Theatre
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Sunday in the Park with George
Sondheim in Miami
By: - Jan 27th, 2017This production, the South Florida premiere of the musical, combines striking stage pictures, stark lighting by Rebecca Montero, eye-catching video projections by Greg Duffy and top-notch singing voices from a talented cast of veterans and younger thespians who nail Sondheim’s complex music. They are accompanied by a vibrant, live orchestra.
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Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky
Harlem Renaissance at Chicago's Court Theatre
By: - Jan 25th, 2017Pearl Cleage has written six plays, nine novels and several nonfiction books. Blues for an Alabama Sky was published in 1999 and premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. Blues weaves in references to issues that are still troubling today, such as homophobia, racism and abortion. The Harlem Renaissance is alluded to casually with references to a “party at Langston’s” and the ideas of Marcus Garvey.
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Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison
Premiere at North Coast Rep in San Diego
By: - Jan 24th, 2017The story playwright Jordon Harrison presents in Marjorie Prime is a tale set in the not-to-distant future in which artificial intelligence is used to treat dementia and depression in the forms of “primes”- ‘humanoid’ lifelike robots that speak with patients in the form of lost loved ones and provide companionship for the lonely. Marjorie’s prime is modeled to look and talk like her dead husband Walter, at age thirty.
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Finalists for Theatre's Primus Award
Playwrights Honored by Primus Foundation and ATCA
By: - Jan 24th, 2017The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has announced the names of the seven finalists for the 2016 Francesca Primus Prize. Jointly sponsored by ATCA and the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, the Primus Prize, which includes a cash award of $10,000, is given annually to an emerging woman playwright.
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Les Liaisons Dangereuses in San Diego
Mannered Tale of Seduction
By: - Jan 22nd, 2017“Les Liaisons Dangereuses” at San Diego Rep Theatre’s Lyceum Space stage, is the third production from the young New Fortune Theatre Company co-founded by Richard Baird and Amanda Schaar. The play centers around two ex-lovers: The Le Vicomte de Valmont (Richard Baird) and La Marquise de Merteuil (Jessica John Gercke) who scheme to ruin the reputation of an innocent young aristocrat Cecile de Volanges (Gentry Roth).
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Men on Boats at American Theater Company
Exploring America's Rivers
By: - Jan 22nd, 2017Men on Boats continues at American Theater Company Men on Boats, a regional premiere now on stage at American Theater Company, is the story of the 1869 exploration of the Green and Colorado rivers for the U.S. government. John Wesley Powell, a Civil War veteran who lost an arm in the war, leads a government-sanctioned expedition with nine other men and four boats.
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Ibsen Adaption At Huntington Theatre
A Doll's House that Should Not Be Played With
By: - Jan 20th, 2017Nora and Torvald Helmer are living their dream, Now happily married with children and financial security, but previously Nora risked her reputation to save her husband’s life. The consequences test the limits of their love. A new translation by Bryony Lavery of Ibsen’s powerful and groundbreaking classic about marriage, money, and equality shows that in the theatre if it aint broke, don't fix it. Trying to be contemporary and relevant takes skill not just daring.
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Eurydice by Promethean Theatre Ensemble
Sarah Ruhl’s Play Directed by Nicole Hand
By: - Jan 20th, 2017Promethean Theatre Ensemble’s new production of Eurydice, directed by Nicole Hand, is staged in modern dress with a chorus made up of three Stones.
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10 x 10 at Barrington Stage
Fun In February
By: - Jan 19th, 2017The 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival returns to downtown Pittsfield for the sixth year and features music, theatre, dance, film, visual art, spoken word, comedy and more, including BSC’s 10X10 New Play Festival.
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The First Step: Diary of a Sex Addict
Graphic Michel Leeds Play at Florida's Island City Stage
By: - Jan 17th, 2017Writer/director Michael Leeds presents an honest, funny, vivid and unapologetically shameless and bold play “The First Step: Diary of a Sex Addict.”
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NY City Opera Revives
Iconic Candide at the Rose Theater
By: - Jan 13th, 2017In the best of all possible worlds, the New York City Opera is alive and well at the Rose Theater, Lincoln Center. With Harold Prince at the helm in a production he has mounted for NYCO before, an exuberant romp through Voltaire's classic shows just how live NYCO is in its new incarnation.
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Racine’s Phèdre in Chicago
Trap Door Theatre’s Punky, Funky Production
By: - Jan 12th, 2017Jean Racine was one of the three great 17th century French playwrights, along with Molière and Corneille. He is known mostly for his adaptations of Greek tragedies and wrote Phèdre (inspired by Euripides’ play) in 1677. It’s considered his masterpiece.
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The Most Happy Fella
Breathtaking at Florida's Stage Door Theatre
By: - Jan 10th, 2017Whether “The Most Happy Fella” falls more closely into the realm of musical theater or opera, the show has the necessary ingredients for success. Stage Door Theatre’s breathtaking production offers some of the strongest singing you’ll hear on a stage.
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Chekhov with Cate Blanchett
Andrew Upton Updates Untitled in Four Acts
By: - Jan 08th, 2017Cate Blanchett can do anything, but her Chekhov is unique and apt. Following a triumphant run in Uncle Vanya in 2012, Broadway welcomes her as Anna, in what is probably Chekhov's first play.
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Sandy at Sardi's
Broadway Stars at ATCA Lunch
By: - Dec 05th, 2016During the Fall meeting of American Theatre Critics Association there was the traditional lunch wih the stars at Sardi's. Our correspoindent Sandy Katz was on hand to soak up the fun and files this spirited report.
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Babel from the White Lights Festival
Cacaphony of Words, Dance and Music
By: - Oct 28th, 2016The impact of the Tower of Babel is immediately felt in the silence of the Rose Theater. Watching steel frames in the shapes of cubes and rectangles built up and toppled on stage, seeing people trapped by them and also liberated graphically, drives home our divided world and the need for human unification. These structures both divide and unite. There is hope.
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First Annual Berkshire Theatre Awards
Berkies Launched by Critic Larry Murray
By: - Oct 14th, 2016For the first annual Berkshire Theatre Awards seven shows received more than five nominations each including 11 for The Pirates of Penzance and eight for Broadway Bounty Hunter, both produced by Barrington Stage Company. Seven nominations were received for Or, and six for The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare & Company. Also popular with five nominations each are The Rose Tattoo (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Little Shop of Horrors (Berkshire Theatre Group), and American Son (Barrington Stage).
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Madama Butterfly at Hubbard Hall
Saying Goodbye to Hubbard Hall Opera Theater's Founding Artistic Director
By: - Jul 26th, 2016Artistic Director of Hubbard Hall Opera Theater, Alix Jones, talks to us about how small-scale opera started at Hubbard Hall, why is succeeded, and where it might go next.
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New York Theatre Workshop's Hadestown
To Hell and Highwater with Anaïs Mitchell
By: - Jul 02nd, 2016A brilliant new take on the Orpheus myth by Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin. The story of Orpheus and Eurydice was the basis of the first opera written in 1600. It has intrigued artists ever since, from Monteverdi to Christoph Willibald Gluck to Jacques Offenbach. Dramatists too have found the tale impossible to resist, Thomas Pynchon, Salmon Rushie and Tennessee William among them. This may be the first time the audience sits in purgatory.
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At Home With Lindsay Ann Crouse
Reflecting on a Remarkable Life in Theatre
By: - May 31st, 2016Having returned to Annisquam where she grew up during summers Lindsay Ann Crouse is performing annually with Gloucester Stage. We saw her launch the season with a lively and hilarious production of Lettice ad Lovage. As kids my sister Pip was Lindsay's age and I was a bit older than her brother Timothy. On a rainy day we met in her vintage village home and discussed a remarkable life in theatre with numerous stage, TV and film credits including an Oscar nomination and an Emmy.
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Eugene O’Neill Theater Center
2016 Season
By: - Apr 12th, 2016Waterford, CT – The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center announced today the 2016 summer season of plays, musicals, and other works in development at the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Puppetry Conference, and Cabaret & Performance Conference.
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No Vote for Votes
Sequel to "The Last Temptation of William Jefferson"
By: - Apr 08th, 2016Jacqueline S. Salit and Fred Newman’s new take on a Clinton Presidential candidacy struggles to define itself. Is it a play? A musical? A satire? A serious morality play? It ends with a distasteful and irresponsible message.
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Snow White Is Super Grimm
Getting It On With Dwarfs at Minetta Lane
By: - Feb 16th, 2016This version of Snow White is for adults only. Here is a second opinion of a controversial New York production. This is a new twist in every sense of a fairy tale.
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The Glass Menagerie in Chicago
Hypocrites Production Revived by Hans Fleischmann
By: - Feb 14th, 2016This is a strong, sweet production but it’s not clear to me why it is remounted just 2.5 years after the last identical production. If you missed it before, do see it now. The Glass Menagerie runs 2.5 hours with one intermission; the Hypocrites production continues through March 6 .
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Vices and Virtues at Profiles Theatre
Several Short Plays by Neil LaBute
By: - Feb 13th, 2016A collection of 11 short plays by Neil LaBute is now being staged at the theater in Buena Park. Each play has its own cast and directors. Amazingly, in this 4.5 total hours of theater over two separate shows, there’s not a dog in the pack. Each play is sharp and memorable.
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