Theatre
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War Paint at Chicago's Goodman Theatre
Competing Costemtic Queens
By: - Jul 22nd, 2016War Paint is the story of two cosmetic industry pioneers, women who achieved corporate success in an era when it was even more difficult to do so than today. But once you get past the competition between the Polish Jewish immigrant Helena Rubinstein (Patti LuPone) and the sunny blonde Elizabeth Arden (Christine Ebersole) known for her pink color palette, there’s not much story left.
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Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare & Company
Authentic Production Directed by Tina Packer
By: - Jul 11th, 2016A great production of Merchant of Venice requires inspired casting. The Tina Packer production has a truly magnficent Shylock in company member Jonathan Epstein taking on the complex and demanding role for the fifth time. It is his second with Packer. This version also has a first rate Portia in Tamara Hickey and suitably apathetic and melancholy Antonio played with nuance by John Hadden. It was Packer's intent to take the gloves off in attacking issues of race, religion, gender, homosexuality and racism.
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Little Shop of Horrors Gobbles Audience
Smash Musical Comedy at Colonial Theatre
By: - Jul 10th, 2016A lot of theatre this season is feeding us heavy duty, pc, brain food. But for pure fun release and esape the best show in the Berkshires, Little Shop of Horrors, is presenting a hilarious musical comedy about a man eating plant which is chewing the scenery and devouring audiences at the Colonial Theatre.
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Kimberly Akimbo at Barrington Stage
Debra Jo Rupp 60 Going on 16
By: - Jun 20th, 2016In Kimberly Akimbo by David Lindsay-Abaire, as played by the masterful Debra Jo Rupp, Kimberly, celebrating her sixteenth birthday is about to die of old age. In a superb performance Rupp conflates giddy youth and the world weary wisdom that comes with time and lifde experience.
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Fiorello! at Uniciorn Stage in Stockbridge
Political Musical Soars During God Awful Election Year
By: - Jun 21st, 2016Fiorello La Guardia (1882-1947)a true man of the people was a study in contradiction. Of Italian and Jewish heritage he was an Episcopalian Republican who was elected Mayor of New York on a fusion ticket. A small, portly, homely man in a rumpled suit he possessed towering charisma. The 1959 Tony and Pulitzer winning musical Fiorello! is being given a compressed and powerful production at Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge.
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The Maxim Gorki Theater - Berlin, Germany
Small But Look-Out!
By: - Jun 20th, 2016The Maxim Gorki Theater is situated in the center of Berlin, just off the boulevard 'Unter den Linden.' Since 2013, after a change in directors, 'The Gorki ' has again become a most vital forum for current socio-political and humanistic themes and plays. We are discussing here some on the 2016 playlist.
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American Son by Christopher Demos-Brown
Black Lives Matter at Barrington Stage Company
By: - Jun 23rd, 2016In a ripped from the headlines, award winning play, American Son having its world premiere at Barrington Stage, the theme that black lives matter is explored with riveting power, The company comissioned the play by Christopher Demos-Brown and is flaunting conventional wisdow by opening the main stage season with something other than the usual light summer fare.
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O'Neill at the Metropolitan Playhouse
Alex Roe Directs the Playwright's First Stammers
By: - Jun 25th, 2016The Metropolitan Playhouse is producing two early Eugene O’Neill plays as part of their season on the topic of Hope. A satisfying evening of theatre makes a trip to the East Village a must for theatre buffs.
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in Stockbridge
Mendacity Prevails at Berkshire Theatre Group
By: - Jun 26th, 2016This summer there will be two Tennessee Williams plays in the Berkshires. The first is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge. It is a great play being given a so so production.
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Disgraced at Mark Taper Forum
Muslims in America Explored by Ayad Akhtar
By: - Jun 28th, 2016In playwright Ayad Akhtar’s blistering comedy, “Disgraced” he explores the dark underbelly of the politically correct subject matter of anti-semitism and Islamophobia that is simmering just beneath the surface at first only to boil over later on, dragging its five characters into open verbal warfare.
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Ugly Lies the Bone in Lenox
A Searing Play of Renewal at S&Co;.
By: - Jun 28th, 2016Lindsey Ferrentino has written a play weaving the end of the NASA shuttle program with the return of a severely wounded war veteran. As directed by Daniela Varon, the ensemble group of actors, turns in a bravura performance, with Christianna Nelson at its center, as Jess returning from a third tour of Afghanistan.
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Marisa Tomei in The Rose Tattoo
Williams in Williamstown
By: - Jul 03rd, 2016Based on the casting of Academy Award winner, Marisa Tomei, the production of The Rose Tattoo at Williamstown Theatre Festival is the most anticipated theatre event of the summer season in the Berkshires. For the most part audiences will be thrilled with her perfomance in a sprawling and chaotic production of the Tennessee Williams classic play.
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Cost of Living by Martyna Majok
World Premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival
By: - Jul 04th, 2016The powerful drama Cost of Living, by Martyna Majok, having its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival entails two individuals with disabilities and those who provide care for them. The production will transfer to Manhattan Theatre Club during the coming season. It is an evening of theatre that audiences will never recover from.
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Jessica Lange Wins Tony for O'Neill Play
Long Day's Journey Into Night
By: - Jul 04th, 2016The family based Long Day's Journey Into Night is regarded as the masterpiece of Eugene O'Neill. In a Broadway revval now closed Jessica Lange won a Tony Award for the paradigmatic role of the morphine addicted mother Mary Tyrone.
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Grapes of Wrath in Chicago
Gift Theatre Production
By: - Jul 05th, 2016The Gift Theatre’s eloquent new production of The Grapes of Wrath is a story of Dust Bowl migrants during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but it bears witness to many of the personal tragedies of today’s ongoing Great Recession.
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The Paper Hat Game at 3-Legged Dog
Torry Bend Blends Media with a Punch
By: - Jul 08th, 2016Scale is an important factor in how we respond to objects, art and theatre. Using the small frame of a puppet theatre, Torry Bend tells the story of a man who distributes paper hats on the Chicago Transit system. We could be anywhere in this intriguing take on urban life.
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Sense and Sensibility at Old Globe
Jane Austen Sparkles in San Diego
By: - Jul 23rd, 2016San Diego’s venerable Old Globe Theatre is currently staging a vibrant, engaging and thoroughly delightful production of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility”.
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The Tin Woman by Sean Grennan
Actor’s Playhouse The Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables
By: - May 19th, 2016Anyone who’s required an organ transplant knows the horrible ordeals of blood tests and waiting lists. But what happens after a successful transplant is complete? Does life revert to normal for the recipient, the donor and their families?
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Breath of Kings: Rebellion
Stratford Festival of Canada
By: - Jul 20th, 2016We welcome the distinguished critic Herbert Simpson and his coverage of Stratford Festival of Canada. Here he reviews Breath of Kings: Rebellion Richard II and Henry IV Part 1I which will be performed through September 24.
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How I learned What I Learned by August Wilson
Provocative Journey of Self-Discovery At Huntington Theatre
By: - Mar 11th, 2016In this wonderful solo show, the late Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson shares entertaining and provocative stories about youth-- his first few jobs, a stay in jail, various colorful friends, encounters with racism, music, and love as a young poet in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Directed by Todd Kreidler and featuring Eugene Lee, both longtime Wilson collaborators, this memoir charts Wilson’s journey of self-discovery through adversity, and what it means to be a black artist in America. This narrative journey, brilliantly performed by Eugene Lee, solidifies Wilson’s theatrical and cultural legacy.
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LaMama Discovers American Music
Dvorak Pricks Up His Ears
By: - Mar 12th, 2016The ever inventive Czecholovak-American Theatre tracks Antonin Dvorak's arrival in America and shows us how he discovered unique American sounds from cottonpickers in the South to Hiawatha.
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ATCA Announces Playwriting Finalists
Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award
By: - Mar 13th, 2016The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) has selected six finalists for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, recognizing playwrights for the best scripts that premiered professionally outside New York City during 2015.
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Barrington Stage Company Announces Programming
Rounding Out 2016 Season
By: - Mar 15th, 2016Following its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theater, Peerless by Jiehae Park (Hannah and the Dread Gazebo, Wondrous Strange), and directed by Margot Bordelon (Okay, Bye; At the Rich Relatives), will be the third production for the St. Germain Stage.
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Off Broadway Musical Ruthless
Falling In Love Again Is Simply Marvelous
By: - Mar 16th, 2016That NY critic, Edward Rubin, is a bit gonzo and over the top is no secret to his friends who know him as Fast Eddy. He refers to us as kids in a flurry of daily notes and links to reviews and articles of interest. In general we deplore the use of personal pronouns for reviews. Professional standards and decorum strive for objectivity. Now and then, as is the case here, his passion and enthusiasm know no bounds. Regarding an Off Broadway musical Ruthless he gushes "I loved, loved, loved Ruthless." That's just for openers.
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Lorca's Blood Wedding
Anemic Production at Chicago's Lookingglass
By: - Mar 18th, 2016Blood Wedding was part of Federico Garcia Lorca’s plan for a “trilogy of the Spanish earth”—unfinished when he was killed in 1936. Most critics include Yerma and The House of Bernada Alba in the “rural trilogy” but Lorca did not include the latter. The decision to set this production in the more-realistic Depression-era U.S. diminishes the mythic nature of Lorca’s story.
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