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Theatre

  • No Vote for Votes

    Sequel to "The Last Temptation of William Jefferson"

    By: Deborah Heineman - Apr 08th, 2016

    Jacqueline S. Salit and Fred Newman’s new take on a Clinton Presidential candidacy struggles to define itself. Is it a play? A musical? A satire? A serious morality play? It ends with a distasteful and irresponsible message.

  • Snow White Is Super Grimm

    Getting It On With Dwarfs at Minetta Lane

    By: Edward Rubin - Feb 16th, 2016

    This version of Snow White is for adults only. Here is a second opinion of a controversial New York production. This is a new twist in every sense of a fairy tale.

  • The Glass Menagerie in Chicago

    Hypocrites Production Revived by Hans Fleischmann

    By: Nancy Bishop - Feb 14th, 2016

    This is a strong, sweet production but it’s not clear to me why it is remounted just 2.5 years after the last identical production. If you missed it before, do see it now. The Glass Menagerie runs 2.5 hours with one intermission; the Hypocrites production continues through March 6 .

  • Vices and Virtues at Profiles Theatre

    Several Short Plays by Neil LaBute

    By: Nancy Bishop - Feb 13th, 2016

    A collection of 11 short plays by Neil LaBute is now being staged at the theater in Buena Park. Each play has its own cast and directors. Amazingly, in this 4.5 total hours of theater over two separate shows, there’s not a dog in the pack. Each play is sharp and memorable.

  • American Buffalo in Chicago

    Mamet Classic at Mary-Arrchie Theatre

    By: Nancy Bishop - Feb 13th, 2016

    American Buffalo is David Mamet's story of one day in the life of three Chicago hustlers who try to run a home burglary to get at a rich man’s coin collection. (The buffalo nickel is an often prized version of an early 5-cent piece.) Donny (Richard Cotovsky, a founding member of Mary-Arrchie and its artistic director, is the usually calm, business-focused owner of Don’s Resale Shop. Bobby (Rudy Galvan) is his gopher, and Teach (Stephen Walker) is a neighbor, an angry, emotionally needy man.

  • Company XIV’s Adults-Only Snow White

    Outrageous Burlesque at NY's Minetta Lane Theatre

    By: Deborah Heineman - Feb 11th, 2016

    Company XIV has a World Premiere of adults-only Snow White at the Minetta Lane Theatre in NYC -- the third offering in a season of rowdy entertainment by Austin McCormick and the multi-talented cast.

  • Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley

    At San Diego Rep Theatre

    By: Jack Lyons - Feb 10th, 2016

    Toiling for years off-Broadway, John Patrick Shanley has now zoomed to the top tier of much-in-demand playwrights and screenwriters. His latest theatrical effort is the romantic comedy “Outside Mullingar”, which takes place in rural Ireland.

  • A Very Hungry Caterpillar on Broadway

    Berkshire's Eric Carle's Stories and Art Live

    By: Susan Hall - Feb 07th, 2016

    Puppets in the collage-inspired work of Eric Carle engage in story-telling on Broadway. Three actors tell four of Carle's stories in the magical tones of familiar classics, the audience is incanting phrases like, "but he was still hungry." The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Art and its literacy programs in Amherst benefit from this production of Jonathan Rockefeller's charming puppetry.

  • Irish Repertory Theatre Presents The Burial at Thebes

    Seamus Heaney's Poetry a Triumph

    By: Susan Hall - Jan 28th, 2016

    Charlotte Moore has directed The Burial at Thebes to make it not only timely, but even more important, present. Each character is etched individually and then brought together with loved ones and adversaries, incidental characters and crucial ones. The chorus has disappeared, its lines and messages now humanized in individuals. This tale is about people and the gods are hardly considered.

  • Lauren Gunderson's I and You

    Award Winning Drama at 59E59 in NYC

    By: Deborah Heineman - Jan 25th, 2016

    Kayla Ferguson and Reggie D. White reprise their roles from the Merrimack Repertory Theatre as two teenagers seemingly randomly throw together to complete a class project. But Lauren Gunderson's "I & You" is actually about far weightier things -- life, death, the connectedness of all human beings -- all brought home in a riveting finale that had audiences gasping in surprise. Directed by Sean Daniels, "I & You" is having a limited run at 59E59 Theaters from January 15 - February 28.

  • Nice Fish: A Brilliant Catch At A.R.T.

    The Remarkable Mark Rylance

    By: Mark Favermann - Jan 24th, 2016

    On a frozen Minnesota lake, the ice is beginning to melt as is Salvador Dali's Melting Watch paintings. It’s the end of the fishing season, and two men are out on the ice angling for answers to life’s larger questions. TONY and Olivier Award-winning Mark Rylance, who co-wrote the play with the American poet Louis Jenkins is spectacular. Based on Jenkins' prose poems, it is a Waiting for Godot on ice. It deserves to be a contemporary classic.

  • The Blizzard of 2016 Shut Down Broadway

    Plan B: Luke's Theater for Plucky Ruthless!

    By: Edward Rubin - Jan 24th, 2016

    Craving adventure theatre critic Fast Eddy Rubin was thrilled by blizzard of 2016, one for the record books. Scheduled for a matinee he and a neighbor trudged up town. Only to find all of Broadway including restaurants shut down. Imagine if you had those precious seats to Hamilton? Stomping about our ersatz Sargent Preston of the Yukon stumbled onto one of the few theatres where the show went on. Mush you huskies. He just loved Restless at the intimate St. Luke's Theatre.

  • Sherlock Holmes at North Coast Repertory Theatre

    Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Great Nome Gold Rush

    By: Jack Lyons - Jan 23rd, 2016

    The world premiere production of Joseph Vass’ comedy/mystery “Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Great Nome Gold Rush”, may be a mouthful to say but it’s easy to enjoy; so are the songs and music written and composed by Vass for the production, who is also a musician and is one of the driving forces behind the Klezmer music movement in the country.

  • Sunset Baby at Timeline

    Chicago Premier of Dominique Morisseau Play

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jan 22nd, 2016

    The bluesy, politically charged music of Nina Simone is the aural background for Sunset Baby, Timeline Theatre’s Chicago premiere of the 2012 play by Dominique Morisseau. Nina (AnJi White), the stubborn, independent woman whose life, dreams and family are the heart of this story, is Simone’s namesake.

  • Yes Tim Realbuto's Deceptive One Act Play

    At New York's Hudson Guild Theatre

    By: Edward Rubin - Jan 22nd, 2016

    YES falls into a category, a genre, if you will, in which two characters, metaphorically speaking, battle to the death. In between drinking scotch, perhaps even vodka – bottles of liquor, one beside his bed, another aside his desk, and doing coke twice – Patrick begins, under the guise of giving Jeremiah acting lessons, taking charge of the seemingly innocent seventeen year old.

  • Ann Liv Young's Elektra Has U.S. Premiere

    Unfortunately, My Favorite Part was the Pig

    By: Deborah Heineman - Jan 21st, 2016

    A pig is included in an avant-garde performance of Elektra Sophocles' classic story of murder, deception and revenge. The Amy Liv Young version of the Greek tragedy had its U.S. premiere at New York Live Arts.

  • London Wall by John Van Druten

    Chicago's Griffin Theatre

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jan 19th, 2016

    Griffin Theatre creates a perfect microcosm of the pre-feminist age in London Wall, the 1931 John Van Druten play about the personal lives and work culture in a London law firm. Robin Witt directs a smart, sprightly trip into the past that manages to shine a light on the present as well.

  • Disgraced Stirring At Huntington Theatre

    Multiethnic Drama Underscoring Human and World Issues

    By: Mark Favermann - Jan 19th, 2016

    Disgraced is engaging, thought-provoking theatre. The narrative is about difficult situations in a compicated world. . It demands that you pay attention from the opening scene until the play's end. A stellar cast and perceptive direction make this an evening of theatre that you will not soon forget.

  • Hamilton on PBS

    Making of a Musical Masterpiece

    By: PBS - Jan 18th, 2016

    HAMILTON’S AMERICA is produced by Academy Award® and Emmy®-Winning producers RadicalMedia (What Happened Miss Simone?, Keith Richards: Under The Influence, In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams for PBS). The documentary combines interviews with experts and prominent personalities, new footage of the production in New York, and cast-led expeditions to DC, Philadelphia and New York.

  • Playwright Sharyn Rothstein Wins ATCA Award

    2015 Francesca Primus Prize for By the Water.

    By: ATCA - Jan 17th, 2016

    The American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) announces that playwright Sharyn Rothstein has been awarded the 2015 Francesca Primus Prize for her play By the Water. Rothstein will receive the $10,000 award check immediately and be officially congratulated at an upcoming ATCA conference. Jointly sponsored by ATCA and the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, the Primus Prize is given annually to an emerging woman playwright.

  • Dan LeFranc's Bruise Easy

    World Premiere at Chicago's American Theatre Company

    By: Nancy Bishop - Jan 15th, 2016

    Dan LeFranc’s script takes us through this awkward renewal of family connections and the gradual exposure of family history and the actions of both father and mother. Director Joanie Schultz is a Chicago-based freelance director who has directed productions in Washington DC and Kansas City as well as many Chicago shows.

  • Barrington Stage 2016

    Programming Theatre That Matters

    By: Charles Giuliano - Jan 14th, 2016

    Barrington Stage is the first to announce its program for the 2016 season. For the winter blues there will be the 10x10 New Play Festival February 11-28. The shoulder season warms up with previews beginning May 10 with the world premiere of a musical "Presto Change-o."

  • Bowie's Lazarus: Departing This World with Music

    A Final Work by David Bowie and Edna Walsh

    By: Edward Rubin - Jan 11th, 2016

    The review of the musical "Lazarus" by David Bowie and Edna Walsh, directed by Ivo van Hove was in the works long before the announcement of Bowie's passing. The author, critic Edward Rubin, has opted to treat this as a note added to the review rather than lead as an obituary. The point is to cover as fresh and current the work of a great genius and unique artist of his generation. Tickets to the off Broadway production sold out almost immediately.

  • Rimini Protokoll's Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf

    At Berlin's Hebbel Am Ufer from Jan. 7 - 10

    By: Angelika Jansen - Jan 11th, 2016

    Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' had not been newly published in Germany post WWII. As of December 31, 2015 Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' has been in the public domain and on January 7th, the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich published a two volume scholarly edition with approximately 3700 notes on 2000 pages. The first 5000 volumes have been sold out with 1500 pre-orders already booked. Also from January 7th to January 10th Rimini Protokoll presented its first performance of 'Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf, Band 1 & 2' at the theatre complex of Hebbel Am Ufer in Berlin to sold out audiences.

  • Calderoni Performs MDLSX at La MaMa

    Alternative if Awesome

    By: Deborah Heineman - Jan 10th, 2016

    An Avant-garde multi-media production by Italy's Modus Company was featured at New York's La MaMa. It comprises a solo performance by Silvia Calderoni that combines dance, music and multimedia. It continues through January 17.

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