Theatre
-
Red Barber and Baseball at the Berkshire Theatre Festival
Red Remembers - an Unforgettable New Play
By: - Sep 13th, 2009Red Barber was a simple man whose time in the spotlight never overshadowed the love he had for his wife, for baseball and even opera.
-
Freud's Last Session Extended Yet Again in Pittsfield
Barrington Stage Company Finds Freud a Hot Ticket
By: - Sep 11th, 2009Freud's Last Session has proved to be a popular and entertaining play that sheds light on the eternally debatable subjects of God, war and love. It discusses these issues with passion, insight and the sort of respect for differing ideas that is refreshing and uplifting. No wonder this fabulous treatment of controversial ideas has been extended yet again, to October 4.
-
Divas Return to Shakespeare & Company
Limited Run September 9 to 13
By: - Sep 02nd, 2009Easing into the Shoulder Season in the Berkshires, for a limited run, Shakespeare & Company is presenting an encore of two of the three, one woman plays in its Diva Series. Tina packer returns as "Shirley Valentine" and Annette Miller performs "Golda's Balcony." Limited tickets are selling fast.
-
White People at Shakespeare & Company
Racist Ennui of the Ruling Class
By: - Aug 26th, 2009"White People" by J.T. Rogers is the last of three plays in the series "Life Laid Bare" at Shakespeare & Company. It pales by comparison to the all black cast in John Patrick Shanley's "The Dreamer Examines His Pillow."
-
Sick: Disturbing Comedy at Berkshire Theatre Festival
A Suffocating Mother Creates a Prison for Her Children
By: - Aug 23rd, 2009"Sick" takes us along when a college professor brings his star student into his dysfunctional home. There we discover a suffocating mother who has created an antiseptic prison for her children. Alternately funny and mystifying, the play asks us which is more threatening, the outside world and its dangerous contaminants or an artificial sterile world in which nothing is allowed to live?
-
Randy Harrison in Ibsen's
Superb Production at Berkshire Theatre Festival
By: - Aug 17th, 2009With Ibsen's "Ghosts" the Berkshire Theatre Festival has staged one of the finest productions of the Berkshire season. Director Anders Cato worked with dramaturg James Leverett to provide a fluid and insightful translation and adaptation. Last year Cato directed Randy Harrison in "Waiting for Godot." They are together again for Harrison's 5th BTF season. Mia Dillon as Helene Alving anchors a spectacular cast.
-
Quartermaine's Terms at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Simon Gray's Oh So British Play
By: - Aug 14th, 2009In the "staff room" of the Cull-Loomis School of English for Foreigners in Cambridge, England seven teachers interact in lives of repressed desperation. The 1983 play focuses on events set in the 1960s. This is a time capsule and comedy of manners starring Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays.
-
John Patrick Shanley's The Dreamer Examines His Pillow
Riveting Shakespeare & Company Production
By: - Aug 12th, 2009John Patrick Shanley has won Pulitzer, Tony, and Academy Awards. He was 35 when he wrote his fourth play "The Dreamer Examines His Pillow" in 1985. A superb production is on stage at Shakespeare & Company through September 6. It features John Douglas Thompson whose Othello has intrigued S&Co. audiences for the past two seasons. He is joined by the brilliant young actors Miriam Hyman and Bowman Wright. It is one of the finest plays of the Berkshire season.
-
Thrilling Camelot at the Goodspeed in East Haddam, Connecticut
Lerner and Loewe's Musical Packs a Powerful Punch
By: - Aug 12th, 2009People are enamored by the "brief shining moment" of this Camelot revival, and its tale of chivalry, honor and brotherhood. This classic musical still speaks to our time and for all times. In the brilliant production at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, the classic story comes to life again, a joy to welcome back.
-
Streetcar Named Desire at Barrington Stage Company
The Anchor Leg of a Sensational Season in Pittsfield
By: - Aug 10th, 2009Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield has been red hot this summer with a string of boffo hits. The summer season winds down with the 1947 Tennessee Williams classic, one of the great American plays of the 20th Century "Street Car Named Desire." Marin Mazzie is stunning as the delusional Blanche DuBois.
-
Caroline in Jersey at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Lea Thompson Stars in Melinda Lopez Play
By: - Aug 07th, 2009The world premiere of "Caroline in Jersey" by Melinda Lopez needs a bit of fine tuning but is destined to cross the river and have a nice run in Manhattan. Lea Thompson, yes That Caroline, anchors a super cast that includes Will LeBow, Brenda Wehle and Matt McGrath.
-
El Grito del Bronx at the Goodman Theater, Chicago
World Premier By Migdalia Cruz
By: - Aug 04th, 2009At the Goodman Theater in Chicago the annual celebration of Latino plays is underway. The world premiere of "El Frito del Bronx" by Migdalia Cruz was presented with a money back guarantee.
-
Donald Freed's Devil's Advocate at Shakespeare & Company
The Political Histrionics Have Begun
By: - Aug 03rd, 2009The team at Shakespeare & Company kicked off their "Life Laid Bare" series of provocative new works with the American premiere of Donald Freed's award winning play Devil's Advocate. The first play of any game is very telling. It's fun to see the players on stage throwing the political footballs around, even if we know the outcome of the game even before entering the theatre.
-
George Kelly's Torch-Bearers at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Dylan Baker Plays for Laughs
By: - Aug 01st, 2009During the Monsoon of 2009 we all need a few laughs. Actor/ director Dylan Baker and a superb cast provide a hilarious revival of the 1922 George Kelly comedy about the pratfalls and pretentions of community theatre in "The Torch-Bearers.
-
Dylan Baker at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Adapts and Directs The Torch Bearers by George Kelly
By: - Jul 29th, 2009The actor and director Dylan Baker has a history with the Williamstown Theatre Festival that started in 1983. He returns this season with an adaptation of the 1922 comedy by George Kelly "The Torch Bearers." It was a hit Off Broadway when Baker directed an earlier production. He talked about a life in theatre when not "working at a car wash."
-
Captivating Prisoner of Second Avenue at Berkshire Theatre Festival
Neil Simon's Play Pokes Fun at the Seventies
By: - Jul 26th, 2009It seems impossible, but this play is even funnier today than it was in 1971 when it opened on Broadway. Those of us who were alive to see the birth of the Age of Aquarius sure were a neurotic bunch. Neil Simon turns that age of anxiety into a comedic gold mine.
-
What Is the Cause of Thunder at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Betty Gilpin and Wendie Malick Star in Ersatz Soap
By: - Jul 24th, 2009Noah Haidle was inspired by a line from King Lear to write a spoof of soap operas "What Is the Cause of Thunder?" The play is having its world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival starring Betty Gilpin and Wendie Malick directed by Justin Waldman.
-
Sleuth At Barrington Stage Company
A Mystery Hit for the Berkshires
By: - Jul 20th, 2009Barrington Stage Company racks up another hit in its strong 15th season, with the chestnut "Sleuth." a 1970 play by Anthony Shaffer which won a Tony Award as Best Play during its 1,222 performances on Broadway. Charles Shaughnessy and Jeremy Bobb are perfectly matched in a deadly game.
-
Measure for Measure at Shakespeare & Company
This Lunchtime Theatre Lasts Until Tea Time
By: - Jul 19th, 2009Come for lunch, stay for tea. Measure for Measure is brilliantly played by the Apprentice Company as part of the Lunchtime Theatre, and more than a snack, it is the main course.
-
True West at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Sam Shepard's Classic More About Toast Than Cowboys
By: - Jul 17th, 2009If David Mamet is East then Sam Shepard is a paradigm of the West. Together they define the bookends of contemporary American theatre. The Williamstown Theatre Festival has mounted a galvanic production of Shepard's "True West" and its Biblical tale of sibling rivalry.
-
2009 Berkshire Fringe Festival
Lots Going On Through August 17
By: - Jul 15th, 2009Looking for live performances that use biting satire, dripping irony and hot button issues to entertain? You've got a new BFF in the Berkshire Fringe Festival. Each summer a host of new writers, artists and ideas takes over the Daniels Center of Bard College at Simon's Rock for just three weeks.
-
A Madcap Candide at Berkshire Theatre Festival
Leonard Bernstein Musical Sparkles in Stockbridge
By: - Jul 14th, 2009Director Ralph Petillo has blended three major benchmark productions of Candide into a brand new concoction that delights and surprises. A youthful cast whips it up with incredible energy and musicality, using every inch of the Unicorn Theatre in the process.
-
Knickerbocker by Jonathan Marc Sherman
Williamstown Theatre Festival Premiere Struck by Lightning
By: - Jul 10th, 2009Knickerbocker, by Jonathan Marc Sherman, directed by Nicholas Martin, is the first of three world premieres this season on the Nikos Stage of the Willianstown Theatre Festival. It stars Reg Rogers as a fortysomething adolescent being forced to grow up and face the reality of the birth of a son. He agonizes in a series of dialogues conducted in the booth of a Manhattan bistro.
-
The Einstein Project Opens at the Berkshire Theatre Festival
A Fascinating Exploration of an Iconic Figure and His Times
By: - Jul 05th, 2009A fast moving journey into the life of a theorist who came as close to understanding the physical world and the mind of God as anyone. Albert Einstein was larger than life, but even this genius had troubles relating to his wife and children.
-
Children by A.R. Gurney Opens Williamstown Theatre Festival
Judith Light Stars in a Fourth of July Celebration
By: - Jul 03rd, 2009Williams alumnus A.R. Gurney is back for his 9th season at the Williamstown Theatre Festival with a WASPY play "Children" suggested by a John Cheever story. This production begs the question Was John Cheever (1912-1982) the "Chekhov of the Suburbs." Serendipitously this play set in the Fourth of July launches the WTF season on the Fourth. What fun.
<< Previous Next >>