Way Center's "Out Loud and Proud'

This celebration of local gay artists is a mixed bag and overcrowded to boot. But follow Anne Fabbri's check list and you'll be astonished by the nuggets you find.

“Out Loud and Proud.” Through July 28, 2007 at William Way Community Center, 1315 Spruce St. Admission free. (215) 732-2220 or www.waygay.org.

Anne R. Fabbri

Jun 30, 2007 · Articles · 4 minute read

Ballet X at Wilma's DanceBoom!

As usual, DanceBOOM! pleases and confounds, depending on your personal taste. But it continues to establish an aesthetically relaxed and accessible festival environment— a key ingredient for artists and audiences.

Ballet X. DanceBoom! Festival through June 16, 2007 at Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St. (at Spruce). (215) 546-7824 or
/www.wilmatheater.org.

Lewis Whittington

Jun 30, 2007 · Articles · 2 minute read

InterAct's "Skin in Flames' (2nd review)

Which is worse: Graphic nudity and sex acts on stage, or squeamishness about graphic nudity and sex acts on stage? InterAct’s Skin in Flames tried to have it both ways.

Skin in Flames. By Guillem Clua; directed Seth Rozin. Through June 24, 2007 at InterAct Theatre, 2030 Sansom St. (215) 568-8079 or www.interactheatre.org.

Steve Cohen

Jun 26, 2007 · Articles · 3 minute read

Orchestra's "Best Of"¦' concerts

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s “Best of...” concerts were obviously designed to attract people who aren’t familiar with the Orchestra’s wares. Rossen Milanov gave them useful guides when he talked, and the real unadulterated stuff when he conducted. And yes, he did indeed crowd a portrait of Beethoven’s development into a single evening.

Philadelphia Orchestra: Best of Mozart, Best of Beethoven, Best of Tchaikovsky. Excerpts from works b

Tom Purdom

Jun 26, 2007 · Articles · 4 minute read

The case for electronic music

Electronic music has become so accessible that a good deal of it is pretty primitive— the kind you might want your neighbor to turn down at 3 a.m. But this proliferation of new sounds strikes me a lot like 18th-Century musical Vienna must have seemed. All we lack is a new Joseph Haydn.

Dan Coren

Jun 23, 2007 · Articles · 6 minute read

A plague of small-cast plays

Philadelphia’s Barrymore Awards, launched in 1995 to celebrate great local theater, have inadvertently encouraged small local theater. The reasons are economic: The Barrymore rules establish minimum pay scales for actors. So the question for theater companies becomes: How do you win a Barrymore without going broke? Answer: The fewer actors, the better.

Jim Rutter

Jun 23, 2007 · Articles · 5 minute read

Pennsylvania Ballet's "Sleeping Beauty'

Sleeping Beauty remains one of Pennsylvania Ballet’s most consistent and satisfying repertory classics. Even during this transitional year— with many new personnel and several dancers departing— artistic director Roy Kaiser remained solidly behind his dancers in this demanding ballet..

The Sleeping Beauty. Choreography by Marius Petipa, to Tchaikovsky’s music. Pennsylvania Ballet production through June 9, 2007 at Academy of Music, Bro

Lewis Whittington

Jun 22, 2007 · Articles · 3 minute read

Fresh air from the Chamber Orchestra

The Chamber Orchestra will devote almost half its repertory in the coming season to works by daring experimental composers, past and present. If Ignat Solzhenitsyn keeps up this sort of programming, perhaps Charles Dutoit’s arrival at the Philadelphia Orchestra won’t stultify Philadelphia concert life as much as I’d feared.

Dan Coren

Jun 21, 2007 · Articles · 2 minute read

"Camelot' at the Merriam

The new touring production of Camelot is a half-hour shorter than the original and offers a revised book by Alan Jay Lerner’s son. It also boasts some fine performances, including one by an understudy. Whether it’s an improvement on the original— or whether the original was that good to begin with— is another question.

Camelot. Music by Frederick Loewe; libretto by Alan Jay Lerner. Touring production closed June 10, 2007 at the Merriam Theatr

Steve Cohen

Jun 20, 2007 · Articles · 3 minute read

Center City Opera's "Dorian Gray' (2nd review)

The Picture of Dorian Gray is over a century old, but it’s a story that speaks to modern audiences. It will probably seem even more relevant as life spans continue to lengthen and medical progress continues to reduce the effects of aging.

Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Jorge Garza (Dorian Gray), Jason Switzer (Lord Henry), Megan Marie Hart (Sibyl Vane), Richard Ziebarth (Basil Hallward), Joseph Specter (James Vane). An

Tom Purdom

Jun 19, 2007 · Articles · 4 minute read