Theatre
-
Coraline An Opera Composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage
Produced by West Edge Opera
By: - Aug 01st, 2022Based on the award-winning 2002 novella by Neil Gaiman, composer Mark-Anthony Turnage and librettist Rory Mullarky have crafted an opera that mirrors the creepiness of the novella and the animated film of the same name. West Edge Opera offers superb voices and orchestra, fine staging, and clever, fanciful costumes in a scintillating production of this enticing work.
-
Rubenology: The Making of An American Legend
World Premiere by GableStage and Abre Camino Collective
By: - Aug 01st, 2022Rubenology: The Making of An American Legend focuses on 84-year-old actor Ruben Rabasa. The one-act play recently experienced its world premiere as a co-production between South Florida-based GableStage and Abre Camino Collective. Playwright Vanessa Garcia and Rabasa co-wrote the piece.
-
Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Actors' Playhouse Miracle Theatre
By: - Jul 29th, 2022The bio-musical "Hank Williams: Lost Cowboy" is receiving a commendable production by Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre. The production runs through July 31. The show tells the story of Williams's life in flashback.
-
Ariane & Bluebeard Composed by Paul Dukas
Produced by West Edge Opera
By: - Jul 27th, 2022Frenchman Paul Dukas’ 1907 opera “Ariane & Bluebeard” possesses compelling music and a libretto rich with symbolism and open to varied interpretation. Although advocates for the opera included many prominent composers of the day, its success was limited from the outset, and it has failed to find a place in the repertory. Plausible explanations exist. West Edge Oper, however, presents a scintillating interpretation of the highly worthy opera.
-
The Inimitable Marlis Petersen in Munich
A Journey into Night and Our Psyches
By: - Jul 27th, 2022The Munich State Opera presents both opera and concerts during their annual July Festival. One star, Marlis Petersen, entranced at the Prinzregent Theater.
-
Giulio Cesare in Egitto
The Handel Opera
By: - Jul 26th, 2022Handel’s 1724 opera masterpiece “Julius Caesar,” dealing with Caesar’s victories in Egypt in 48-47 B.C.E. shortly before his return to Rome and death in 44 B.C.E., may be considered a prequel to Shakespeare's theatrical masterpiece.
-
La Boheme at the Munich State Theater
Otto Schenk's Set a Star
By: - Jul 26th, 2022Puccini’s music is beautiful and his notes sit particularly well in the human voice. Music written for the voice, as Puccini did, attracts audiences, especially when it is delivered by a stellar cast. Along with a rich musical mix, deep characterization draws us in. In the current revival of Otto Schenk production at the Munich State Opera, character is on full display amidst bantering bohemians and the flirtatious Musetta.
-
Hymn By Lolita Chakrabarti
Directed by Regge Life for Shakespere & Company
By: - Jul 25th, 2022Based in London Lolita Chakrabarti is an actress and playwright. An earlier play, Red Velvet, was previously produced by Shakespeare & Company. She returns with a tightly crafted two-hander, Hymn. precisely directed by the masterful Regge Light.
-
Conductor Dies During Performance in Munich
Stefan Soltesz Exits to the Music of Richard Strauss
By: - Jul 25th, 2022It has been a very warm week in Munich, yet a lovely one. Occasionally walking along Maximilian Street in the center of town, a breeze catches up and cools. The Munich State Opera, unquestionably the lead opera company in the world, is holding its annual July Festival, a chance to catch up with interesting productions from the last decade.Concerts too attract. Munich Regular Jonas Kaufman will return for his first post Covid appearance.
-
Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch in Munich
Munich State Opera Presents in the National Theater
By: - Jul 24th, 2022Jonas Kaufman and Helmut Deutsch have long been partners in song. Kaufman recently withdrew from performances at the Royal Covent Garden opera house due to the impact of Covid 19 on his voice. His return was welcomed at the National Theater in Munich.
-
Sondheim's Follies
At San Francisco PLayhouse
By: - Jul 22nd, 2022The lavish and expensive-to-produce “Follies” earned 11 Tony nominations and won seven, but was a box office disappointment with barely 500 performances on Broadway. Yet, the show became a classic. San Francisco Playhouse has taken on the challenge of producing this massive and demanding project. The result is a worthy rendition of a great American musical.
-
Julis Bullock Expands Harawi in Aix
Choreographed Drama by Zack Winokur
By: - Jul 22nd, 2022Julia Bullock has made a big opera career outside conventional wisdom. At the Aix Festival in Provence this year she sang Olivier Messiaen's Harawi, a challenging work to which she brings unusual insights.
-
Anna in the Tropics By Nilo Cruz
2003 Pulitzer Winner at Barrington Stage Company
By: - Jul 21st, 2022Other than an explosive ending the Pulitzer Prize winning Anna In the Tropics proves to be quite tepid as produced by Barrington Stage Company. Set in a Prohibition era cigar factory the lictor is reading Tolstoy to the workers. Themes of infidelity, jealousy and revenge in Anna Karenina weave their way into the plot by playwright Nilo Cruz.
-
The Nose at the Munich Opera
Russian Dissident Kirill Serebrennikov
By: - Jul 21st, 2022Kirill Serebrennikov, the brilliant Russian director, brought The Nose to Munich via Zoom. He is detained by the Russian government in Moscow. The production is superb.
-
Ian Bostridge Sings Schubert in Munich
Anthony Papano Accompnies at the Prinzregent Theater
By: - Jul 20th, 2022Ian Bostridge is the go-to performer for Franz Schubert's Winterreise. He notes that 'Even as a child I was unnaturally obsessed with love and death, so in that sense I really was born to sing lieder'. This concert is another testament to his natural affinity for the form and for the composer.
-
Nan and the Lower Body by Jessica Dickey
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
By: - Jul 18th, 2022The play opens with Dr. Pap addressing a classroom – the audience. The content of the lecture is unimportant, yet those brief moments absolutely hook the viewer. There is no waiting to get involved with the story line.
-
Athena by Gracie Gardner
At Thrown Stone Theater in Ridgefield
By: - Jul 18th, 2022Teenage angst is not necessarily the material for meaningful drama. Athena by Gracie Gardner one of two plays at Thrown Stone Theater in Ridgefield reveals the hazards. It, and the other play Hysterical! run in repertory through Sunday, Aug. 6.
-
The Drowsy Chaperone
Produced by Sonoma Arts Live
By: - Jul 17th, 2022The opening premise of the fiction is that Janet van de Graaf and Robert Martin, played by the charming and talented pair of Maeve Smith and Stephen Kanaski, are to be married on the day that the musical takes place. The reality of the show’s evolution is that “The Drowsy Chaperone” began as a spoof of old musicals that was performed at a stag party for a real engaged couple with the same names as the characters in the show. Got that?
-
Most Happy in Concert at Williamstown
Directed by Tony Winner Daniel Fish
By: - Jul 17th, 2022Most Happy in Concert, now at Williamstown Theatre Festival is not a revival of the 1956 musical Most Happy Fella with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser. It's a tear down and deconstruction by director Daniel Fish. He similarly ripped apart Oklahoma which won a Tony award. Let's see if he again cruises Broadway with an even more radical production of a vintage musical.
-
ABCD By May Treuhaft-Ali
World Premiere at Barrington Stage Company
By: - Jul 14th, 2022Barrington Stage Company in its tradition of encouraging new voices is providing playwright May Treuhaft-Ali with her first professional production. She has created a topical work based on ripped from the headlines reporting on the crisis in American public education.
-
Kim’s Convenience at Westport Country Playhouse
Adapted from Hit Canadian Sitcom
By: - Jul 13th, 2022Kim’s Convenience now at Westport Country Playhouse is adapted from the long running hit Canadian sitcom. It was aired on Netflix. It centers on the patriarch of a Korean family that loves over the shop. His broken English and inventive syntax are part of the humor if you can understand it.
-
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
World Premiere by by Central Works
By: - Jul 12th, 2022Cristina Garcia, who has adapted her 1992 National Book Award finalist novel into a world-premiere play, delves into a number of stock motifs and stock character types, but in a vivid, imaginative, and entertaining way. The story, which takes place in Havana and Brooklyn in 1979-1980, reveals a family with four determined women of Cuban ancestry; representing three generations; living in two countries; and sharing one common condition – zero male partners impede their personal pursuits at this point in their lives.
-
Man of God by Anna Ouyang Moench
Opens Williamstown Theatre Festival Season
By: - Jul 08th, 2022After a six week run at Geffen Playhouse MAN OF GOD written by Anna Ouyang Moench and directed by Maggie Burrows has launched the three play season for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Four Korean American teen girls are confined to a Bangkok hotel room during a field trip with their Pastor. It appears that he is a voyeur and predator. Once outed the comedy entails fantasy acts of revenge.
-
Hurricane Diane by Madeline George
At Chicago's Theatre Wit
By: - Jul 06th, 2022Dionysus/Diane has messages for us. The messages we continue to ignore about the serious dangers that climate change portends for our future—and more importantly, for the futures of our children and grandchildren. Yes, while we seethe with anger about SCOTUS decisions and the January 6 insurrection, playwright Madeline George wants us to get mad about climate change too. She’s right, of course.
-
Mega Award Winning Once
Impeccable Berkshire Theatre Group Production
By: - Jul 04th, 2022Directed by Gregg Edelman, Berkshire Theatre Group has created a stunning production of Once the multiple award winning musical. The twelve actors in this work are also the musicians and singers. Set in a Dublin pub it tells the tale of unrequited love between a Guy and Girl. For this critic it proved to be an emotionally shattering theatrical experience.
<< Previous Next >>