Theatre
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Little Shop of Horrors at Lyric Stage
Plant Makes Lunch Meat of Actors
By: - Aug 30th, 2019Where can you see the story of a barely-sentient being that promises everyone whatever they want but ends up eating them alive? No! Not on the nightly news- It’s The Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s revival of “Little Shop of Horrors” which is being staged through October 6 at 140 Clarendon Street in Boston’s Back Bay.
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The Flick by Annie Baker
Shotgun Players in Berkeley, California
By: - Sep 01st, 2019One weakness in the storyline of Annie Baker's The Flick is the playwright’s inability to edit down from a three-hour running time to a length reasonable for the topic matter. Like many contemporary movie directors, she seems unable to abandon story elements that may stand well on their own but dilute the overall effect. One tract that is an unnecessary waste of 10 or 15 minutes is the opening scene. Not only does it bore to tears, but it takes some time for the audience to put that experience behind them and hope that things will get better. Fortunately, they do.
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The ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance
Season Announced at Williams College
By: - Sep 05th, 2019The visiting artist CenterSeries brings professional artists to campus for residencies at Williams College that culminate in performances at the ’62 Center. The Series kicks off with the return of Dancers from New York City Ballet on Friday, October 18th. Also returning to Williams is the SITI Company. Founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki, SITI will perform a “spellbinding modern update” of The Bacchae by Aaron Poochigian, on Saturday, November 2nd. (Los Angeles Times).
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Clark Will Screen Live at the Met
Opera Featured at Williamstown Museum
By: - Sep 05th, 2019The Clark Art Institute will air the complete 2019–20 season of ten live performances from The Metropolitan Opera, held on select Saturdays beginning in October 12 and concluding in May 2020, in high definition from the Clark’s state-of-the-art auditorium. A special holiday encore presentation of The Magic Flute will be held on Sunday, December 8.
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Connecticut Theatre
Highliighting the Fall Season
By: - Sep 08th, 2019Karen Isaacs previews what's on tap for fall theater in Connecticut.
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Murder for Two
Musical on Stage in Walnut Creek, California
By: - Sep 08th, 2019While this is a well-crafted production of a well-designed and recognized work, it is not for everyone. For theater goers seeking fast-paced, forget-your-troubles entertainment, it will probably fill the bill. For those looking for meaning, social commentary, complexity of character, and the like, it may not fill much of anything.
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Kamala Sankaram's New Opera at HERE
Kristin Marting, Opera on Tap and Experiments in Opera Join Forces
By: - Sep 08th, 2019HERE and Opera on Tap are presenting Kamala Sankaram's Looking at You, an opera which takes a provocative approach to the end of privacy. We wittingly and unwittingly allow cyber companies to strip us. Rob Handel's brilliant libretto is in the tradition of Experiments in Opera productions. Its narrative arc and apt language combine with thick orchestration using whatever style brings us face to face with issues in a story.
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Britten's Billy Budd Based on Melville
At San Francisco Opera
By: - Sep 09th, 2019Michael Grandage’s production has been revived several times since its inauguration almost a decade ago, and it’s easy to see why. The staging is sensational, dominated by the depiction of the innards of the man o’ war. Although Billy Budd underwent revisions after its debut in 1951, it is surprising that the American premiere didn’t occur until 1970.
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Howards End at Remy Bumppo Theatre
A Stunning New Production
By: - Sep 10th, 2019Howards End, the stunning new production by Remy Bumppo Theatre, weaves together strands of three families. The wealthy and elite Wilcoxes—father, sons and daughter—the Schlegel sisters, who belong to the intellectual gentry, and poverty-stricken Leonard Bast and his wife. The script by Douglas Post, adapted from E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel, is directed by Nick Sandys.
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When She Had Wings
Family-Oriented Play In South Florida
By: - Sep 11th, 2019When She Had Wings brings history to life in a fun way. This play about a young girl who wishes to regain her ability to fly should appeal to all ages. Boca Raton-based Theatre Lab is mounting a charming, magical production.
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Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater
Interviews by Mark Larson
By: - Sep 14th, 2019Ensemble: An Oral History of Chicago Theater is a book you can enjoy in two ways. You can read it from beginning to end, as you would any narrative of fiction or nonfiction. Or you can dip in and out and read Mark Larson’s marvelous interviews with Chicago theater people in any order—and to any stage of completion—that you like.
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Hairspray in Indianapolis
A Beef & Boards Dinner Theater production
By: - Sep 13th, 2019Hairspray is receiving an exuberant production by Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre in Indianapolis.The musical, based on John Waters' film, reminds us that we can each do our part to right wrongs. This production runs through Oct. 6.
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Amadeus at North Coast Repertory Theatre
Sir Peter Schaffer’s Musical Still Rocks Mozart
By: - Sep 15th, 2019Director Baird’s bold vision required him to strip-down the script to 10 performing characters without sacrificing any of the drama and/or light comedy moments that run throughout Shaffer’s illuminating, potent, tragic story concerning the early death, at 35 years of age, of musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (an astonishing Rafael Goldstein).
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Time Stands Still By Donald Marguiles
Ends Season for Shakespeare & Company
By: - Sep 16th, 2019Instead of a brief essay from the director the Shakespeare & Company playbill uses that space to list journalists killed "on assignment in 2019." Ten years ago Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies earned two Tony nominations. Four fine performances, and superb direction, were squandered on a play that is not aging well. Taking on an important subject, the bravery and sacrifice of journalists covering war zones, the play is contrived and reaches for cheap tricks entailing reversal and deception.
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Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss
Produced by Opera San Jose
By: - Sep 17th, 2019The intersection of the world of grand opera and musical confection rarely occurs. An exception to that rule would be Johann Strauss’s operetta Die Fledermaus. Maestro Michael Morgan maintains brisk pace throughout the musical sections, resulting in a spirited rendering of the score.
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Romeo and Juliet by Charles Gounod
Produced by San Francisco Opera
By: - Sep 17th, 2019Charles Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet faithfully follows Shakespeare’s dramatic narrative and adds a score of great beauty that has graced the repertory since its spectacular debut in 1867. San Francisco Opera’s faithful production possesses sterling artistry and striking staging that honor this compelling opera.
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Martin Moran's One Man Show, All the Rage
The Barrow Group Presents the Award-WInning Mono Drama
By: - Sep 18th, 2019Martin Moran performs his one-man show, All The Rage, at the Barrow Group through October 5. Thoroughly entertaining, it tackles one of the deepest of subjects: forgiveness for unforgivable offenses. Seth Barrish directed this award-winning show.
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Sea Wall/A Life at Broadway's Hudson Theatre
With Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge
By: - Sep 19th, 2019Sea Wall/A Life, two extraordinarily powerful one act plays, presented in monologue form, are holding court at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. Fueled by strong reviews, and the star power of film and stage actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Strurridge, it is one of the most deeply moving productions currently gracing the stage here in New York City.
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Skintight at LA's Geffen Playhouse
Broadway Star Idina Menzel
By: - Sep 20th, 2019The promise of high energy singer/actor Idina Menzel’s debut on the Geffen’s stage is sure to lure her fans. Playwright Joshua Harmon’s newest and talky comedy play “Skintight” is directed by Daniel Aukin. Geffen’s artistic director, Matt Shakman, may have missed the mark by selecting “Skintight” for the Geffen’s 2019/2020 season opener.
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Opera Philadelphia Presents Denis and Katya
Philip Venables and Ted Huffman Update Romeo and Juliet
By: - Sep 23rd, 2019Opera Philadelphia presents Denis and Katya, the world premiere of a new opera by Philip Venables and Ted Huffman. Keenia Ravvinia is credited both with creative contributions and translation of the events surrounding the dual death of two fifteen year old Russians. The teens had holed up in a cabin where weapons were stored and used them to attack the police. No one really knows what happened, but it was an event that was covered by the young couple in smart phone videos and periscope posts and widely picked up by the media.
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Harold Pinter's Betrayal
Director Jamie Lloyd's Broadway Revival
By: - Sep 23rd, 2019Pinter tells this story with a twist – the play begins two years after the affair has ended, and ends as the affair is beginning.
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Man Of La Mancha
An MNM Theatre Company Production
By: - Sep 23rd, 2019West Palm Beach-based MNM Theatre Comapny delves deeper into Man of La Mancha. This production isn't just a showcase for great singers singing glorious songs. Director Bruce Linser emphacizes the darkness of the prison scenes. MNM's mounting features strong acting, singing.
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This is Why We Live at La Mama
Open Heart Surgery Theatre Presents Physical Take
By: - Sep 22nd, 2019Coleen MacPherson and her talented company bring 21 poems of the Polish poet Wslsawa Symborska to the stage. Symborska, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1996, provides a 'script' which is both lyrical and amusing. The collaborative vision of Open Heart Surgery was born in Toronto in 2014, but this all female ensemble is international in both personnel and its vision.
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Opera Philadelphia's Love for Three Oranges
Prokovief's American Opera Mounted Like Lollipops
By: - Sep 24th, 2019Apparently the audience for the Sunday performance of Love for Three Oranges at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia was only the second best audience so far. The best, 1,300 school children who had earlier found this work irresistible. It is.
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Joseph Keckler to Die for at Opera Philadelphia
Making the Case for Death
By: - Sep 24th, 2019Joseph Keckler takes on the subject of singing in opera with a unique flare for the dramatic, for humor and deep delve. He is a masterful monologuist. In Let Me Die, he goes to the center of the operatic volcano, the death song. Here divas have been challenged since Monteverdi to blast out their pain in dying with vocal chords wide open and lungs at full mast. Yet they are fading away. Neither singer nor composer has ever been much disturbed by the odd idea that someone is going to a breathless state with lungs belting
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