Theatre
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A Civil War Christmas at The Huntington
An American Musical and Historical Celebration
By: - Nov 22nd, 2009Set at Christmas in and around Washington, D.C. in 1864, A Civil War Christmas at the Huntington Theatre Company portrays a number of poignant stories of various individuals including the Lincolns, soldiers on both sides of the conflict and runaway slaves. The narrative is told in a lovely tapestry of song as well as often with poetic words. The voices and acting are superb. Created by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paula Vogel, it is a tough and humanly complex story to tell well and stylishly.
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Fela! Nominated for 11 Tony Awards
Bill T. Jones to be Honored by Jacob's Pillow
By: - Nov 18th, 2009The Nigerian musician and political activist,Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who created the genre of Afro Pop, died of AIDS at 59 in 1997. He had been arrested and tortured some 200 times. His mother, a feminist, was thrown from a window during the destruction of Fela's compound and nightclub. Bill T. Jones has brought the music and dance to Broadway in what is sure to be an award winning hit. And yet.
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Cindy Bella Slips into Shakespeare & Company
Cinderella Adapted December 10 to 20
By: - Nov 18th, 2009In a limited run, December 10 through 20, Shakespeare & Company presents family entertainment. The production of Cindy Bella is based on the traditional fairy tale of Cinderella. Irina Brook directs this production created and adapted by Brook and Anna Brownstead.
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American Repertory Theater Holiday Shows
Best of Both Worlds Through Jan.3
By: - Nov 13th, 2009The American Repertory Theatre will present Best of Both Worlds. written by Randy Weiner, music by Diedre Murray, and directed by A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus. Bursting with the sounds of R&B and gospel, Best of Both Worlds is a soulful re-envisioning of The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare's timeless story of heartbreak and redemption. Clap your hands, jump out of your seat, and feel the power of love with this holiday treat for all ages. It runs from November 21 through January 3.
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John Douglas Thompson Riveting in The Emperor Jones
Hit Show Moves to Soho Playhouse to Jan. 31
By: - Nov 06th, 2009John Douglas Thompson is familiar to Berkshire audience for his sensational performances in Othello and the Dreamer Examines His Pillow this past season at Shakespeare & Company. His portrayal of The Emperor Jones has been met with rave reviews and sold out shows at New York's Irish Repertory Theater. The hit show has moved to the larger Soho Playhouse through January 31.
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Sondheim's Sweeney Todd at Cohoes Music Hall, NY
Macabre Musical Thriller Just in Time for Halloween
By: - Oct 18th, 2009Sweeney Todd is a great example of an urban legend of a serial killer that first became a penny dreadful serial, then a Broadway musical and finally a movie. He and his partner, Mrs. Lovett built quite a business harvesting wealthy customers as meat for her tasty pies.
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Barrington Stage Company Presents Laramie Project: An Epilogue
All Star Cast of Actors and Community Leaders
By: - Oct 14th, 2009On the occasion of the anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, six days after being assaulted by Aaron James McKinney and Russel Arthur Henderson, there were 120 productions all across America of "The Laramie Project Ten Years Later: An Epilogue." The Barrington Stage production occured during the first "Out in the Berkshires" three day Holiday weekend. It included an all star cast of actors and community leaders.
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The Fantasticks at Barrington Stage Company
Creator Tom Jones Discusses Longest Running Musical
By: - Oct 12th, 2009Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt opened their musical "The Fantasticks" in 1960. It closed in 2002 and has had more than 20,000 global productions since then. Jones dropped by after a matinee to discuss the longest running musical with Barrington's artistic director, Julianne Boyd. The Pittsfield production may be the shortest running ever of the beloved musical.
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Williamstown Theatre Festival Appoints New General Manager
Joe Finnegan to Work with Artistic Director Nicholas Martin
By: - Oct 10th, 2009With a combination of budget cuts, a reduced schedule and mixed reviews the second season for Williamstown Theatre Festival artistic director, Nicholas Martin, proved to be challenging. In 2010 Martin will work with a new general manager Joe Finnegan. This appointment has been announced by WTF.
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Something Old, Something New: The Fantasticks at Barrington Stage
BFA Interviews the Director, Andrew Volkoff
By: - Oct 07th, 2009As the musical The Fantasticks gets ready for its Berkshire run, we catch up with its director, Andrew Volkoff for a peek behind the scenes.
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Mixed Company Theater Takes Wing with Five Flights
Great Barrington Company Presents Adam Bock Play
By: - Oct 04th, 2009Mixed Company is a superb example of this region's diverse local theater scene. The plays they tackle might not be easy, but they are worthwhile, and the acting is great. "FIve Flights" has its ups and downs, but lands ok in the end.
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Donkey Show Dances at American Repertory Theatre at Zero Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA
Shakespeare to a Disco Beat Through January
By: - Sep 30th, 2009A.R.T.'s The Donkey Show is not your mother's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Instead, it is sex, drugs and rock and roll to a 70's disco beat. This show is Artistic Director Diane Paulus' first American Rep production. Fairies and actors in disguise, swirling mirror lights, relationship problems, skating diva Puck and a donkey all add to the entertainment.The crowd is going wild. Let's dance, let's dance. It may be addictive.
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Fences At Huntington Theatre Company Smashes It Out of the Ballpark
August Wilson's Greatest Drama
By: - Sep 30th, 2009Playwright August Wilson chronicled the African-American experience in the 20th Century by setting a play in each decade. These very American stories display and dissect the humanity of what it meant to be Black in a prejudiced predominant white society. The 6th in the cycle, Fences is triumphantly brilliant at the Huntington Theatre Company.
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Who's Really Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Boston's Publick Theatre?
Tina Packer Says On With the Show
By: - Sep 30th, 2009Mid way through rehearsals for a production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" at Boston's Publick Theatre it appeared that Edward Albee would not allow the play to be staged. After more than a week of chaos Tina Packer, who plays Martha, told us that the show will open as scheduled. Her performance promises to be the highlight of Boston's theatre season.
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Hound of the Baskervilles a Howling Success at Shakespeare & Company
Never have so few done so much, so well, with so little
By: - Sep 28th, 2009With Tina Packer out of town, director Tony Simotes has the Shakespeare encampment in Lenox pretty much to himself. After a summer of managerial worries, he is back to directing, having taken several serious Shakespearean actors off the leash. For the next five weeks they will make total fools of themselves in front of hysterical and appreciative audiences in their reworking of a Sherlock Holmes classic.
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Barrington Stage Joins 120 Theatres for The Laramie Project
October 12 Marks The Epilogue - 10 Years Later
By: - Sep 25th, 2009Barrington Stage Company is but one of 120 theaters in all 50 states and 7 countries who will create an original Epilogue to Tectonic Theater Project's The Laramie Project. Many Berkshire residents have been working for weeks with the company's actors to make this a memorable and searing theatrical event.
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Madcap Hound of the Baskervilles Due at Shakespeare & Company
Holmes and Watson Deliver Comedy and Cross Dressing in Lenox
By: - Sep 18th, 2009Here's an advance peek at the wild and wooly romp that takes one of the most popular Sherlock Holmes tales and ruins it—umm, we mean, turns it inside out—stuffing it with endless laughs as it barrels forward at a breakneck pace, all the while daring the audience to hold on tight with both hands.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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