Theatre
-
Partch's Delusion of Fury at Lincoln Center
Heiner Goebbels Expands the Experience
By: - Jul 25th, 2015The stage at City Center was beautifully packed with an array of instruments designed by Harry Partch, a modern American composer of original theatrical events. Classifying him as a composer of concert music is, as Partch said, as foolish as saying he is a kangaroo. The brilliant director Heiner Goebbels expands the Partch experience with set objects and lighting. Here is the future of American musical production conceived over a half century ago.
-
Blair Underwood in Paradise Blue
World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Jul 24th, 2015For the fourth production of the season at Williamstown Theatre Festival yet again it is a world premiere with the casting of stars like Blair Underwood and De'adre Aziza. Unlike the prior three productions last night there was a genuine and encouraging standing O from the enthusiastic audience. There are compelling components in an uneven play by Dominque Morisseau. She aspires to do for her native Detroit what August Wilson achieves in his Century Cycle for Pittsburgh,
-
Jarry's Ubu Roi by Cheek by Jowl
Lincoln Center Festival Presents a Classic
By: - Jul 23rd, 2015Guess who's coming to dinner? Turns out Pere and Mere Ubu and their coterie of political acquaintances. Cheek by Jowl embeds the Jarry play at a dinner party. We can not decipher the dinner table conversation, but surely it is the same subject as the century-old play that is fresh and even futuristic. Here we see war, and regicide. Czars are toppled and Ukraine and Lithuania are in the news. Gold is hidden away in beneficial accounts. Plus ca change, plus ca la meme chose.
-
Lost in Yonkers Soars at Barrington Stage
First Neil Simon Production for Pittsfield Company is Staggering
By: - Jul 20th, 2015Back in January Julianne Boyd announced to the media how she had always wanted to present a play by an American master, Neil Simon. She chose his Pulitzer and Tony winning Lost in Yonkers a bitter sweet saga of a poor immigrant Jewish family under the thumb of a mean and brutal matriarch. Director Jenn Thompson earned a Drama Desk nomination for a prior production of the play which she has now staged brilliantly in the Berkshires.
-
Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash
Through August at Chicago's Mercury Theatre
By: - Jul 19th, 2015Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash is a jukebox musical with no plot to speak of. It is playing at the Mercury Theatre in Chicago through August
-
Talking with Chicago Star Faye Butler
Currently on Stage at Goodman Theatre
By: - Jul 19th, 2015Faye Butler describes herself as an actor who sings, not a singer who acts. She's a theater and musical star in Chicago and nationally and has won many awards and honors for her work. She currently plays the cleaning lady, Cassandra, who knows the source of her name only too well, in the current Goodman Theatre production, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. I interviewed her about that role and her other stage and cabaret work. She let me in on a few secrets about her voice, her vocal practices -- and her dreams. (Also see our review of the play.)
-
Hilarious World Premiere by Suzanne Heathcote
Collaboration with Berkshire Theratre Group Launches New Neighborhood
By: - Jul 19th, 2015In a bold move Berkshire Theatre Group has collaborated with New Neighborhood and a world premiere of its very first production. I Saw My Neighbor On the Train and I Didn’t Even Smile by the brilliant young British playwright, Suzanne Heathcote, is the must see show of the Berkshire season.
-
Cynthia Nixon in Carey Perloff’s Kinship
Sisterhood is Powerful at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Jul 17th, 2015Given the all star casting a number of shows during Mandy Greenfield's first season as artistic director of Williamstown Theatre Festival have sold out. This is particularly true for the smaller Nikos Stage where Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner Cynthia Nixon is featured in the three-hander Kinship by Carey Perloff, directed by Jo Bonney. In an example of gender reversal, the apparent point of this play, a woman in power, a successful editor, mentors a rookie reporter and risks career and family in an obsession that turns as dark as the fate of the Greek queen Phèdre. Perloff was directing a production of the Racine classic when it inspired her to write this play.
-
Brilliant Adventures by Alistair McDowall
St Chicago's New Steep Theatre Through August 15
By: - Jul 14th, 2015Brilliant Adventures, the grim and grimly funny new Steep Theatre production, was written by Alistair McDowall and directed by Robin Witt. It was first performed in Manchester in 2011 and won the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting.
-
Bells Are Ringing at the Colonial
Reviving a 1950s Hit Broadway Musical in the Berkshires
By: - Jul 12th, 2015The terrific husband and wife team of Kate Baldwin and Graham Rowat star in a revival of the 1950s musical Bells are Ringing. It brings star power to the Colonial in Pittsfield to July 26.
-
Tony Winning Actor/Director Roger Rees at 71
Artistic Director of Williamstown Theater Festival 2004 to 2007
By: - Jul 11th, 2015Roger Rees, who has died following a medical procedure in May, had a long association with the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The renowned Tony winning actor/ director first came to Williamstown as an actor. From 2004 to 2007 he was the artistic director of WTF. He returned last summer for a revival of the Kander and Ebb musical The Visit which is currently on Broadway starring Chita Rivera.
-
912Oz by Lloyd Pace at NY's Sanctuary
Katrin Hilbe Directs a Timeless Moment
By: - Jul 09th, 20159/11 is a tempting topic for playwrights and novelists who want to dig deeper into its impact. Lloyd Pace bores into the hearts and spirits of two survivors who are in the grips of the Big Events long after the rubble is cleared and New York starts to recover. In nooks and crannies of the darting words that erupt, we feel some of the intense, lasting impact. Brilliantly directed by Katrin Hilbe and staged with unusual simplicity and power.
-
Foreign Affairs, Berliner Festspiele, Germany 2015
International Performing Arts Festival ended July 5
By: - Jul 08th, 2015Artistic Director Matthias von Hartz offered a 'Gesamtkunstwerk,' combining performance and visual arts aspects during the ten day long festival. Included were the 24 hour long lasting 'Mount Olympus' by Belgian director/choreographer Jan Fabre with Troubleyn Company. Then, Tim Etchells and Forced Entertainment offered 'Complete Works: Table Top Shakespeare' - all 36 Shakespeare plays, reduced to each 45 minute plots, over nine days. A stunning success! As intended, performers and audiences were challenged to their limits.
-
Deathtrap at Berkshire Theatre Group
Now Kissing in Stockbridge
By: - Jul 08th, 2015In this staging of Ira Levin's enduring 1978 comic-mystery the men do not kiss. That cause a sensation decades ago on Broadway. The lip smacker is now banned by Levin's estate. But in a play that is chock full of clues you would have to be utterly clueless not to conclude that the washed up playwright Sidney (Gregg Edelman) isn't shagging his former student Clifford (Tom Pecinka). For a fun evening with no heavy lifting get thee to Stockbridge.
-
"Composition…Master-Pieces…Identity”
Breathing Life into the Words of Gertrude Stein
By: - Jul 07th, 2015Here, curiously, Edward Rubin conflates his passion for Gertrude Stein and Ludwig Wittgenstein! Go figure. The Off Off production that prompts him to quote generously from Stein has, alas, closed at the time of posting this review. If you are intrigued by "A rose is a rose is a rose" then this is a name that surely will smell as sweet.
-
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike in Chicago
Durang Play at Goodman Theatre Through July 26
By: - Jul 06th, 2015Steve Scott's new Goodman Theatre production is funny and charming and much of its wit rests on the many theatrical references and stage in-jokes (fond references to Chekhov and Greek tragedies, and to theater masters such as Stanislavski and Meisner). In addition, monologues by three of its characters are compelling and humorous set pieces.
-
Legacy by Daniel Goldfarb at Williamstown
World Premiere with Hecht, Bogosian, Long and Feiffer
By: - Jul 04th, 2015The new Williamstown Theatre Festival artistic director, Mandy Greenfield, has launched her tenure with a double header of world premieres. In the smaller Nikos Stage a fine cast is performing Legacy by Daniel Goldfarb. There are tons of laughs and then it gets very grim and dark.
-
William Inge’s Off the Main Road
Rediscovered Play at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Jul 03rd, 2015Among works in the estate of the Tony and Pulitzer winning playwright, William Inge, was a 1966 teleplay now reconfigured for stage and having its world premiere as Off the Main Road at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Directed by Evan Cabnet it stars Emmy winner Kyra Sedgwick as Faye the battered, alcoholic wife of Manny (Jeremy Davidson) a now abusive, alcoholic former baseball star.
-
Come From Away at La Jolla Playhouse
By Irene Sankoff and David Hein
By: - Jun 29th, 2015The musical “Come From Away” by the Canadian husband-and wife team of Irene Sankoff and David Hein, directed by Ashley made its World Premiere debut at the Sheila and Hughes Poitier Theatre last weekend to thunderous applause and standing ovations.
-
The Who and the What at Victory Gardens
Play by Ayad Akhtar in Chicago
By: - Jun 29th, 2015The Who and the What is a smart, funny play about a conservative Pakistani-American family and their attempts to come to grips with modern realities while maintaining respect for tradition. Playwright Ayad Akhtar has written believable characters who fight articulately about what they believe in.
-
Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon
New Comedy at Geffen Playhouse in LA Until July 19
By: - Jun 29th, 2015“Bad Jews” is a new modern comedy written by acclaimed young playwright Joshua Harmon. The ambiguously titled and talky play currently on stage at the Geffen Playhouse is directed by Matt Shakman, who helms his production with one directorial foot planted in “tradition” and the other directorial foot solidly rooted in the secular 21st century.
-
Intimate Apparel at Dorset Theatre Festival
Vermont's Dorset Makes a Bold Choice for Season Opener
By: - Jun 27th, 2015This is superb production of a beautifully written play that looks at the lives of African-American women in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century. It is a bold opener for Vermont’s Dorset Theatre Festival season. An uptown white socialite, a downtown black prostitute, and a self-deprecating Jewish cloth salesman are just three of the disparate characters who populate the world of Esther, a hard-working and humble black woman who makes her living fashioning ladies’ intimate apparel.
-
Henry V at Shakespeare & Company
Ryan Winkles Triumphant in Title Role
By: - Jun 27th, 2015The cycle of history plays by Shakespeare continues and unfortunately ends this season with a chamber production of the ever popular Henry V. This scaled back drama with four male and four female actors playing multiple roles has been directed by Jenna Ware. In the title role Ryan Winkles is magnificent. It adds another dimension to a superb actor who previously has been featured in comic roles.
-
Beckett's Happy Days is Here Again at the Flea
Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub Capture the Absurdity
By: - Jun 25th, 2015This production was a smash hit in Pasadena before it arrived at the Flea in New York and why is very clear: Brooke Adams gives a tour de force performance as Winnie, sinking into the earth with a broad grin. Her husband Tony Shalhoud is Willie: farting, eating goobers, but loving all the time..
-
Moby Dick at Lookingglass
New Production Adapted from Melville's Novel
By: - Jun 23rd, 2015Lookingglass's black box theater in the old Water Works on Michigan Avenue in Chicago becomes the interior of a great whale with steel hoops extending from stage rear to the top of the theater.
<< Previous Next >>