Theatre
-
The Grown-Up at Shattered Globe Theatre.
Chicago Production of Jordan Harrison's Play
By: - Apr 15th, 2015The Grown-Up, Jordan Harrison's 12th play, premiered in 2014 at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre in Louisville. This is its second production.
-
Rebecca Gilman Wins Steinberg New Play Award
Tom Coash of Atlanta Wins Osborn Award
By: - Apr 15th, 2015During the recent Humana Festival in Louisville American Theatre Critics Association presented the Steinberg and Osborn awards. Rebecca Gilman won for Luna Gale as the recipient of the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2014. The M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, which recognizes emerging playwrights, went to Tom Coash of Atlanta for his play Veils.
-
Tony Simotes Conflates Classical and Contemporary
Move from S&Co. to Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Apr 15th, 2015Tony Simotes was summarily ousted from Shakespeare & Company when he got on the wrong side with a micro managing now former board president Sarah Hancock. Significantly, she is a close friend of founding artistic director, Tina Packer, whose vision of the company was very different from Simotes who replaced her. Rick Dildine who was brought in with a mandate for change soon realized the chain of command and hastily departed. In a matter of months the company went from plan B to plan C. When we met with Simotes for a long lunch he was not inclined to sort out those loose ends. He is upbeat about new possibilities as second in command to Kate Maguire and the richly enhanced Berkshire Theatre Group.
-
Lisa D’Amour's Airline Highway
Chicago's Steppenwolf Production Transfers to Broadway
By: - Apr 14th, 2015Lisa D’Amour's Airline Highway begins performances at Broadway's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on April 1. Directed by Joe Mantello, Manhattan Theatre Club’s presentation of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s ensemble production will officially open on April 23. This is Nancy Bishop's Chicago review.
-
Ghosts by Ibsen Physicalized by Richard Eyre
Leslie Manville, Tender and Tough
By: - Apr 12th, 2015Richard Eyre’s fresh and visceral take on Ghosts brings powerfully to the stage not a play set in the end of the 19th century, but a play which resonates in any time present. The cast matches each other beat for beat.
-
Kristoffer Diaz's The Upstairs Concierge
New Farce Not All That Funny at Chicago's Goodman
By: - Apr 10th, 2015Kristoffer Diaz's The Upstairs Concierge, having its world premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, is not a witty French farce. Its celebrity- and baseball-driven plotline doesn't work as a contemporary comic romp. The plot is a mish-mash and the dialogue is flat and rarely funny.
-
What I Learned in Paris
Indiana Repertory Theatre
By: - Apr 09th, 2015"What I learned in Paris" at the Indiana Repertory Theatre, set in Atlanta in 1973, deals with issues of race, gender, and romance .Evie, played by Erika Lavonn, is one of the most charismatic characters I've come across in years.
-
End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer
Chicago's New Windy City Playhouse
By: - Apr 08th, 2015End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer is the first production in the sparkling new Windy City Playhouse in the Irving Park neighborhood. It's a worthy outing for this new Equity theater company.
-
The Amazing Max Darwin, Magician
Conjuring Truth
By: - Apr 08th, 2015No wonder Max packs ‘em in. With an unerring eye for talent and courage, his audience assistants fall into their new role with ease. They all caught the wand tossed to them with the cavalier ease of Yogi Berra.
-
Pygmalion at Pasadena Playhouse
Witty Shaw Comedy Skewers Pretentions
By: - Apr 08th, 2015“Pygmalionâ€, Shaw’s best known work on this side of the Atlantic shouldn’t be confused with the love child of Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Lowe – “My Fair Ladyâ€.
-
Travesties at Remy Bumppo
Chicago Production of Stoppard's Play
By: - Apr 07th, 2015Stoppard's "Travesties" in a new production at Remy Bumppo Theatre is a brilliantly conceived, acted and produced surrealist comedy -- and the language still makes me gasp.
-
Anne Carson's Antigonick
At Chicago's Sideshow Theatre
By: - Apr 02nd, 2015Time and measurement are of the essence in Sideshow Theatre's new production of Anne Carson's Antigonick, described as freely translated from Sophocles' original Antigone.
-
OBERON for April & May
Second Stage for A.R.T.
By: - Apr 01st, 2015OBERON, the American Repertory Theater’s (A.R.T.) second stage and club theater venue on the fringe of Harvard Square, announces all the offerings to be presented at OBERON during the months of April and May, in addition to the previously announced productions, including Visiting Artists, Artists in Residence, and Usual Suspects.
-
Cannibalizing Tennessee Williams
Performances and Events in New Orleans
By: - Apr 01st, 2015The conference of the American Theatre Critics Association overlapped and interacted with the 29th annual Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival. David Kaplan the curator of the Provinctown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival was on hand to direct a co production of the "Hotel Plays." September will mark the 10th anniversary of the Provincetown event.
-
City of Angels Glowing At Lyric Stage
A Wonderful Film Noir Spoof Set in 1940s Hollywood
By: - Mar 31st, 2015With clever lines, lyrics as well as songs and set in the seductive Hollywood of the late 1940s, City of Angels chronicles the misadventures of Stine, a disillusioned young novelist attempting to write a screenplay for a tyrannical, egomaniac movie producer. As his marriage falls apart, we follow Stine’s film alter-ego, the dashing detective Stone, who is haunted by the memory of the girl that got away. With a wonderful evocative score, City of Angels simultaneously spoofs the superficially glamorous world of old Hollywood and the edgy film noir world of thugs and femme fatales. This is a funny, witty and very clever theatrical experience.
-
New Orleans Theatre After Katrina
ATCA and Tennessee Williams Conference and Festival
By: - Mar 31st, 2015The annual conference of the American Theatre Critics Association was recently held in New Orleans. It overlapped and interacted with Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival. In addition to panels and dialogues there were a number of insightful performances. In another report we will focus on Williams.
-
Paul Robeson Lives at BAM
The Tallest Tree in the Forest by Daniel Beaty
By: - Mar 24th, 2015Paul Robeson is one of those figures who haunts us. David Beaty brings him to life at the Harvey Theater of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. What is striking almost forty years after his death is the power of the man: his beautiful voice, fierce intellect and passionate commitment to use the gifts with which he was born to enhance the world around him. Daniel Beaty captures the man in all his complexity.
-
Irreversible Presented by The Red Fern Theatre Company
Jack Karp's Intriguing Play about Oppenheimer
By: - Mar 23rd, 2015The play about the bomb is a hit. Set in the Jimez mountains of New Mexico, suggested by the orange, siena dust and the yellow gold skies, Robert Oppenheimer dominates the stage as he dominated the Los Alamos lab. General Grove admired him so that he kept him there despite Oppenheimer's communist-tainted past and his sometimes erratic behavior. Playwright Karp captures this huge figure in detailed strokes, and shows why his brother, wife and lover could not stay away from him.
-
Oedipus El Rey in San Diego
Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum Stage
By: - Mar 22nd, 2015“Oedipus El Rey†is a very impressive production that performs on San Diego Repertory Theatre’s Lyceum stage and runs through March 29, 2015. When a Chicano Oedipus, once out of prison, challenges the barrio order and sets himself above the rules, we follow the arc of his fall, and see him accept his fate.
-
Berkshire Theatre Group Announces
Unicorn and Colonial Schedule
By: - Mar 20th, 2015The Berkshire Theatre group announces shows at the Unicorn in Stockbridge and the Colonial in Pittsfield. There are world premieres included.
-
Big Fish A Whopper At SpeakEasy Stage
Wonderful Music and Performances Reflect Father and Son Conflict
By: - Mar 17th, 2015A warm and bountiful Big Fish centers on Edward Bloom, a traveling salesman whose larger-than-life stories of epic adventures delight everyone around him, except his pragmatic son Will. The show is full of terrific talent and melodious music. Just as Edward’s health begins to decline, the questioning Will sets out on a journey of family discovery seeking the truth behind his father’s fanciful tales.
-
The New Group Presents Rasheeda Speaking
Tonya Pinkins and Dianne Wiest Shine
By: - Mar 15th, 2015Joel Drake Johnson, a Chicago playwright who is a Steppenwolf regular, hits New York with a big bang in Rasheeda Speaking. Mounted with two great actrsesses at its center, and CYnthia Nixon directing, Rasheeda Speaks has been a big hit for The New Group.
-
The Colored Museum At Huntington Theatre
Black America As Musical Satire And Skewered Stereotypes
By: - Mar 13th, 2015Greatly and rightly honored George C. Wolfe’s one-act play uses satire and wit to describe the pain, joy and thematic contradictions of the African American Experience. He sets forth 11 "exhibits" or sketches to use humor, wit and song to express the human journey of the American Black experience. Shattering many stereotypes, he brilliantly embraces others. With an incredibly talented cast, this Huntington production is all about anger, love and survival with just enough in your face acknowledgement to make you entertained but clearly instructed.
-
Several Current NY Solo Shows
A Staple of Off Broadway
By: - Mar 13th, 2015At this very moment there seems to be a tsunami of one person shows flooding New York City ’s Off Broadway scene. And no doubt, more are on their way. Some are based on fictional characters, others on the real life experiences of the performer, and two on larger than life historical figures. Here we get Josephine Baker and Winston Churchill. Though none are self-directed, most all are written, co-written, or adapted by the performer, ostensibly offering the audience a more perfect fit.
-
SpeakEasy Stage Company of Boston
2015-2016 Season
By: - Mar 13th, 2015Award-winning directors Scott Edmiston and Summer L. Williams are also scheduled to be a part of the company’s 25th Anniversary Season.
<< Previous Next >>