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Theatre

  • Relativity at TheaterWorks Stars Richard Dreyfuss

    St. Germain Play Asks Can a Great Man Be a Good Man

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 07th, 2016

    While the theories of Albert Einstein ushered in the nuclear age his private life, as examined in the new Mark St. Germain play Relativity, was just as volatile. Although he crafted an eccentric and accessible public persona we learn that he was a misogynist and misanthrope. The drama evokes a hypothetical tug of war between Einstein (Richard Dreyfuss) and an abandoned daughter Margaret (Christa Scott-Reed) who has used deception to visit and confront him.

  • Hand to God

    GableStage in Coral Gables, Florida

    By: Aaron Krause - Oct 14th, 2016

    “Hand to God,” the biting, darkly comic, disturbing, thought-provoking and meaty play is receiving a solid southeastern premiere at GableStage in Coral Gables, Florida through Oct. 30.

  • Roundabout Presents The Cherry Orchard

    Diane Lane, Joel Grey, John Glover, Chuck Cooper

    By: Susan Hall - Oct 16th, 2016

    The Cherry Orchard was Anton Chevkov’s last play. He drew a picture of an old Russian family at the end of their run, their beloved cherry orchard and the hundreds of acres that it fills will be auctioned in August to pay the debts of Liuboff Andreievna Raneyskaya. Liuboff, the role originally created by Chekhov’s wife, is now enlivened by Diane Lane in her return to the New York stage. Lane’s first Broadway appearance was in The Cherry Orchard decades ago.

  • 2016 Berkies Announced

    First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards

    By: Charles Giuliano - Oct 17th, 2016

    There has been extensive media coverage of the First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards. The winners of The Berkies have been announced. There will be an awards celebration 5 pm on November 13 at Mr. Finn’s Cabaret in Pittsfield. In this first round of awards Barrington Stage Company and Shakespeare & Company dominated in most categories. The smash hit Pirates of Penzance ran the table. The Larry Murray Award, named for the founder, will be the only suprise of the gathering of critics, media and theater mavens.

  • Pirandello’s Henry IV

    Remy Bumppo’s Chicago Production

    By: Nancy Bishop - Oct 19th, 2016

    The absurdist playwright Luigi Pirandello wrote the play in 1922. The current production is based on an adaptation by Tom Stoppard. Nick Sandys’ direction makes the most of the witty dialogue written by the always engaging Stoppard.

  • Williams' Night of the Iguana

    Palm Beach Dramaworks

    By: Aaron Kraus - Oct 24th, 2016

    In “Night of the Iguana,” largely considered the prolific Tennessee Williams’ last commercial success, the playwright, no stranger to symbolism, once again uses a vivid symbol to represent characters trapped in a prison of loneliness and unfulfilled desires.

  • They’re Playing Our Song in Boca Raton

    Forty Years After Andrea McArdle Originated Role

    By: Aaron Kraus - Oct 24th, 2016

    Today, almost 40 years later, you’ll find Andrea McArdle on the Wick Theatre stage, co-starring in a musical, They’re Playing Our Song, that made its Broadway debut just about two years after her Broadway bow.

  • Hunchback of Notre Dame in Ft. Lauderdale

    Slow Burn Theatre Company Rings the Bell

    By: Aaron Kraus - Oct 25th, 2016

    Composer Alan Menken, lyricist Stephen Schwartz and book writer Peter Parnell have created a heartfelt, heartbreaking and riveting version of the popular Victor Hugo novel.

  • Red Velvet at Chicago's Raven Theatre

    Actor Ira Aldridge Challenged London's Racism

    By: Nancy Bishop - Oct 27th, 2016

    In 1833, the African-American actor Ira Aldridge (Brandon Greenhouse) was the first black man to play the leading role in Othello in a London theater.

  • The Piano Lesson by August Wilson

    Revival at Hartford Stage Company

    By: Charles Giuliano - Oct 31st, 2016

    In 1987 August Wilson's The Piano Lesson premiered at Yale Rep. It was one of two plays from the ten in the decades spanning Pittsburgh Cycle that won a Pulitzer Prize. It is being revived in a production at Hartford Stage Company. The stunning, vintage, hand crafted upright piano from the original Yale production has been borrowed for this occasion. It is the centerpiece for sibling tension that informs the iconic Wilson drama.

  • One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace

    Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company Off Broadway

    By: Aaron Kraus - Nov 02nd, 2016

    The title of the play, which feels like a cross between Tennessee Williams and Harold Pinter's work, comes from words in a poem by English poet John Donne (1573-1631).

  • The Bottle Tree by Beth Kander

    Premiere at Chicago's Stage Left Theater

    By: Nancy Bishop - Nov 02nd, 2016

    The bottle tree is a background symbol in Stage Left Theatre’s haunting new play by that name—a world premiere script by Beth Kander—about the U.S. gun culture and its most horrific example, school shootings.

  • Tiger Style Purrs At Huntington

    Chinese-American Play Promises More Than It Delivers

    By: Mark Favermann - Nov 04th, 2016

    Squabbling siblings Albert and Jennifer Chen attained academic achievement. But as adults, they’re socially awkward depressed failures: he’s just been passed up for promotion and she’s been dumped by her loser boyfriend. So pivoting to the West and the East, they confront their Tiger parents and launch an Asian Freedom Tour! From California to China and back, this new comedy examines race, parenting, and success.

  • Zora Neale Hurston: a Theatrical Biography

    Celebrating the Queen of the Harlem Renaissance

    By: Aaron Kraus - Nov 05th, 2016

    The "Queen of the Harlem Renaissance" would probably be thrilled with the birthday bash Off-Broadway's New Federal Theatre and Castillo Theatre are throwing in her honor. They're presenting a fresh, dynamic production of the bio-play "Zora Neale Hurston: a Theatrical Biography" through Nov. 20 in Castillo's intimate black box theater.

  • King Charles III At Chicago Shakespeare

    After the Queen Dies

    By: Nancy Bishop - Nov 21st, 2016

    This is a thoughtful drama (with comic lines) about the nature of law and constitutionality and father-son relationships. Director Gary Griffin takes Mike Bartlett’s carefully shaped story and brings out its drama, compassion and relevance to the day’s events.

  • The Servant of Two Masters

    At Brooklyn's Theatre for a New Audience

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 20th, 2016

    The Polonsky Shakespeare Center mounts a charming production of Carlo Goldoni's famous play. Improvisation abounds. You'll hear about Flatbush and election night mares.

  • Topher Payne’s Perfect Arrangement

    At Florida's Island City Stage

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 22nd, 2016

    The leadership of the multi-award winning Island City Stage, a bold and daring Wilton company near Ft. Lauderdale is dedicated to “producing theatrical experiences that positively impact the LGBT and general community,." “Perfect Arrangement” by Topher Payne centers on an effort to track down and fire homosexuals who worked for the U.S. government in the 1950s. .

  • Holiday Inn at Roundabout Theatre

    The New Irving Berlin Musical

    By: Edward Rubin - Dec 15th, 2016

    With a book co-written by Chad Hodge and Gordon Greenberg (he is also the director), Holiday Inn, stuffed with 22 Irving Berlin songs, some standards, others resurrected from the dead, is back on the boards again.

  • Dear Evan Hansen

    Backstory of How the Musical Made Its Way to Broadway

    By: Aaron Krause - Dec 15th, 2016

    During a meeting of American Theatre Critics Association in New York there was a panel devoted to the development from page to stage of the recently opened, well reviewed musical Dear Evan Hansen

  • Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde

    Promethean Theatre Ensembles

    By: Nancy Bishop - Dec 15th, 2016

    Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde is a documentary-style play set in a courtroom. Lest you think that sounds dry, it isn’t. Jamie Bragg stars as Oscar Wilde. Her performance is nuanced and persuasive as the jaunty Oscar in her every word, look, gesture and posture.

  • Projection and Sound Design in Theatre

    Panel During ATCA Critics NY Conference

    By: Aaron Krause - Dec 17th, 2016

    “See Me, Hear Me: Innovations and Challenges in Projection and Sound Design," moderated by Martha Wade Steketee, was the toipic of a penel during the New York conference of American Theatre Critics Association. A video of the panel may be viewed at the ATCA website.,

  • Million Dollar Quartet In Coral Gables

    Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre

    By: Aaron Krause - Dec 20th, 2016

    The Tony Award winning show,which enjoyed a Broadway run, Million Dollar Quartet, dramatizes a real-life historic jam session between rock stars Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tenn. on Dec. 4, 1956.

  • Lucas Hnath’s Play The Christians

    At Chicago's Steppenwolf

    By: Nancy Bishop - Dec 20th, 2016

    Lucas Hnath’s play The Christians at Steppenwolf Theatre challenges the belief systems of its characters on stage as well as those of religious and nonreligious audience members.

  • Sandy on Broadway

    No Business Like Show Business

    By: Sandy Katz - Dec 20th, 2016

    During the ATCA NY conference Sandy and Gerry Katz saw a bunch of shows on Broadway. She also has terrific travel tips.

  • My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy

    Mizner Park Cultural Arts Center in Boca Raton

    By: Aaron Krause - Dec 23rd, 2016

    While Zimmerman’s show is obviously meant mostly for laughs, there is at least one lesson to learn: In life, perseverance, thick skin and luck can lead to successes that once seemed impossible.

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