Theatre
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A Chorus Line
Character Laid Bare in the Pursuit of Dreams.
By: - Jul 06th, 2023On Broadway and in Hollywood, the backstage genre endures and endears like few others. In the history of American entertainment, no backstage montage has proven more heart wrenching and more diverse in its themes explored and its characters examined than “A Chorus Line.”
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On Stage This Summer
From Connecticut to the Berkshires
By: - Jul 05th, 2023Straw hat is old hat. Summer once meant shows performed in actual barns by talented and young kids. Or tours led by well-known movie and TV stars whose popularity had diminished. Not anymore.
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The Dignity Circle
The Grift Is On
By: - Jul 05th, 2023Opening with the alluring pitch “How would you like to receive $40,000 with no strings attached?” Angela lures her prey into her seductive scheme. But one of the devices of the Circle is wearing masks, which suggests that there is indeed something hidden beneath the surface.
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tiny father by Mike Lew
Chautauqua Theater Company and Barrington Stage Company
By: - Jul 01st, 2023In a co production with Chautauqua Theater Company, Barrington Stage Company is presenting a world premiere tiny father by Mike Lew and directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel. There is another production scheduled for Geffen Hall in Los Angeles.
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To Kill a Mockingbird
At Bushnell
By: - Jun 30th, 2023No matter whether you read it in school or more recently or even never read the novel, you owe it to yourself to see the absolutely fabulous new stage adaptation now at the Bushnell through Sunday, July 2.
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Million Dollar Quartet in Pittsfield
Blows Roof off of Colonial Theatre
By: - Jun 30th, 2023During raucous encores Million Dollar Quartet blasted the audience up out of their seats at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield. By popular demand Berkshire Theater Group revises its prior production at the smaller Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge.
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Madama Butterfly for Boston Lyric Opera
Eradicating Yellowface Tradition
By: - Jun 26th, 2023Chinese American artist, advocate and director Phil Chan, whose book Final Bow for Yellowface altered the conversation about Asian representation on ballet stages around the country, turns his attention to opera this September, when he directs a new, Asian American take on "Madama Butterfly" for Boston Lyric Opera (BLO).
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The Contention (Henry VI, Part II)
Rarely Seen Play at Shakespeare & Company
By: - Jun 25th, 2023In Tina Packer's The Contention (Henry VI, Part II) we have the best possible cast and production of the rarely seen early play. It's described as the best of a trilogy. The first act focuses on why Henry is not fit to be king. A notion with which he would likely agree. Through a lot of exposition it sets up the eventual War of the Roses between the rival Houses of York and Lancaster. As heads roll the second act lurches into hilarious farce.
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Photo 51 by Anna Ziegler
Unwinding the Double Helix at Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Jun 21st, 2023The taut, austere, information crammed, one act play “Photo 51” rights a wrong. It dramatizes the true life story of the unaccredited role played by Rosalind Franklin (Rebecca Brooksher) in the discovery of the double helix pattern in DNA.
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Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
An ArtBuzz Theatrics Production in South Florida
By: - Jun 20th, 2023"Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks" is a touching comedy about an odd couple who share at least one thing in common: their humanity. An impressive production is running through July 3 in the tiny Empire Stage in Ft. Lauderdale. Stage veterans Larry Buzzeo and Lory Reyes co-star.
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Cabaret Soars at Barrington Stage Company
Awesome Debut for Artistic Director Alan Paul
By: - Jun 20th, 2023With his first production, Cabaret, Alan Paul, the artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, has set a new benchmark for musical theatre in the Berkshires. Given the unchecked rise of fascism in America the musical which focuses on the beginnings of Nazi Germany could not be more powerful and relevant. This is a scorching production which will blow you away. Barrington's version of the iconic musical clicks on all cylinders,
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A Sex-Positive Xerxes
Komische Oper's Ecstatic Production
By: - Jun 19th, 2023Handel’s Xerxes is a sex-positive party in this ecstatic production presented by Komische Oper. The theater itself is a beautiful little jewel box seating about 1200 people, an intimate setting appropriate to a production that would highlight intimacy.
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Experiments in Opera Presents Anthony Braxton
Feisty Opera Company Improvises at The Brick
By: - Jun 18th, 2023In 1999, Anthony Braxton caught the performance of an Improv group at Wesleyan College where he has taught for twenty-three years. Among its members was Lin Manuel Miranda. He picked a trooper and asked him to do an improvisation with him. The duo, collaborating on compositions 279 to 283, was the inspiration for this funny, hip and moving improv designed by Experiments in Opera (EiO).
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San Francisco Opera 100th Anniversary Concert
America's Third Oldest Opera Company Celebrates Its First Century
By: - Jun 18th, 2023San Francisco Opera celebrated its centenary at War Memorial Opera House with a grand concert of 21 operatic pieces, performed by 15 principals and the company’s orchestra and chorus. Artistic Director Eun Sun Kim, past Artistic Director Donald Runnicles, and past Principal Guest Conductor Patrick Summers shared the baton. Matthew Shilvock, only the seventh General Director of the company, hosted the glorious event.
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Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress
Closing the Hartford Stage Season
By: - Jun 16th, 2023Trouble in Mind, at Hartford Stage, was written in the mid-50s. It was the first full-length play by Alice Childress whose career encompassed acting and writing both plays and novels. The play deals with topics that are major points of discussion today both in our society and the theatrical world: representation, authenticity, sexism, and workplace bullying
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The Doctor at Park Avenue Armory
Is it Possible to Function in Fully Human Mode
By: - Jun 16th, 2023Arthur `Schnitzler's play "Professor Bernhardi" has been completely rewritten by director Robert Icke, who takes the action from 1900 Vienna to present-day Britain. Now called "The Doctor", it was a smash hit in London and is running until August 19th at the Park Avenue Armory in New York.
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Love All at the La Jolla Playhouse
Billie Jean King Wins This Match
By: - Jun 15th, 2023Love All, a new play by Anna Deavere Smith and directed by Marc Bruni, is running at the La Jolla Playhouse through July 2. 'Love all' is the score of a tennis match before it starts. It is a word used often during the course of a game. It means zero. And that is what athletes were making when Billie Jean Moffit (later King) started playing tennis. She also loved men and women.
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El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego
Two Modern Artists Fictionalized in an Opera with an Orpheus-like Story.
By: - Jun 15th, 2023Composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s special compassion for Frida Kahlo may derive from their shared experience. Cuban-born, Pulitzer Prize winning (“Anna in the Tropics”) playwright Nilo Cruz provides the literate libretto. Wishing to integrate aspects of Mexican culture into the story in a magical realism fashion, he builds the narrative around the culturally significant Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and Aztec mythology.
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Tennessee Williams: Science Fiction and Fantasy
18th Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival
By: - Jun 14th, 2023The 18th Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival announces its September program titled Tennessee Williams: Science Fiction and Fantasy. Over four days, in venues throughout the town, the Festival will share Williams’ lifelong fascination with science fiction and fantasy by presenting performances of plays, short stories and unfinished works by Williams. 2023 will feature the return of the Festival’s popular “Hotel Plays” where audiences, moving from one hotel room to the next, are treated to several short works by Williams.
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Treat Williams Performed for Berkshire Theatre Group
In 2013 We Discussed Lion in Winter
By: - Jun 13th, 2023Treat Williams, the actor known for his roles in the movies “Hair” and “Deep Rising” and the TV show “Everwood,” has died. He was 71. A S.U.V. crashed into his motorcycle in Dorset, Vt. He was 71. We spoke with him in 2013 following a performance as King Henry in “Lion in Winter.”
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Die Frau ohne Schatten
Richard Strauss's Lush Music, Captivating Fairy Tale Story, and Pop Art Scenery.
By: - Jun 12th, 2023The Empress faces Sophie’s choice. Either decision - to accept or reject the shadow - could leave blood on her hands. High drama occurs with real or perceived betrayals and threats of killing, but since nobody dies, some would characterize “Die Frau” as a comedy!
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Webster’s Bitch by Jacqueline Bircher
At Playhouse on Park
By: - Jun 10th, 2023The world premiere play by Jacqueline Bircher attempts to deal with arbitrariness as well as the continual change in language and meaning, the politicization of language, and what is called “cancel culture.” It is a lot to ask one play to handle.
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The Wizard of Oz
A Fanciful Stage Adaptation of an American Movie Classic
By: - Jun 09th, 2023L. Frank Baum’s beloved “The Wizard of Oz” has become an American touchstone and introduced a bevy of memes and tropes that define our narrative. While it is easy to sit back and enjoy it as an entertaining pastime, in its richness, it is also a fable of the American spirit. Dorothy, despite being young and female, represents the prototypical hero on an odyssey, a quest to find her way home after defeating the odds, aided by trusty sidekicks she has met along the way. Together, using brains and hearts and courage, they conquer fears and earn their way to becoming what they had aspired to be.
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On Golden Pond
Ivoryton Playhouse
By: - Jun 09th, 2023You may recall the 1981 movie that starred Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn with Jane Fonda playing the daughter. The 1979 play by Ernest Thompson (he also wrote the screenplay) can be sentimental and predictable. But with Naughton and Dillon in the leads, you will be willing to suspend your critical judgment about the play.
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Madame Butterfly
At War Memorial Opera House San Francisco
By: - Jun 08th, 2023“Madame Butterfly” integrates the best of the earlier "La Boheme" and "Tosca" and overlays pentatonic scale Japanese folk melodies to add a whole new dimension to the score. The popularity of this beautiful and exotic wonder should be no surprise. San Francisco Opera’s wonderous creative and visually striking production is led by four powerful singers - Karah Son, Michael Fabiano, Hyona Kim, and Lucas Meachem.
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