Theatre
-
Bridges of Madison County
LA's The Ahmanson Theatre
By: - Dec 25th, 2015The musical Bridges of Madison Country premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. It moved to Broadway for a successful run. Now it is being produced by regional companies. Jack Lyons reviews a production at The Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
-
Once Upon A Mattress an Off Broadway Gem
NY's Transport Group Theatre Company
By: - Dec 24th, 2015For a small play, on a small stage, in a relatively small theatre of 335 seats, with a ticket price one third that of Broadway, and 20 actors singing and dancing their hearts out, all backed by a 14 piece orchestra, a rarity both On and Off Broadway, Once Upon A Matress, is the best bang for your buck in the city.
-
The Christians at Mark Taper Forum
To Hell in a Handbasket
By: - Dec 23rd, 2015“The Christians” revolve around a charismatic and highly successful Pastor Paul (an absolutely mesmerizing Andrew Garman) of a Christian congregation who suddenly announces during his Sunday homily that he has had a change of heart concerning the Bible’s representation of the place known as “Hell”. In fact, he claims there is no such place.
-
Straight White Men in Culver City
Kirk Douglas Theatre Premieres Comedy
By: - Dec 14th, 2015The boys always gather at Christmas time to be with their widowed father where all get to ham it up, tease one another and play the games of their youth as a way of diverting the boredom of the three day holiday. California's Kirk Douglas Theatre premieres a play by the New Yorker Young Jean Lee.
-
John Douglas Thompson Touring with Satchmo
Spring in New York with Strindberg and Ibsen
By: - Dec 14th, 2015From April 30 to June 12, 2016 at Theatre for a New Audience Arin Arbus will direct John Douglas Thompson in Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” and August Strindberg’s “The Father.” They will be presented in repertory. Previously he performed as Judge Brack in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at the New York Theatre Workshop directed by Ivo von Hove but this will be his first role in a Strindberg play.
-
Noel Coward's Fallen Angel
Chicago's Greenhouse Theater Center to January 10
By: - Dec 07th, 2015Noel Coward is known as the playwright of brittle, witty Roaring Twenties drawing room comedies such as Blithe Spirit, Design for Living, Private Lives and Hay Fever, which are part of the regular repertoire for theaters all over the world. Fallen Angels, a 1923 play, is not as well known and reviewers considered it vulgar and risqué when first produced in 1925 in London and in 1927 in New York.
-
Another Take on the Hip-Hopera Hamilton
Hottest Ticket on Broadway
By: - Dec 06th, 2015Hamilton the hottest ticket in New York City, boasting $ 27 million advance ticket sales in just the first few weeks since opening. Rumors have it that orchestra tickets are selling on the street in excess of $1300 each for a weekend performance.
-
Hamilton’s Leslie Odom plays Burr
Discussing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hip-Hopera
By: - Nov 30th, 2015Between the matinee and evening performances of the smash Broadway musical, Hamilton, we met backstage with Leslie Odom who plays Aaron Burr. The meeting was arranged by Jack Lyons, a California critic and friend of the actor's family. In a cramped dressing room we were joined by Florida based critic William Hirschman. This resulted in a lively, insightful discussion of the show and its unique casting which is causing a paradigm shift for Broadway musicals.
-
The Miracle of Long Johns by David Lefkowitz
Theatre Critic Moonlighting in the Far Outhouse
By: - Nov 28th, 2015David Lefkowitz, a member of American Theatre Critics, as is his colleague Ed Rubin, moonlights as a stand up, sit down or whatever. This is a performance not to be taken lightly but those of us who give a shit about theatre.
-
Sandy and Gerry on Broadway
Overview of ATCA-NY Conference
By: - Nov 28th, 2015Waving her cane earned Sandy Katz and her husband Gerry some nice perks to Broadway shows. This included an autographed Playbill from ninty-year-old Cicely Tyson starring in The Gin Game. In addition to shows they offer tips on accommodations, tours and dining.
-
The Gin Game Is Magnificent
A Triumph for James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson
By: - Nov 27th, 2015Treasures of their generation the 90-year-old Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, now 84, are appearing in a heart warming production of that theatrical old chestnut, D. L. Coburn's "The Gin Game." The energy, wit, charm and humor they convey is inspirational and truly astonishing. This is a play for everyone who appreciates theatre at its very best.
-
Charles III Reigns on Broadway
Dysfunctional Royals
By: - Nov 26th, 2015Now 67, Charles Prince of Wales has a death wish. The feisty British import 'Charles III' suggests what happens when the now 89-year-old Queen Elizabeth finally vacates the throne. This speculative but well reasoned dark fantasy posits that the death of his mother is just the beginning of more trouble for the royals.
-
Kick Stars JoAnna Rush
One Woman Show Off Broadway
By: - Nov 26th, 2015Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s direction allows JoAnna Rush to be unhindered in her mannerisms and movements. The various topics were heartbreaking; a woman’s struggle with trying to be on par with her male colleagues.
-
Dear Elizabeth at Women's Project Theatre
Cherry Jones and David Aaron Baker Share
By: - Nov 24th, 2015Dear Elizabeth, a dramatization of the letters of two pre-eminent American poets, Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, is being staged with different couples taking the lead roles as the run passes. Cherry Jones, one of our great American actors, was well-matched with David Aaron Baker.
-
Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge
A Stark Minimalist Production by Ivo van Hove
By: - Nov 24th, 2015In the centennial year of the birth of Arthur Miller the Olivier winning production of A View from the Bridge, directed by Ivo van Hove, has transferred from London's West End to Broadway. Evoking a classical Greek tragedy the director has stripped down the play to its bare essentials. In one, two hour act it is a test of physical and emotion endurance for the actors and their audience. The edgy production pushes the envelope for new ways to approach the canon of contemporary theatre.
-
Spring Awakening Revived on Broadway
The Sound of Silence
By: - Nov 23rd, 2015Spring Awakening closed its initial Broadway run in 2009. Since then there have been many regional productions of the musical with a great score and compelling story of coming of age during the brutal and repressive zeitgeist of late 19th century Germany. Perversions and lustmord were endemic themes of the Weimar Republic. Nobody excelled at this quite like the banned and convicted Frank Wedekind.
-
The Radical Son a World Premiere
Threshold Repertory Theatre in Charleston
By: - Nov 23rd, 2015Chris Weatherhead directed a memorable and riveting play"A Radical Son" diligently maximizing the use of the intimate black-box stage at Threshold Repertory Theatre in Charleston by using on-screen images to coordinate with the minimalist on-stage props. The play is having its world premiere.
-
A Confederacy of Dunces At Huntington
An Adaptation of the Picaresque Pulitzer Prize Winning Novel
By: - Nov 21st, 2015Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by John Kennedy Toole by Jeffrey Hatcher, A Confederacy of Dunces tells the episodic tale of Ignatius Reilly, a snobslob, of the most eccentric kind. Set in New Orleans in the early 1960s, there are many outstanding performances and fine stagecraft. But the novel seems to overwhelm the theatrical production. Worth seeing for the performances, but it is a work in progress.
-
ATCA at Sardi’s
A Traditional Lunch with Broadway Stars
By: - Nov 20th, 2015A feature of the New York conferences of the American Theatre Critics Association is a lunch with Broadway stars at Sardi's. It was my pleasure to introduce Marlee Matlin. Other guests were Tony winner, Michael Cerveris, actress Kathleen Chalfant, creator of legendary musicals (Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof, She Love Me) Sheldon Harnick, actor Brian D'Arcy James, Tony winner Judith Light, director Bartlett Sher, four time Emmy winner, Marlo Thomas, Tony winner Doug Wright and playwright Arthur Kopit.
-
ATCA in New York
A Busman’s Holiday for Theatre Critics
By: - Nov 19th, 2015New York New York. It's a wonderful town. Critics from all over America gathered for a conference of the American Theatre Critics Association. It was co-chaired by the New York critics Sherry Eaker and Ira Bilowit. There were five insightful panels as well as the traditional Lunch at Sardi's with a dazzling array of special guests.
-
Ibsen's Ghosts
Chicago's Mary-Arrchie Theatre
By: - Nov 19th, 2015Greg Allen's clever adaptation of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen is set "in a moribund historic store-front theater on the North Side of Chicago in its final season before it gets turned into bicycle storage for luxury condos." That about sums up the current state of Mary-Arrchie Theatre in its last season after 30 years of staging fine, thought-provoking theater.
-
Never the Sinner
Thrill Murder in Chicago at Victory Gardens Theatre
By: - Nov 18th, 2015Never the Sinner is the story of Chicago's 1924 "crime of the century," its prelude, publicity and trial aftermath. It's retold in a tightly woven and acted play at Victory Gardens Theater.
-
Chapatti at North Coast Rep
The Lilt of Irish Laughter
By: - Nov 07th, 2015From the pen of Irish playwright Christian O’ Reilly, comes “Chapatti”, a tender, poignant, and charming tale that bubbles with the lilt of Irish laughter, wit and charm for which those silver-tongued Gaelic writer/philosophers are known.
-
Sarah Ruhl on Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
J. Smith-Cameron and John Douglas Thompson Captivate
By: - Nov 06th, 2015The Women's Project Theatre is presenting "Dear Elizabeth", a delightful, insightful and warm correspondence between two of America's great poets, Eiizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. The leads revolve week to week. After seeing completing satisfying performances by J. Cameron-Smith and John Douglas Thompson we yearned to see the play over and over with alternate casts like Cherry Jones and Rinde Eckert.
-
First Night Saratoga 2016
Celebrating the New Year
By: - Nov 06th, 2015Every New Years Eve different cities and towns host celebrations of varying caliber, but Saratoga outshines them all. This year marks their 20th anniversary.
<< Previous Next >>