Theatre
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Summer Shorts at 59E59 Theaters
Searching for Love
By: - Aug 11th, 2018Humor and pathos are gracefully layered in three shorts; The Plot by Claire Zajdel, Ibis by Eric Lane and Sparing Partner by Neil Labute. Crisply written and acted, all three plays convey a poignant sense of the parallel truths that inform our desire to love and be loved. Through religion, films, and the ever possible aspirations of our childhood remembrances, we create parallel truths that the characters ask us to indulge.
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Come To South Florida's Cabaret
Iconic Musical In Suburban Miami
By: - Aug 14th, 2018Area Stage Company's Cabaret reminds us of turmoil in today's world. Respected South Florida theater company scores a triumph with a vivacious mounting of Kander and Ebb's classic. ASC's interpretation of the 1998 Broadway revival runs through Aug. 26.
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West Side Story at Barrington Stage Company
Smash Hit Celebrates Bernstein's Centennial
By: - Aug 15th, 2018Barrington Stage Company produced West Wide Story eleven years ago and now celebrating the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein. In 2013 Barrington sents its production of Bernstein's On the Town to Broadway. With three productions in such a short span it's clear that artistic director, Julianne Boyd, views Bernstein as a bankable winner. Yet again, audiences agree with a sold out run in Pittsfield.
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Candide by Voltaire with Bernstein’s Music
Sante Fe Opera Celebrates Composer’s Centennial
By: - Aug 18th, 2018From its inauspicious Broadway debut in 1956, Candide has led a checkered existence with revisions continuing through 1988. But, despite whatever flaws, it possesses wonderful music, is highly literate and stingingly political. Its real narrative weakness is that there is too much of it. The theme gets driven home too many times with repetitious vignettes that add little. That said, Santa Fe Opera commemorates the Leonard Bernstein centennial with a superior and visually spectacular production of this important work.
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The Brothers Khan by George Pfirrmann
Brotherhood at the Extremes
By: - Aug 18th, 2018In this era which has generated a nigh unprecedented displacement and resettlement of refugees, George Pfirrmann delves into the human conundrum of self definition buried in the frightening headlines of violence and despair.
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Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss
At Santa Fe Opera
By: - Aug 19th, 2018The opera is a play within a play. The “richest man in Vienna” has commissioned an evening’s spectacle at his manor for guests – a serious opera followed by a commedia dell’arte. It has been staged by Santa Fe Opera.
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Doctor Atomic by John Adams
Santa Fe Opera House
By: - Aug 20th, 2018The Santa Fe Opera House is the perfect venue to stage John Adams’s compelling contemporary opera Doctor Atomic, about the creation of the atomic bomb. With a riveting and intellectual, but sometimes obtuse, libretto by Peter Sellars that is largely taken from historic documents, a story whose outcome we know is still tense and absorbing
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Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally
A Fabulous Production at Shakespeare & Company.
By: - Aug 20th, 2018Mothers and Sons by Terrence McNally, at Shakespeare & Company, is on the short list of finest productions of the Berkshire summer season. The well crafted play has been tightly directed by James Warwick. A superb cast is inspired by the pivotal, commanding performance by a living legend, Annette Miller. It's a hold onto your seat dense and devastating one act play.
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The Tsar's Bride at Bard Summerscape
The Pleasures of Rimsky-Korsakov
By: - Aug 20th, 2018Bard Summerscape concluded its 2018 season with a production of The Tsar’s Bride by Rimsky Korsakov. Often performed in Europe, it is unfamiliar to most opera lovers in the United States, who received it with rapt admiration at the FIsher Center.
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White Guy On The Bus
Southeastern Premiere of Bruce Graham Play
By: - Aug 21st, 2018White Guy On the Bus is an unflinchingly honest look at racism, perception, political correctness and other topics. A riveting southeastern premiere is playing at GableStage near Miami. The entire cast and crew create a tense filled evening of theater that you should not miss.
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A Twofer at Berkshire Theatre Group
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and The Actor's Nightmare
By: - Aug 21st, 2018An evening with Christopher Durang is never boring. These two one-act plays are hilarious and different. The first, The Actor's Nightmare, reminds us all of what it feels like to be lost - uncomfortable - amid many laughs and great performances. The second, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For Us, is a scathing, hilarious and extreme indictment of the force of any fundamentalist, controlling dogma. In this case, the Catholic Church and Sister Mary are its targets. All the performances are stellar.
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A Chorus Line
At Ivoryton Playhouse
By: - Aug 22nd, 2018A Chorus Line now at Ivoryton Playhouse through Sunday, Sept. 2 is a “singular sensation” as one of its most well-known songs says. The show has everything and this production has almost everything right.
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Dell'Arte Opera's Vignettes from Vienna
Introducing Emerging Talent in Mozart and Salieri
By: - Aug 22nd, 2018Dell'Arte Opera presented Vignettes from Vienna, including Mozart and Verdi. The highlight of the evening, however, was not Mozart’s music as a stand alone. We were treated to a performance of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri, into which the composer interwove Mozart’s music as part of the story.
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As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Charming Comedy in a Perfect Setting
By: - Aug 22nd, 2018In the magical setting of the Roman Garden Theatre, Shakespeare & Company smartly sets this play in the Roaring Twenties, a time of possibilities. With excellent direction by Allyn Burrows, and superb performances, this production is proof of its most famous line: "All the World's a Stage, and All the Men and Women Merely Players." It brings alive its characters, and makes the audience feel they are in the Forest of Arden, witnessing hilarious role-playing that results in love conquering all.
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Well Intentioned White People
Barrington Stage Produces Emerging Playwright Rachel Lynett
By: - Aug 23rd, 2018As manifestation of a commitment to social justice theatre Barrington Stage is the first to produce a play by Rachel Lynett. Her Well Intentioned White People focuses on young, gifted and black, tenure track professor, Cass Davis. She teaches Carribean culture and the diaspora at a small, white, liberal college in a Red state. The play relates responses to racist attacks by an unknown assailant.
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Heisenberg By Simon Stephens
Uncertain Production at Shakespeare & Company
By: - Aug 24th, 2018We much enjoyed the London production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens. It won an Olivier in London and Tony for Best Play on Broadway. We approached his two hander Heisenberg, at Shakespeare & Company, with great expectations. As directed by Tina Packer it didn't pan out.
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Shorts at 59E59 Theaters
Victims Triumph Often
By: - Aug 24th, 2018We look at victims in each of three short plays offered this summer at 59 E59 Theaters, Throughline Artists producing. They are all brave in their own way, a bravery that is unexpected. Unusual situations in each play intrigue.
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The Gay Naked Play
Risque Theater Piece in South Florida
By: - Aug 27th, 2018Theater Artist Ronnie Larsen is kicking off his four-play season in South Florida with a highly-suggestive play. The Gay Naked Play features full nudity -- discretion is highly advised. David Bell's play contains unapologetic humor which some might find offensive, a la The Book of Mormon.
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1969: The Second Man at Next Door NYTW
A Tribute to Runner's Up
By: - Aug 27th, 2018When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon, this transformational moment was expected to give us a new perspective on life on earth and our place in the Universe. Aldrin, it turns out, administered communion to himself on the moon. He was that kind of guy and Jacob Brandt in song and talk captures him.
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Apprentice Scenes
A Feature of Santa Fe Opera
By: - Aug 28th, 2018Santa Fe Opera presents the always stirring and diverse Apprentice Scenes. The backstory to these entertainments is that the company has a stellar apprenticeship program each summer that extends beyond singers to include young set designers, costumers, lighters, and the whole array of behind-the-curtain magicians who enhance opera scores to make them lavish events. Of course, it is the singers who are most in evidence, and to call them apprentices is a bit of misnomer.
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Chicago's Black Button Eyes Productions
Nightmares and Nightcaps: The Stories of John Collier
By: - Aug 30th, 2018I read a lot of short stories, of varied styles and themes. I like the stories of George Saunders, Shirley Jackson, Philip K. Dick and Hilary Mantel, among others. But I have never read stories by John Collier. I’m correcting that gap right now because Black Button Eyes Productions’ world premiere of Nightmares and Nightcaps: The Stories of John Collier is a strange and spooky delight.
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A Shayna Maidel at Timeline Theatre.
History Play by Barbara Lebow
By: - Aug 31st, 2018A Shayna Maidel (Yiddish for a pretty girl) is skillfully directed by Vanessa Stalling, The tension-filled history play by Barbara Lebow is the timely story of a family torn apart by the Holocaust and war in Europe, meeting again in 1946 New York.
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Proof by David Auburn
At Oldcastle Theatre Company in Bennington
By: - Aug 31st, 2018Combining mystery, surprise and old-fashioned storytelling in a compelling evening of theater, Proof, by David Auburn has won both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. It is presented at Oldcastle Theatre Company in Bennington, Vermont.
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Kiss by Guillermo Calderón
At Shotgun Players Berkeley, California
By: - Sep 02nd, 2018In Guillermo Calderón’s interesting and offbeat play, Kiss, we find a kiss is not a kiss. For those expecting traditional narrative, this play might not satisfy. In addition to the script, which is highly original, the production is excellent.
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Comic Gary Gulman Plays Rochester
At Boston's Wilbur Theatre in November
By: - Sep 04th, 2018Gary Gulman was a finalist on NBCs’ “Last Comic Standing” and regular on late night shows and other vaunted venues. The former Boston College football player and high school teacher combines bruising punchlines with intelligent humor as he tours the world. He appears at Comedy at the Carlson in Rochester, New York, September 6 to 8.
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