Front Page
-
Linda Vista By Tracy Letts
Broadway at Helen Hayes Theatre
By: - Nov 15th, 2019It may not be totally successful, but a Tracy Letts play, particularly one performed by members of the Steppenwolf company, is always an interesting evening in the theater.
-
A Broadway Holiday
Thumbnails of Recent Shows
By: - Nov 15th, 2019Recently, while attending the New York Conference of American Theatre Critics Association we saw six shows. What follows are capsules of those experiences.
-
Don Juan
Westport Country Playhouse
By: - Nov 16th, 2019Westport Country Playhouse is giving us a delightful performance of a new adaptation of the Molière play written by Brendan Pelsue and wonderfully directed by David Kennedy.
-
Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
Joyce Di Donato Superb as Cleopatra
By: - Nov 16th, 2019Thrilling moments of the New York fall music season include the arrival of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. They do not disappoint. The first concert brought forward the superb brass section of the Orchestra in an unjustifiably overlooked early work by Georges Bizet, Roma. No one knows where the title came from.
-
Michelle Wiley et Les Garcons
Evening of Eclipse Cabaret
By: - Nov 17th, 2019It was standing room only last night for a packed cabaret in the gallery of the Eclipse Mill in North Adams. The chanteuse, Michelle Wiley et les Garcons, (Opie O'Brian. Carl Oman and guest guitarist) regaled us with two long sets. The program conflated Edith Piaf with Irving Berlin. Dancing was encouraged.
-
Artist Jane Hudson at Tourists
Birthday Celebration on Becoming Jane
By: - Nov 21st, 2019The upscale Tourists a hip, designer savvy resort in North Adams, has launched a program of evenings with artists. Last night there was a cozy, well attended fireside chat with artist and musician Jane Hudson. She and her husband Jeff operated Hudsons Antiques formerly at MASS MoCA. They also perform music as Jeff and Jane. Both are widely exhibited artists. She discussed phases of her career which I have followed as friend and commentator since the late 1960s. It was also her birthday.
-
Popular Artists at Tanglewood
From Ringo to Arlo and Judy Collins
By: - Nov 21st, 2019It's time to mark your calendar. Tanglewood has annpunced the Popular Artists for the 2020 season. More to be announced later. By Popular Artist the BSO differentiates them from what we assume to be the unpopular ones. Its notable that so far the uber popular James Taylor is not a part of the lineup. But is likely to slip in late, As of now his usual slot for the July Fourth holiday weekend ia wide open. What's announced so far is the Popular prequel.
-
Conrad Tao Debuts at Carnegie Hall
Barefoot and Brazen Tao Makes a Case for the Piano
By: - Nov 21st, 2019The young musical polymath Conrad Tao made his debut at Carnegie Hall. In an ambitious program, designed in part to display the elements of virtuoso performance on the piano, Tao played representative composers from J. S. Bach to David Lang and Julia Wolfe.
-
Teodor Currentzis Brings Verdi to The Shed
Dramatic Performance Accompanied by Jonas Mekas Images
By: - Nov 22nd, 2019The Verdi Requiem conducted by Teodor Currentzis with the musicAeterna Orchestra and Chorus is performed at The Shed through November 24. The McCourt is a grand space and can seat 1,250 and hold 2000 standing. Designed to be flexibly conformed, this performance has bleacher seats extending from the floor before the stage up to the rafters, or heavens if you will. This program's music is both other-worldly and very much in the now.
-
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
Classic Sondheim Musical in South Florida
By: - Nov 25th, 2019A highly physical and playful production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is on stage at MNM Theatre Company. The West Palm Beach-based nonprofit company features equity and non-equity Florida actors. Cast members shine in their roles, but the sound system needs improvement. The production runs through Dec. 8 in a South Florida theater season featuring several Sondheim works.
-
Critic Herbert Simpson 1934-2019
Covered Theatre Insight Out
By: - Nov 26th, 2019During conferences of American Theatre Critics Association the Rochester based critic, Herbert Simpson, was a raconteur and noble presence. Rooted in the classics he had little patience for current foibles. His opinions were always crusty, witty, scholarly, loquacious and well crafted. As a correspondent we were honored to repost his reviews.
-
The Interitance on Broadway
Matthew Lopez, Stephen Daldry and Bob Crowley Truple Team for Brilliance
By: - Nov 28th, 2019The moving two-part drama, The Inheritance, began its stage life at the Young Vic in London. The play transferred to the West End and is now on Broadway. For seven hours, divided into two sessions of theater, the history of gays in American unfolds. At its heart, the playwright Matthew Lopez weaves language of great beauty mixed with humor. Spanish words are sprinkled throughout, ay meo (oh God), la fiesta (the party) and maracon (faggot) among them. These are not phrases but rather exclamations. The word 'faggot' is never used in the play.
-
Mother of the Maid by Jane Anderson
Marin Theatre Company
By: - Nov 30th, 2019The playwright’s contribution to the Joan of Arc literature is that her mother, Isabelle Arc, becomes the voice and the central character. Thus, while Joan’s actions are of historic significance and drive the narrative, Isabelle dominates the stage time. The play centers on family relationships, especially between mother and daughter.
-
Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill
At Custom Made Theatre
By: - Nov 30th, 2019What makes many of Churchill’s works distinctive and what helps in understanding them is her frequent non-traditional approaches to time representation and to casting.
-
A Christmas Carol
At the Lyceum Theatre
By: - Nov 30th, 2019Even if you say bah humbug to holiday shows you might want to check out this one on Broadway.
-
Groundhog Day
Me and My Shadow in San Francisco
By: - Nov 30th, 2019The premise of Groundhog Day is that Pittsburgh TV meteorologist Phil Connors is assigned to cover the annual event against his wishes.
-
Solitude
To Be Alone Is Not Lonely
By: - Dec 06th, 2019Particularly during holiday season, we as social beings, crave the company of friends and familty. Between now and New Year there are many gatherings. It is a time of celebration and excess. This season of ritual tends to play out or wind down into winter hibertaion. My neighbor and friend the North Adams monk, Michael McGrath, discusses the alternative approach of embracing solitude.
-
Newsies the Musical
At Hillbarn Theatre
By: - Dec 09th, 2019What makes Newsies really jump is the dancing with the accompanying choruses like “Carrying the banner” about the independent but challenging life of selling papers on the streets, and “Seize the day” about striking to get their due.
-
Amahl and the Night Visitors
Gian Carlo Menotti's Christmas Spirit for Today
By: - Dec 10th, 2019On Site Opera revived what one hopes will become an annual production of Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. In choosing settings for familiar and unfamiliar operas, On Site adds an intriguing dimension to the form. With Amahl, the location in the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen returns the opera to its original meaning.
-
May Stevens at 95
Artist Was Born in Quincy Massachusetts
By: - Dec 11th, 2019The Ryan Lee Gallery in New York City announces the passing of May Stevens. The artist was born in Quincy, Massachusetts and educated at Mass College of Art. Her work was shown and collected by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
-
Judgment Day at Park Avenue Armory
Richard Jones and Christopher Shinn Disturb and Thrill
By: - Dec 13th, 2019Entering the drill hall at the Armory, we are greeted first by sounds of birds flitting through the tall, pine trees in a forest stage left and right. Branches are laden with snow. The platform of a train station fills the front of the station. The scent of the plywood from which the big blocks of the moving stage are built, also wafts through the hall. The station master’s home is above the tracks. His wife often sits in the window, observing the action below. Express trains roar by, their lights glancing off the ceilings and the other block structures on a shiny floor, whose surface reflects. We are taken in.
-
Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake
At the Ahmanson Theatre
By: - Dec 14th, 2019Internationally acclaimed Director/Choreographer Matthew Bourne returned to Los Angeles on December 5th with a reinvigorated and a brilliantly reimagined production of his most celebrated work that originally burst onto London’s Saddler Well’s stage in 1995; taking the world of ballet by storm.
-
Second Mainstage Musical for Barrington Stage Company
Ain’t Misbehavin’ Joins South Pacific
By: - Dec 17th, 2019Can there be too much of a good thing? Barrington Stage Company is known for staging classical musicals. But now Ain't Misbehavin has been added to South Pacific. This seems more about the bottomline than balanced programming. The Assembled Parties by Richard Greenberg is the third high season production on the Boyd-Quinson Mainstage. Anna in the Tropics, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Nilo Cruz, will highlight the St. Germain Stage.
-
Seance with Benjamin Britten
The Crypt Conjures Brittain
By: - Dec 14th, 2019The Crypt Session as imagined and realized by Death of Classical point the way to music’s lifefulness going forward. New, young audiences wait for months to get a ticket to one of these events. Tickets sell out moments after events like this Salon Séance are announced. Andrew Ousley, whose creation Crypt Sessions and The Catacombs assures us that more events in new locations are coming. A cave is promised in the future.
-
The Plot at Yale Rep
Will Eno's World Premiere
By: - Dec 19th, 2019I’m looking forward to seeing the next iteration of The Plot as Eno continues to develop and refine this work.
<< Previous Next >>