farce.
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The Last Goodbye at Old Globe
Originated at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Oct 17th, 2013The Last Goodbye,†now at the Old Globe, had its world premiere at the 2010 Williamstown Theatre Festival, and since then has been a work in progress undergoing one “musical autopsy†after another in an effort to ensure that the work will find a friendly regional theatre stage to call home for awhile. It is set to the music of the late Tim Buckley. The production runs to November 3.
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Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Phoenix Theatre Indianapolis to October 20
By: - Oct 16th, 2013The 2013 Tony winning Best Play "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" is running at Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis through October 20. The title is a mouthful, but the play itself is a delight.
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Jenny Gersten Leaving Williamstown Theatre Festival
To Run Friends of The High Line in New York
By: - Oct 15th, 2013Meeting to recap the third and final year of her contract as Artistic Director of Williamstown Theatre Festival Jenny Gersten was coy when I asked what comes next.? Now we know. Gersten is leaving Williamtown for NY's High Line. But she is planning and will help execute next summer's WTF program assuring an orderly transition during the search for a new Artistic Director. There have been three in the past nine years. Who will be the next three and out?
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Jungle Book in Final Week
Just Eight More Performances at Huntington Theatre Company
By: - Oct 15th, 2013On October 8 we attended the 100th performance of the boffo, smash hit Jungle Book a stunning fantasy driven musical created and directed by Mary Zimmerman based on the book by Rudyard Kipling. This is the last chance to see a show destined to run forever on Broadway.
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Lorenzo Pisoni at LA's Mark Taper Forum
One Man Show Humor Abuse
By: - Oct 15th, 2013The current production on the boards of LA’s Mark Taper Forum is a clever and highly imaginative little gem of a show dealing with the world of clowns entitled “Humor Abuseâ€. It is brilliantly performed by professional clown and actor Lorenzo Pisoni and is winningly directed by co-creator Erica Schmidt.
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Les Mis at Beef and Boards
Serving a Meaty Jean Valjean
By: - Oct 15th, 2013The ambitious Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre in Indianapolis is serving a piping hot version of the spectacular musical Les Miserables. Our correspondent Melissa Hall files a tasty report.
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Clybourne Park at Barrington Stage to Oct. 13
Coming Too Soon to a Theatre Near You
By: - Oct 05th, 2013The Pulitzer and Tony winning Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris is currently on the short list of most produced plays in America. In a co production with Dorset Theatre Festival where it was staged his summer it runs through October 13 at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. This is its fifth review for Berkshire Fine Arts.
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A.R.T & Moscow Art Theatre Schedule
Advanced Theater Training Productions for the 2013/14 Season.
By: - Sep 25th, 2013The American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater School Institute for Advanced Theater Training announce the productions for the 2013/14 Season. From October 11 through May 30 in Cambridge, Mass.
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All The Way Powerful At American Rep
LBJ's Political and Personal Dilemmas Poetically Told
By: - Sep 20th, 2013Lyndon Johnson was one of our most provocative and contradictory presidents. A Southerner who tried to wipe out racial prejudice, a compromiser who only wanted to get his own way and a flawed individual who tried to make America a perfect union. All The Way is a Shakespearean drama that tells the story of the first year of LBJ's presidency with brilliant performances by Bryan Cranston as Johnson as well as by a host of supporting actors. It is a superb story of politics on the precipice and how compromise and cooperation by any means achieves political ends. It is a story set half a century ago that is a lesson for our own politically absurd times.
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Jungle Book Stunning At Huntington Theatre
A Visual and Musical Multigenerational Event
By: - Sep 19th, 2013Based upon Rudyard Kipling's early 20th Century children's classic, The Huntington Theatre Company's inaugeral show of the 2013-14 Season is a tour de force of music, visuals and performances. This production is a show for the whole family that will delight everyone's inner child as well as their outer adult. It is light and airy and full of beauty and vitality. This Jungle Book is a visual stunner with theatrical panache. And the character Mowgli is performed with such charisma that it is astounding. Director/Creator Mary Zimmerman's interpretation of this classic is magnificent and triumphant. Move over Lion King.
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Jungle Book at Huntington Theatre Extended
Final Performance Now October 20
By: - Sep 18th, 2013Due to popular demand, the Huntington Theatre Company again extends the run of its world premiere adaptation of The Jungle Book – the final performance will now be Sunday, October 20. The “inventive and visually stunning†(Entertainment Weekly) production officially opens tonight, Wednesday, September 18 at 7pm at the Huntington’s mainstage, the Boston University Theatre.
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Tribes Brilliantly Speaks At SpeakEasy Stage
An Eloquent Hearing and Listening Experience
By: - Sep 15th, 2013Tribes is a brilliantly written play by Nina Raine that had its world premiere in 2010 at London's Royal Court Theatre. It tells the story of an overtly intellectual British family with a son who is deaf and his two hearing siblings. The deaf son Billy was purposely raised without knowledge of sign language. After meeting Sylvia, a hearing woman born to deaf parents who is now slowly going deaf herself, his interaction with her reveals the prejudices, beliefs, and hierarchies of his family. Here, hearing and listening are illustrated to be quite different. This may be one of the best dramas of the 2013-2014 season anywhere.
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ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage
Announces 2014 Season
By: - Sep 10th, 2013ArtsEmerson: The World On Stage announces the second half of its fourth theatre season, beginning in early 2014. This covers productions into June of 2014. Rob Orchard, Executive Director for the Arts stated that "Our fourth season offers world premieres, classics, return visits from friends we've hosted before, and dialogue around important historical moments as well as a number of works featuring multi-media and music. In short, a world on stage coming to us this year from Belgium, Ireland, Italy, South Africa, England, Israel, The Netherlands, Russia and across the U.S."
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American Repertory Theatre 2013-14 Season
Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston as LBJ
By: - Sep 10th, 2013American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) has scheduled American Sign Language (ASL) interpreted performances and Audio Described performances for blind and low-visioned audiences during the A.R.T.’s 2013-14 Season. Bryan Cranston the star of the hit TV drama Breaking Bad plays President Lyndon B. Johnson in All The Way which opens the season in Cambridge on October 1.
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Jane Austen's Persuasion at Chicago Chamber Opera
Barbara Landis's Production in NY September 14 & 15
By: - Sep 09th, 2013Barbara Landis found Jane Austen’s language so perfect that she appropriated it as lyrics. Persuasion is set in music she plucked from the period in which Austen wrote. Landis, an assembler among her many talents, refers to this enterprise as a “mishmash.†We review the Chicago production which will be performed at Dicapo Opera Theatre, New York City , September 14 and 15.
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Berkshire Theatre Highlights 2013
Reflecting on an Intense High Season
By: - Sep 09th, 2013With several major Berkshire arts organizations now closed until next year it's time to reflect on the intense and often remarkable 2013 high season. It's impossible to be everywhere, often with conflicts on any given night, but we offer highlights of what we managed to review. In addition to the Berkshires we covered five new plays at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The busy season included a number of interviews with artistic directors, actors and playwrights.
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One Man, Two Guvnors At Lyric Stage
British Comedy Based On 18th Century Italian One
By: - Sep 09th, 2013Last year, this show was a hit on Broadway after great runs in London and throughout the UK. Apparently, the energy and rhythm of the Broadway production and talented lead James Corden made this show a crowd pleaser. For his performance Cordon won a Tony. His physical humor is a hard act to follow. One Man, Two Govnors is billed as a celebration of British comedy. Rather than, as expected a laugh-out-loud mix of satire, songs and slapstick, this Lyric Stage Company production takes a rather long time to develop its form. However, there are a few standout performances that make it worth the price of admission.
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