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Theatre

  • Band Visits ATCA

    From Sardi’s to Broadway

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 08th, 2017

    During last year's NY conference of American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) there was a panel on the development of the musical, then in previews, of what went on to be the Tony winning musical Dear Evan Hansen. Predicting that lightning will stike twice the team for The Band's Visit discussed the transitions from film, to Off Broadway, and now a production at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The smart money is on running the table during the awards season.

  • Broadway's The Play That Goes Wrong

    Play-within-a-play on The Great White Way

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 09th, 2017

    Prepare for belly laughs during The Play That Goes Wrong, now on Broadway. Impeccable comic timing is key to delivering abundant laughs. The unexpected is common in this play-within-a-murder-mystery-farce

  • A Bronx Tale on Broadway

    Musical Adaptation of Gritty Film

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 09th, 2017

    A stylish, relatable musical adaptation of A Bronx Tale is now on Broadway. A tough and tender tale makes us consider our role models

  • Our Chicago Correspondent Visited New York

    Focusing on Off Broadway

    By: Nancy Bishop - Nov 09th, 2017

    Our correspondant, Nancy Bishop, in NY for the ATCA conference regrets that " I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan—I’ve seen him in concert dozens of times, but I thought the tickets to his Springsteen on Broadway show were too expensive. I was able to buy tickets for these off-Broadway plays and pay for dinner as well for the price of one Springsteen ticket." She offers an overview of affordable shows that will be up through the Holidays.

  • The Life and Times of Lee Harvey Oswald

    Tragedies Told with Marionettes

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 09th, 2017

    A human actor shines in a show about Lee Harvey Oswald featuring marionettes.Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre revisits tragedies in The Life and Times of Lee Harvey Oswald The production's rather tedious at times, lacking dramatic punch

  • Dominick Argento at Carnegie Hall

    New York City Opera Gives Composer a Birthday Bash

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 10th, 2017

    Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Dominick Argento, celebrated his 90th birthday at Carnegie Hall. New York City Opera in its wonderful new incarnation mounted two of the composer's one act monologues in dramatic productions.

  • King of Stage, a Documentary

    Woodie King Jr. Speaks in Juney Smith's Film

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 07th, 2017

    The silhouette profile of Woodie King, Jr. which often shows up in the new documentary in which his life spins out., makes him look like Alfred Hitchcock. In King of Stage by filmmaker Juney Smith, we come to see that he is at least as good a picker of stories as the mystery master.

  • Priscilla Queen of the Desert, (the musical).

    Smashing at Palm Canyon Theatre

    By: Jack Lyons - Nov 10th, 2017

    Musicals are the specialty of the Palm Canyon Theatre (PCT) where they are sensationally produced and performed. PCT is now in its twenty-first year of providing quality entertainment to the Coachella Valley, presenting thirteen productions a year that include comedies, dramas, and special events as well as their signature musicals.

  • ATCA at Sardi’s

    Lunch with Broadway Stars

    By: Charles Giuliano - Nov 10th, 2017

    A highlight of the American Theatre Critics Association’s New York conference is a now traditional lunch at Sardi’s with stars of current Broadway shows. Cast members of seven shows were represented.

  • The Band's Visit on Broadway

    Popular Musical at the Ethel Barrymore

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 11th, 2017

    The Band's Visit restores faith in the goodness of humanity. The new musical adaptation features tender, heartfelt songs. Show is well acted and sung by a talented cast

  • Freight with J. Alphonse Nicholson

    New Federal and Castillo Theatres Triumphant Team Up

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 11th, 2017

    Howard L. Craft has crafted a superb play in Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green. What was it like to be a young black man in America throughout the 20th century and on into our own? Minstrel, preacher, panther, sub-prime mortgage salesman, Abel Green has tried them all. J. Alphonse Nicholson makes his efforts palpably moving.

  • Love Never Dies in Florida

    National Tour of Phantom Sequel

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 18th, 2017

    Memorable music seduces in Love Never Dies. A fine cast is up to the task of singing with flair Andrew Lloyd Webber's soaring songs. The book is not a strong point

  • HIR near Ft. Lauderdale

    Taylor Mac's Outrageous Play at Island City Stage

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 20th, 2017

    Ft. Lauderdale area theater company scores a triumph with its season-opening production of the wacky play HIR. The production is marked by first-rate acting HIR is a meaty play, with suggestions of absurd realism and Greek Tragedy.

  • The Minutes by Tracy Letts

    World Premiere at Steppenwolf

    By: Nancy Bishop - Nov 21st, 2017

    The playwright T racy Letts,, who can be depended upon for complexity, turns a small town city council meeting into a modern morality play. The Minutes is having i ts world Premiere at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre.

  • Giacomo Puccini’s La Rondine

    Performed by Opera San José

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 21st, 2017

    La Rondine is an outlier in the Puccini canon. If we dismiss his failed first full-length opera Edgar from consideration,

  • This One’s for the Girls by Dorothy Marcic

    St. Luke’s Theatre Off Broadway

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 21st, 2017

    Dorothy Marcic’s This One’s for the Girls evidences the changes in a nostalgic journey through selections from the music catalogue of pop songs performed by women since 1900.

  • Black Rider at Shotgun Players

    By William S. Burroughs With Music by Tom Waits

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 23rd, 2017

    The play is a riff on Der Freischütz, (The Freeshooter) a Germanic tale made most famous by the seminal German Romantic opera of the same name, composed in 1821 by Carl Maria von Weber. Black Rider is a trip by William S. Burroughs with Music by Tom Waits

  • West Side Story at Disney Hall

    LA Philharmonic Provides Live Score

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 24th, 2017

    The theater world was abuzz with West Side Story in the summer of 1957. It was to open on Broadway in the fall, and sure to be a smash hit. That was the word. It was also going to revolutionize musical theater. It did. Now the LA Philharmonic performs the score live as the film rolls on before the audience.

  • Seniors Visit Broadway

    An Annual Visit with ATCA

    By: Sandy Katz with photos by Gerry Katz - Nov 26th, 2017

    Not getting any younger Sandy and Gerry Katz treated themseles to a week at The Row in the heart of NY's theatre district. From there were short cab rides to all the hit shows from Hamilton and Come from Away. They ejoyed events of American Theatre Criics Assocation inncluding the traiditional lunch with the stars at Sardis.

  • Becoming Dr. Ruth at Gable Stage

    One-woman Show About Sex Therapist

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 27th, 2017

    Famed sex therapist Dr. Ruth warmly welcomes us into her home in an impressive South Florida production. The play by Mark St. Germaine premiered at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield.The Broadway actress Anne O'Sullivan impressively inhabits the role.

  • 42nd Street

    Bay Area Musicals in San Francisco

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 27th, 2017

    There are several distinctions that mark this wonderful material. The 1980 stage show is based on the 1933 movie of the same name, which was the seminal film on this topic. As hard as it is to believe, a filmed musical had never been successfully transferred to the stage. This one succeeded wildly with critics, winning the Tony for Best Musical and more.

  • Die Walküre at Lyric Opera of Chicago

    Christine Goerke Defines Brunhilde

    By: Susan Hall - Nov 27th, 2017

    Everything about the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s second installment in David Pountney's new Ring cycle feels, sounds and looks right. Yet starting with the singing actors’ performances seems only fair. They are superb, one and all. Surely one element of opera under the control of producers is the uniform quality of singing. The Lyric Opera understands this deeply and delivers.

  • Sam Shepard's Fool for Love

    At The Stage in San Jose

    By: Victor Cordell - Nov 29th, 2017

    Fool for Love is one of Sam Shepard's most respected works, and the cast of the San Jose Stage production extracts every bit of meaning and emotion from it.

  • Book of Mormon National Tour

    Mega-Popular Musical in MIami

    By: Aaron Krause - Nov 30th, 2017

    The Book of Mormon's messages about belief and religion resonate particularly strongly these days.Triple threat actors on national tour of musical are performing in Miami.

  • Bright Star by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell

    At the Curran Theatre San Francisco

    By: Victor Cordell - Dec 02nd, 2017

    While Steve Martin’s comedy work pays the mortgage on the mansion, he plays banjo professionally as well. Collaborating with rock/pop/folk artist Edie Brickell on the acclaimed bluegrass album Love Has Come for You led to the deeper involvement of developing the stage show Bright Star. Inspired by a true 1904 event, the artists created a fiction around the occurrence.

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