Theatre
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Band Visits ATCA
From Sardi’s to Broadway
By: - Nov 08th, 2017During last year's NY conference of American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) there was a panel on the development of the musical, then in previews, of what went on to be the Tony winning musical Dear Evan Hansen. Predicting that lightning will stike twice the team for The Band's Visit discussed the transitions from film, to Off Broadway, and now a production at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The smart money is on running the table during the awards season.
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Broadway's The Play That Goes Wrong
Play-within-a-play on The Great White Way
By: - Nov 09th, 2017Prepare for belly laughs during The Play That Goes Wrong, now on Broadway. Impeccable comic timing is key to delivering abundant laughs. The unexpected is common in this play-within-a-murder-mystery-farce
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A Bronx Tale on Broadway
Musical Adaptation of Gritty Film
By: - Nov 09th, 2017A stylish, relatable musical adaptation of A Bronx Tale is now on Broadway. A tough and tender tale makes us consider our role models
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Our Chicago Correspondent Visited New York
Focusing on Off Broadway
By: - Nov 09th, 2017Our correspondant, Nancy Bishop, in NY for the ATCA conference regrets that " I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan—I’ve seen him in concert dozens of times, but I thought the tickets to his Springsteen on Broadway show were too expensive. I was able to buy tickets for these off-Broadway plays and pay for dinner as well for the price of one Springsteen ticket." She offers an overview of affordable shows that will be up through the Holidays.
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The Life and Times of Lee Harvey Oswald
Tragedies Told with Marionettes
By: - Nov 09th, 2017A human actor shines in a show about Lee Harvey Oswald featuring marionettes.Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre revisits tragedies in The Life and Times of Lee Harvey Oswald The production's rather tedious at times, lacking dramatic punch
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Dominick Argento at Carnegie Hall
New York City Opera Gives Composer a Birthday Bash
By: - Nov 10th, 2017Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Dominick Argento, celebrated his 90th birthday at Carnegie Hall. New York City Opera in its wonderful new incarnation mounted two of the composer's one act monologues in dramatic productions.
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King of Stage, a Documentary
Woodie King Jr. Speaks in Juney Smith's Film
By: - Nov 07th, 2017The silhouette profile of Woodie King, Jr. which often shows up in the new documentary in which his life spins out., makes him look like Alfred Hitchcock. In King of Stage by filmmaker Juney Smith, we come to see that he is at least as good a picker of stories as the mystery master.
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Priscilla Queen of the Desert, (the musical).
Smashing at Palm Canyon Theatre
By: - Nov 10th, 2017Musicals are the specialty of the Palm Canyon Theatre (PCT) where they are sensationally produced and performed. PCT is now in its twenty-first year of providing quality entertainment to the Coachella Valley, presenting thirteen productions a year that include comedies, dramas, and special events as well as their signature musicals.
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ATCA at Sardi’s
Lunch with Broadway Stars
By: - Nov 10th, 2017A highlight of the American Theatre Critics Association’s New York conference is a now traditional lunch at Sardi’s with stars of current Broadway shows. Cast members of seven shows were represented.
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The Band's Visit on Broadway
Popular Musical at the Ethel Barrymore
By: - Nov 11th, 2017The Band's Visit restores faith in the goodness of humanity. The new musical adaptation features tender, heartfelt songs. Show is well acted and sung by a talented cast
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Freight with J. Alphonse Nicholson
New Federal and Castillo Theatres Triumphant Team Up
By: - Nov 11th, 2017Howard L. Craft has crafted a superb play in Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green. What was it like to be a young black man in America throughout the 20th century and on into our own? Minstrel, preacher, panther, sub-prime mortgage salesman, Abel Green has tried them all. J. Alphonse Nicholson makes his efforts palpably moving.
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Love Never Dies in Florida
National Tour of Phantom Sequel
By: - Nov 18th, 2017Memorable music seduces in Love Never Dies. A fine cast is up to the task of singing with flair Andrew Lloyd Webber's soaring songs. The book is not a strong point
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HIR near Ft. Lauderdale
Taylor Mac's Outrageous Play at Island City Stage
By: - Nov 20th, 2017Ft. Lauderdale area theater company scores a triumph with its season-opening production of the wacky play HIR. The production is marked by first-rate acting HIR is a meaty play, with suggestions of absurd realism and Greek Tragedy.
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The Minutes by Tracy Letts
World Premiere at Steppenwolf
By: - Nov 21st, 2017The playwright T racy Letts,, who can be depended upon for complexity, turns a small town city council meeting into a modern morality play. The Minutes is having i ts world Premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre.
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Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine
Performed by Opera San José
By: - Nov 21st, 2017La Rondine is an outlier in the Puccini canon. If we dismiss his failed first full-length opera Edgar from consideration,
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This One’s for the Girls by Dorothy Marcic
St. Luke’s Theatre Off Broadway
By: - Nov 21st, 2017Dorothy Marcic’s This One’s for the Girls evidences the changes in a nostalgic journey through selections from the music catalogue of pop songs performed by women since 1900.
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Black Rider at Shotgun Players
By William S. Burroughs With Music by Tom Waits
By: - Nov 23rd, 2017The play is a riff on Der Freischütz, (The Freeshooter) a Germanic tale made most famous by the seminal German Romantic opera of the same name, composed in 1821 by Carl Maria von Weber. Black Rider is a trip by William S. Burroughs with Music by Tom Waits
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West Side Story at Disney Hall
LA Philharmonic Provides Live Score
By: - Nov 24th, 2017The theater world was abuzz with West Side Story in the summer of 1957. It was to open on Broadway in the fall, and sure to be a smash hit. That was the word. It was also going to revolutionize musical theater. It did. Now the LA Philharmonic performs the score live as the film rolls on before the audience.
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Seniors Visit Broadway
An Annual Visit with ATCA
By: - Nov 26th, 2017Not getting any younger Sandy and Gerry Katz treated themseles to a week at The Row in the heart of NY's theatre district. From there were short cab rides to all the hit shows from Hamilton and Come from Away. They ejoyed events of American Theatre Criics Assocation inncluding the traiditional lunch with the stars at Sardis.
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Becoming Dr. Ruth at Gable Stage
One-woman Show About Sex Therapist
By: - Nov 27th, 2017Famed sex therapist Dr. Ruth warmly welcomes us into her home in an impressive South Florida production. The play by Mark St. Germaine premiered at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield.The Broadway actress Anne O'Sullivan impressively inhabits the role.
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42nd Street
Bay Area Musicals in San Francisco
By: - Nov 27th, 2017There are several distinctions that mark this wonderful material. The 1980 stage show is based on the 1933 movie of the same name, which was the seminal film on this topic. As hard as it is to believe, a filmed musical had never been successfully transferred to the stage. This one succeeded wildly with critics, winning the Tony for Best Musical and more.
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Die Walküre at Lyric Opera of Chicago
Christine Goerke Defines Brunhilde
By: - Nov 27th, 2017Everything about the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s second installment in David Pountney's new Ring cycle feels, sounds and looks right. Yet starting with the singing actors’ performances seems only fair. They are superb, one and all. Surely one element of opera under the control of producers is the uniform quality of singing. The Lyric Opera understands this deeply and delivers.
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Sam Shepard's Fool for Love
At The Stage in San Jose
By: - Nov 29th, 2017Fool for Love is one of Sam Shepard's most respected works, and the cast of the San Jose Stage production extracts every bit of meaning and emotion from it.
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Book of Mormon National Tour
Mega-Popular Musical in MIami
By: - Nov 30th, 2017The Book of Mormon's messages about belief and religion resonate particularly strongly these days.Triple threat actors on national tour of musical are performing in Miami.
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Bright Star by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell
At the Curran Theatre San Francisco
By: - Dec 02nd, 2017While Steve Martin’s comedy work pays the mortgage on the mansion, he plays banjo professionally as well. Collaborating with rock/pop/folk artist Edie Brickell on the acclaimed bluegrass album Love Has Come for You led to the deeper involvement of developing the stage show Bright Star. Inspired by a true 1904 event, the artists created a fiction around the occurrence.
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