Theatre
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Annette Miller Masterful as Maria Callas
Shakespeare & Company Through August 18
By: - Jun 13th, 2013For the all too brief span of a decade Maria Callas was the best paid and most renowned opera singer of her era. Not known for meticulous adherence to the score or its conductor her dramatic interpretations were thrilling, inventive, controversial and inconsistent. As was her personal life as mistress to the richest man in the world Aristotle Onassis. The play focuses on Callas past her prime flogging students in a master class whom she stridently refers to as victims.
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A.R.T. Wins 4 Tonys and Huntington Wins 1
Boston Theatres Recognized for Artistic Achievement
By: - Jun 10th, 2013The 66th Annual Tony Award Ceremony took place on CBS on Sunday, June 9, 2013. One of the most prestigious and coveted honors in the entertainment industry, the Tonys recognize the best of theatrical and artistic achievement on stage in America. This year Boston theatres won five awards. A.R.T.'s Pippin won four and the Huntington Theatre Company won for the Best Regional theatre. Well-deserved on all counts.
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His Girl Friday at La Jolla Playhouse
John Guare's Spin on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
By: - Jun 10th, 2013John Guare has a new take on the classic screwball comedy The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. The original story was a pointed study in the shenanigans committed by news reporters, predatory journalists, scoundrels, and scalawags, all in search of a “scoop†during the good old days when newspaper ink coursed through the veins of anyone with a by-line.
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More Williamstown Theatre Festival Updates
Dominique Morisseau 2013 L. Arnold Weissberger Award
By: - Jun 04th, 2013Brooks Ashmanskas, De'Adre Aziza, Reed Birney, Joey Slotnick, and Omar Metwally are among the actors who will take part in this Williamstown Theatre Festival summer’s productions. Dominique Morisseau has been awarded WTF’s 2013 L. Arnold Weissberger Award for Playwriting for her play Paradise Blue. She will receive a $10,000 grant and receive a reading as part of WTF’s FRIDAYS@3 series, as well as publication by Samuel French, Inc.
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Musical Comedy Whore With David Pevsner
Desert Rose Playhouse
By: - May 31st, 2013“Musical Comedy Whoreâ€, is not as prurient, sexy, or as self-serving a show as straight audiences might imagine. The audience, both gay and straight, is listening to the life story of a man who passionately bares his soul because he believes in honesty.
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Rapture, Blister, Burn At Huntington
Midlife Female Angst Over What Could Have Been
By: - May 29th, 2013The not so simple issues of marriage, feminism and parenthood are stirfried together with who we are and what we have become in Gina Gionfriddo’s drama/comedy that was a finalist for a 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The story looks at more than a decade after grad school when Catherine pursued a career as a star feminist academic, while Gwen built a home with husband and children. Each friend covets the other's life. With comedic and at times tender insights and clever bantor, this new comedy investigates family, career, romance, and the decisions that define an unfulfilled life.
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The Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon
Thirty-four-years Young and Still Going Strong
By: - May 27th, 2013The five one act plays presented in Series A at the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 34th marathon promise a bang up series in 2013. At the top of the evening was John Patrick Shanley’s Poison, about which the characters should have had much doubt. Not the audience however who bought in immediately and hopefully as a young woman, rebuffed by her boyfriend, seeks a fortuneteller’s help in getting him back.
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Bashir Lazhar at Barrington Stage
Juri Henley-Cohn as an Algerian Refugee in Montreal
By: - May 27th, 2013The play Bashir Lazhar by Évelyne de la Chenelière preceded Monsieur Lazhar which was a 2012 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film. The play, translated from French by Morwyn Breubner is being presented to enthusiastic audiences at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield. It is a one man performance by an American actor, Juri Heney-Cohn with a convincing Algerian accent.
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Alan Cumming as Macbeth and Everyone Else
Descent into Madness Electrifies at the Barrymore
By: - May 23rd, 2013Shakespeare called his Macbeth the Scottish play, and it seems particularly appropriate that the Scotch actor, Alan Cumming, magnifying his burr, takes on the play. Cumming portrays all the characters as they whirl from his mind onto the stage.
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A.R.T.'s Second Stage Oberon
Events for June
By: - May 23rd, 2013OBERON, the American Repertory Theater’s second stage and club theater venue, continues its mission to bring exciting and original programming. A destination for theater and nightlife on the fringe of Harvard Square, OBERON is the home of the A.R.T.’s hit productions of Pirates of Penzance, The Lily’s Revenge, Futurity, The Donkey Show, Cabaret, and Prometheus Bound and Ryan Landry’s Rocky Horror Show. OBERON is also a thriving incubator for local and visiting talent.
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Arena Stage Mary T. & Lizzy K.
Mary Todd Lincoln and Her Domestics
By: - May 21st, 2013The most beautifully written and deeply felt of Lincoln retellings is Tazewell Thompson’s play Mary T. & Lizzy K at the Arena Stage in Washington DC. Here the playwright, who is also the director, awards the play’s starring roles to Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd, her seamstress and confident Elizabeth “Lizzy†Keckly, and Ivy, Lizzy’s young assistant, both freed slaves. This production closed on May 5.
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Five First-Rate One Acts in New York
The Distinguished Workshop Theater Presents
By: - May 20th, 2013The Workshop Theater is made up of 150 actors, directors and writers. In a small space, you are smashed up against the action. Each of the actors in this series found just the right balance between up close drama and in your face, It is particularly exciting to have performance next to you. You either enter the drama or embrace it or both.
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Julianne Boyd on Theatre as Church and State
Blurring Boundaries Between Artists and Critics
By: - May 18th, 2013Traditionally it was anathema for critics to talk to and socialize with those they write about. With print in decline and the rise of blogs that has changed. But what happens when we are all in bed with each other? It both enriches our understanding and compromises objectivity. The third and final installment of a dialogue with Julianne Boyd may be a case in point.
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Pirates of Penzance Sings At American Rep
An Original Talented Take on Gilbert & Sullivan's Operetta
By: - May 17th, 2013Never expecting grandfather's version of the Pirates of Penzance at the American Repertory Theatre, this privateering musical crew gives a very different but rewarding production of the 19th Century English operetta gem. Set in an environment of a Tiki Bar married to a backyard lakeside pier with children's wading pools and and bamboo torches, ten performers go from badly dressed folksong singing beach goers to well-formed characters from the original production. Funny, lively and beautifully sung, this is a treat for the whole family.
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Julianne Boyd Part Two
What Happens When Everyone Does Clybourne Park
By: - May 17th, 2013Surprise. Like every other regional theatre company Barrington Stage has scheduled Clybourne Park. What are the consequences when theatre companies all over America are presenting a short list of recent Broadway and Off Broadway plays and musicals? Does it mean a dumbing down of American Theatre with long term negative consequence?. Two of Barrington's productions this season On the Town and The Chosen have been recently presented by Boston's Lyric Stage.
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Barrington Stage Now Debt Free
Julianne Boyd Completes $7 Million Campaign
By: - May 15th, 2013Julianne Boyd, the artistic director of Barrington Stage in Pittsfield called for a morning chin wag about the upcoming season. That led to a lively discussion of the current state of theatre and impact of criticism. Now in its 8th season the company has just completed raising $7 million. This is part one of an extended dialogue.
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Far From Heaven at Playwrights Horizons
Williamstown Production Transfers to New York
By: - May 13th, 2013Last summer the musical based on a film with the same title Far From Heaven was developed by the Williamstown Theatre Festival. With the original cast leads Kelli O'Hara and Steven Pasquale from Williamstown it opens at New York's Playwrights Horizons on June 2 with a limited run through June 30.
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On The Town Brilliant At Lyric Stage
As Good As It Gets Of Classic Revival
By: - May 12th, 2013Sometimes there is a rare theatrical event that is brilliantly performed and directed, thoroughly entertaining and totally wonderful. The Lyric Stage Company's On The Town is one of these. It is the story of three young WWII American sailors with one day in New York City to see sights, meet a special girl, and literally have the time of their lives. Leonard Bernstein's score melds perfectly with the witty book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green to create a magical musical experience. Directed by an inspired Spiro Veloudos, this show revival is as good as it gets. It could transfer directly to Broadway with little or no changes. Run to get tickets. It is that brilliant.
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Berkshires Remember Joan Rivers
2013 Performance at the Colonial in Pittsfield
By: - May 11th, 2013At 81 the sharp witted Joan Rivers has passed from complications at a clinic that are under investigation. In a 2013 appearance in the Berkshires we wrote "With a mask like face, pulled as tight as a drum from numerous nips and tucks, the potty mouthed, eighty something going on sweet sixteen, Joan Rivers prowled the stage of the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield like a tigress in heat hungry for raw meat."
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In The Heights Soars At SpeakEasy Stage
The Importance of Chasing Dreams & Finding Yourself
By: - May 11th, 2013Winner of four 2008 Tony Awards including Best Musical, In The Heights is a potent reminder of the importance of chasing one’s dreams while finding who you are and where you belong. Set in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood, this vital production with a distinctive Latin beat spices up traditional musical fare with hip hop, salsa and rap to tell the stories of the residents of this close-knit community. You will be dancing when you leave the theatre.
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Other Desert Cities at Old Globe Theatre
Dry as Dust in San Diego
By: - May 11th, 2013This is our fourth review of Other Desert Cities and second by Jack Lyons who also covered the play at Mark Taper Forum. We will have our fifth review next season from Indianapolis. It begs the question of why every city in American seems to be producing a short list of the same ten overexposed plays.
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50th Theatre Festival in Berlin
Plays and Events Until May 20th
By: - May 09th, 2013The current Theatertreffen in Berlin is presenting German language plays, classics and modern classics from Medea, War and Peace, to Orpheus Descending, as well as other theatre events and panel discussions. For non German speakers, Berlin will offer again the Berliner Festspiele in June and July of this year; more reasons for a trip to Berlin!
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Oberon Is A.R.T.'s Cutting Edge Second Stage
Programming for May
By: - May 07th, 2013OBERON, the American Repertory Theater’s second stage and club theater venue, continues its mission to bring exciting and original programming. A destination for theater and nightlife on the fringe of Harvard Square, OBERON is the home of the A.R.T.’s hit productions of Beowulf, The Lily’s Revenge, Futurity, The Donkey Show, Cabaret, and Prometheus Bound and Ryan Landry’s Rocky Horror Show,OBERON is also a thriving incubator for local and visiting talent.
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The Cape Cod Theater Coalition
Total Membership Now 22 Organizations
By: - May 07th, 2013The Cape & Islands Theater Coalition is a collaboration of live performance theaters from Woods Hole to Provincetown and the Islands. Best known for its annual Theater Guide and Schedule which this year will be distributed to over 70,000 households and visitors throughout the Northeast, the Coalition also provides the latest theater performance calendars and news through its website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.
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Running Wilde in Indy
The Importance of Being Earnest at EclecticPond Theatre
By: - May 06th, 2013There is nothing quite like the wit of Oscar Wilde. No play better represents his absurd gift for droll frippery than the perennial comedy of manners The Importance of Being Earnest. Our Ms Hall was indeed amused as well she should be good gracious me.
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