Front Page
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Ne Quittez Pas at Opera Philadelphia
Patricia Racette Compels as Elle
By: - Sep 26th, 2018Ne Quittez Pas is writ large on a marquee in a hot neighborhood of Philadelphia. Hold on, it says. Don’t leave. Stay on the line. This is a phrase used repeatedly in the old French telephone service, a main character in the opera to unfold inside the club, Theater of the Living Arts, a disco/nightclub near the harbor.
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Shaw's Arms and the Man
Chicago's City Lit Theater
By: - Sep 26th, 2018City Lit Theater’s new production of George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 play, Arms and the Man, takes full advantage of its broad humor. Perhaps Shaw’s most frothy script, director Brian Pastor directs it with panache, although he sometimes lets his cast drift into silliness.
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Pirandello's Naked
Chicago's Trap Door Theatre,
By: - Sep 26th, 2018Pirandello is best known for his 1921 play Six Characters in Search of an Author, but he wrote a huge volume of novels and short stories, as well as 20 major plays. Trap Door’s production of Naked is engrossing and sometimes confusing, but Martinovich’s direction is smooth.
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Bess Wohl’s Make Believe
World Premiere at Hartford Stage
By: - Sep 25th, 2018Make Believe has potential but it isn’t ready for prime time. When people start taking peeks at their watches during a 90 minute play, it’s a clear sign that something isn’t working.
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Debra Jo Rupp Romps in The Cake
Geffen Playhouse Bakes Hilarous Comedy
By: - Sep 25th, 2018The Barrington Stage Company production of The Cake has gone West young man to LA's Geffen Playhouse. Now another coast shares the delicious comedy of Debra Jo Rupp. This is a run don't walk production.
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Komische Oper, Berlin, Germany
Opening of the Season 2018/19
By: - Sep 25th, 2018Berlin's Komische Oper (Comic Opera) opened its 2018/19 season with some of the most successful productions of the previous season. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 'Zauberflöte' (Magic Flute) and Jerry Bock's 'Anatevka' which is better known as Fiddler On The Roof.
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Glass/Handel at Opera Philadelphia
Barnes Museum Hosts Anthony Roth Costanzo
By: - Sep 25th, 2018Anthony Roth Costanzo has a manly strength and a feminine range, giving surreal power to the voice. Costanzo not only sports this range but is committed to bringing its beauty to an audience unfamiliar with the pleasures of classical music. His alliance with Opera Philadelphia and headline position at the second annual O 18 Festival in Philadelphia is represented in a program at the Barnes Museum.
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Lucia di Lammermoor at Opera Philadelphia
Dark Yet Entrancing
By: - Sep 25th, 2018Rumors that Gaetano Donizetti was of Scotch origin swirled over the Italian countryside when his opera Lucia di Lammermoor was first produced. They were untrue. Now Laurent Pelly gives us a grim, grey countryside to match the mood of the opera's heroine. Brenda Rae triumphs in the role at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.
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Sky on Swings at Opera Philadelphia
World Premier of Lembit Beecher's opera
By: - Sep 24th, 2018Sky on Swings is a collaborative opera. The three principal artists, Lembit Beecher, Hannah Moscovitch and Joanna Settle have worked together for more than a year to bring a musical portrait of death-by-Alzheimer’s to the stage.
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35MM: A Musical Exhibition
Unconventional Show in Boca Raton
By: - Sep 23rd, 2018Entertaining musical features electric dancing, singing and stunning visuals 35MM: A Musical Exhibition fuses photography and musical theater. Measure for Measure Theatre Company in South Florida, for the most part, scores a hit with their Ryan Scott Oliver/Matthew Murphy show
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NAT by Verlon Brown at Theater for a New City
Directed by Rome Neal at Theater for a New City
By: - Sep 21st, 2018Remembering the Unforgettable Nat King Cole. New to the professional stage, Actor/Writer Verlon Brown brings the life of an extraordinary man to Theater for the New City, under the seasoned direction of Rome Neal.
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Jaap van Zweden at the New York Philharmonic
A New Era Begins
By: - Sep 21st, 2018Opening night at the New York Philharmonic is a yearly tradition an occasion for fat cat donors to dine on the Promenade of Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, and for ordinary critics (like your humble scribe) to put on suits and hobnob with each other before the performance. This year's ceremonies, held Thursday night, were also notable as it marked the long-awaited official debut of Jaap van Zweden, the orchestra's new music director.
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The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona
World Premiere at Geffen Playhouse
By: - Sep 19th, 2018Under the aegis of new artistic director Matt Shakman, The Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, premieres playwright Jose Rivera’s mystical new work “The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona,” directed by acclaimed, award-winning director Jo Bonney,
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Joseph D. Ketner II (1955 - 2018)
Renowned Curator of Contemporary Art
By: - Sep 19th, 2018Joe Ketner had been the Lois and Henry Foster Chair in Contemporary Art Theory and Practice and Distinguished Curator-in-Residence at Emerson since 2008. In this dual role, he worked tirelessly both to give his students a sense of the social dynamism that art enables, as well as cement Emerson’s place as a source of that dynamism through its galleries and public art installations.
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The Abduction from the Seraglio
Opera San Jose
By: - Sep 19th, 2018On opera’s dramatic measuring rod, any production of Abduction would fall on the comedic rather than the tragic end, but Opera San José pushes the comic meter to the point that opera detractors might even appreciate it as a stage comedy with music.
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Space Odyssey 2001 at NY Philharmonic
Reprise of Classic
By: - Sep 18th, 2018Stanley Kubrick's seminal 1968 classic is now 50 years old, and remains as puzzling as ever. On Friday night, as part of this year's The Art of the Score festival, the New York Philharmonic performed the complete orchestral and choral music of 2001 as accompaniment to a large scale screening of the film at Lincoln Center.
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Splendor In The Fresh Grass
Awards Day
By: - Sep 17th, 2018(At press time, I didn't have a list of winners that were announced at the Fresh Grass Festival's banjo and band awards) Nonetheless, the Fresh Grass Festival 2018 vesion has come to an end.
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Crystal Bridges a Landmark Museum of American Art
Founded by Alice Walton in Bentonville Arkansas
By: - Sep 16th, 2018The largest work of art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is the museum itself, which serves as an anchor for the examination of architecture as art. The design of pods floating over a pond is the creation of Moshe Safdie.
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More Fresh Grass Bluegrass Festival
Rhiannon Giddens Steals The Show
By: - Sep 16th, 2018Today is Sunday and the last day of the Fresh Grass Festival. With four stages, wonderful cuisine and an enthusiastic young crowd, why not drive to North Adams, Massachusetts and enjoy the nation's best museum themed bluegrass festival. Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder headline today at 5:50pm.
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HIR By Taylor Mac
Transitional Theatre at Shakespeare & Company
By: - Sep 16th, 2018HIR by Taylor Mac, at Shakespeare & Company, demonstrates that we are now well beyond LGBT. The new acronym is LGBTTSQQIAAF. For Maxine who is transitioning to Max the correct pronoun is hir passing through ze. The playrwight answers to the pronoun judy. The play which took 17 years to create is described as Mac's most biographical.
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Echo and Narcissus Updated by Satellite Collective
Kevin Draper Re-Imagines an Ancient Myth
By: - Sep 15th, 2018Satellite Collective is an adventurous group of artists from every medium who combine dance, art, music and theater into a unified work. Echo and Narcissus is a full-length collaborative event at BAM Fisher.
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Agnes Howls at 59E59th
Lesser America Presents a Play Centered on Autism
By: - Sep 15th, 2018Hurricane Agnes is raging outside the small living space of a group of friends in their early 20s. The play focuses on Charlie, who has been diagnosed at the upper end of autism. We see him struggle to become just like everyone else, or getting as close to more conventional people as possible. His perspective is surprising and dramatic.
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The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?
Edward Albee Play at Chicago's Interrobang Theatre Project
By: - Sep 15th, 2018The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? is certainly a problem play, in the classic sense in which characters debate critical social issues in a realistic context. Think Ibsen, “kitchen sink drama” and the socialist plays of the 1920s and ‘30s. Albee also makes many references to classical tragedy, literature and Greek mythology throughout The Goat.
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Fresh Acts At Fresh Grass
The Three Day Festival Is In Full Swing
By: - Sep 15th, 2018The Fresh Grass Festival,which takes place in a wide array of venues at Mass MoCA, in North Adams,Massachusetts, offers bluegrass music that is both traditional and cutting edge. There are four stages, three outdoors and one indoors that cater to the musicians and the family friendly audience. Workshops abound in the galleries with members of the bluegrass community sharing knowledge with their fans.
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Now & Then
World Premiere Musical at Wilton Theater Factory
By: - Sep 15th, 2018A New musical has its touching moments, but is hampered by cliches, sentimentality. The world premiere of Now & Then runs through Sept. 30 at the newly-named Wilton Theater Factory near Ft. Lauderdale. A strong, versatile cast performs in Now & Then's first-ever production in South Florida.
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