Theatre
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Mysterious Circumstances at the Geffen Playhouse
Elementary Dear Watson
By: - Jun 29th, 2019So convincing was Conan Doyle’s creation at the turn of the 20th century both Holmes and Watson were believed to be real people. So much so that the city of London actually turned Holmes’ fictional living quarters at 221- B Baker Street into a physical replica in a building located at 221-B Baker Street; due to the demand of tourists wanting to visit the famous detective’s home.
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Ruthless at Desert Rose Playhouse
By Joel Paley, with music by Marvin Laird
By: - Jun 29th, 2019“Ruthless” is blessed with a cast of experienced farceurs and comedy actors who can sing, and singers who act and dance. What more does one need from a musical comedy in order to enjoy a hilarious evening in the theatre?
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A Raisin in the Sun at Williamstown
Gilding the Lily of Lorraine Hansberry's Masterpiece
By: - Jun 30th, 2019Six decades later Williamstown Theatre Festival is presenting the Lorraine Hansberry masterpiece Raisin in the Sun. A superb cast is anchored by S. Epatha Merkerson (Lena Younger [Marner]), Francois Battiste (Walter Lee Younger), and Mandi Masden (Ruth Younger). The director Robert O'Hara has stated that he avoided presenting the classic drama as a "museum piece." His improvements and updates, however, are less than judicious
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A Human Being, of a Sort
WTF World Premiere by Jonathan Payne
By: - Jul 02nd, 2019A new play by Jonathan Payne, A Human Being, of a Sort, at Williamstown Theatre Festival is based on an historical event. In 1906 a Congolese Pigmy native, Ota Benga, was brought to New York City, placed in a cage along with monkeys, orangutans and other primates for display in the Bronx Zoo. From this Payne has created a social justice drama that explores racism at the turn of the 20th century.
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Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Broadway Revival of Terrence McNally Play
By: - Jul 04th, 2019Johnny is sure that he and Frankie should be a couple – after all their names reflect the hold song. So he is going to convince Frankie of that fact, no matter how she tries to resist.
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Twelfth Night at Shakespeare & Company
Fun, Fun, Fun in Lenox
By: - Jul 07th, 2019You may have seen Twelfth Night, perhaps a dozen times. But don't miss one more sharply directed by Allyn Burrows at Shakespere & Company in Lenox. What a hoot yet again to see the absurd Malvolio, a love sotted fool, decked out in yellow stockings with crossed garters. Expect a raucous night of fun, fun, fun.
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The Scottsboro Boys
Playhouse on Park, West Hartford
By: - Jul 08th, 2019The Scottsboro Boys is getting a terrific production at Playhouse on Park through Aug. 4. Previously the show won acclaim, nominations and awards off-Broadway, on Broadway, in London and other places.
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The Good Person of Szechwan
Brecht at California Shakespeare Theater
By: - Jul 09th, 2019So, a Bertolt Brecht play can actually be fun! The play’s central theme is about goodness, something that would seem intuitively straight forward, but the playwright examines the concept from many sides, resulting in more questions than answers.
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Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story
Pittsfield's Colonial Theatre Shakes, Rattles and Rolls
By: - Jul 10th, 2019Berkshire Theatre Group and its Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield is producing the world premiere of Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story. The jukebox musical, rumored to be headed to Broadway, has a book by Gary Kupper, Larry Marshak and Rose Caiola with original music and lyrics by Gary Kupper. A cast of nineteen performs some 47 musical interludes. The music was fun but the long and often slow production needs a lot of work.
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Time Flies and Other Comedies by David Ives
Great Escape at Barrington Stage Company
By: - Jul 11th, 2019For a change of pace Barrington Stage Company has opted not to give us yet another social justice scolding. Summer escapism with a belly full of laughs is provided by David Ives's Time Flies and Other Comedies. An all star cast of Barington actors are off the leash with total gonzo performances. They are anchored by the comedic genius of Debra Jo Rupp. Just wait till you see her paired with Cary Donaldson. With wings and buggy butts as Mayflys they wll be born, meet, mate, hatch and die all on one hilarious day. And that's just the first of six outrageous skits.
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Selling Kabul By Sylvia Khoury
Co production of Williamstown Theatre Festival and Playwrights Horizon
By: - Jul 14th, 2019With promises of visas and relocation to the United States the mlitary recruited interpreters in Afghanistan. That promise was reneged on when America started to withdraw and wind down in 2011. The world premiere play Selling Jabul by Sylvia Khoury focuses on the fate of one individual and his family who was left high and dry.
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Toni Stone Story of Vintage Baseball Player
Home Run Off Broadway
By: - Jul 15th, 2019April Matthis, as Toni Stone (1921-1996) the first woman to play professional baseball in the Negro League, is knocking it out of the ballpark every night at New York's Laura Pels Theatre through August 11.
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Michael Gordon's Acquanetta at Bard
Texture and Noir Images Engross in Video Opera
By: - Jul 14th, 2019Acquanetta, the video opera by Michael Gordon, a multi-dimensional composer on the contemporary scene, was premiered as grand opera in Aachen, Germany in 2006. Commissioned in chamber form by Beth Morrison Productions, it now is mounted at Bard SummerScape. Grand or not grand, the sound in this version, with members of the Bang on the Can Ensemble, is big. Loud was the word used in warning. The nature of the production, details of which remain closely held, enables the electronic bass and also the string instruments to resound throughout the hall. The music makes the show, as it should in opera.
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She Shorts
Inaugural Series of Short Plays in South Florida
By: - Jul 15th, 2019She Shorts is a series of short plays about women, by women.The series was borne out of a collaboration between Miami's City Theatre and Ft. Lauderdale's Thinking Cap Theatre. She Shorts is empowering, funny and thought-provoking. The inaugural series runs through Aug. 4.
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The Skin of Our Teeth
Last Call for Humanity at Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Jul 18th, 2019Clocking in at three acts and three hours it's a long, tough slog through Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth at Berkshire Theatre Group. Having endured an epic assault on the senses we much appreciated the experience. There is far too much relevance to this grim, Pulitizer Prize winning 1942 play. Then America was facing fascism abroad and now we are confronted by racism and fascism within.
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In The Penal Colony Updated by Miranda Haymon
Powerful Kafka in the Present
By: - Jul 18th, 2019At Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop The Hodgepodge Group and Lucy Powis presents, In the Penal Colony, a new and dynamic re-creation of Kafka's story by writer/director Miranda Haymon. What are the personal responsibilities of those who bear witness to the abuse of power? What is the relationship of the victim to the support of breaking institutional norms? What of the admiration for power, and the adulation of murderous solution?. At what point can we shed the reverence for brutal traditions?
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A Strange Loop at Playwrights Horizons
Fasten Your Seatbelt for a Bumpy Evening
By: - Jul 19th, 2019Not since A Strange Loop, through July 28th at Playwrights Horizons, have we come across a many faceted gay character like Usher (the extremely talented Larry Owens). He spares no detail, however raw, intimate, personal, scatological and sordid – in the telling of his life.
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Gertrude and Claudius by Mark St. Germain
New Play at Barrington Stage Company
By: - Jul 22nd, 2019Hamlet is tormented to avenge the murder of his father by Gertrude, his mother and her lover Claudius, his uncle. First performed in 1609 they have been scorned by audiences ever since. John Updike's novel Gertrude and Claudius presented their sordid collaboration as a love story. That has been tranformed into a drama directed by Julianne Boyd for Barrington Stage Company. While the production is problematic it is among the best and most intriguing of the many plays of a prolific playwright.
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Davone Tines in The Black Clown
Langston Hughes Inspires the Journey to Manhood
By: - Jul 25th, 2019Davone Tines was looking for a project to touch him deeply. His college classmate Michael Schacter suggested reading Langston Hughes' poems. The Black Clown hit him in the gut. Years ago Hughes had felt just as he did. Schachter and Tines collaborated on a moving and energetic musical monologue prompted by the poem. It is a wild theatrical success in its New York premiere.
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The Children By Lucy Kirkwood
Nuclear Meltdown at Shakespere & Company
By: - Jul 26th, 2019The approach of the Lucy Kirkwood play, The Children at Shakespere & Company, is conceptual. It’s rather like a BBC detective series where there is investigation of a murder that we don’t witness. There is crime but the audience is spared the horrific details. Characters are involved with cleaning up the meltdown of a nuclear power plant which entailed their flawed design.
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Murder For Two
Popular Comic Murder Mystery
By: - Jul 27th, 2019Murder for Two is a zany treat at Suburban Miami's Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre. Martin Landry gives a tour-de-force performance, playing more than a dozen murder suspects in hit musical comedy mystery. The two cast members prove multi-threats, as they not only act but play the piano like pros.
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Working: A Musical in Stockbridge
Great Enertainment at Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Jul 28th, 2019For a deliciously entertaining evening of theater it is hard to top Working: A Musical at Berkshire Theatre Group. Last night the intimate Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge was filled to capacity by a thoroughly delighted audience.
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Escaped Alone and Here We Go by Caryl Churchill
Anton’s Well Theater Company
By: - Jul 28th, 2019Anton’s Well’s Artistic Director Robert Estes scored a coup by securing the Bay Area premieres of two one-act plays – Escaped Alone and Here We Go – by Caryl Churchill, who some consider Britain’s finest living playwright.
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Blck, Whyte, Gray at Mostly Mozart Festival
British Hip Hop Takes Us Deep into Dance
By: - Aug 03rd, 2019Blck, Whyte, Gray is performed at the Mostly Mozart Festival, a clear invitation for a wide swathe of ethnic groups to join the Festival audience, and also a pleasure and a revelation for regulars. Advance notice was served at the White Light Festival last fall, when Blck, Whyte, Gray was a smash hit of the Festival.
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The Rolling Stone at Lincoln Center
Deadly Plight of Gays in Uganda
By: - Aug 08th, 2019New York’s Lincoln Center Theater is presenting the American premiere of playwright Chris Urch’s The Rolling Stone. Sensitively directed by Saheem Ali – the play an import from London – is scheduled to run through Sunday, August 25th.
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