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There's no skating around serious issues in this production. (Illustration for BSR by Mike Jackson of alrightmike.com)

'Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates' at the Arden

Hans Brinker skates for the silver

The Arden’s annual children’s theater mainstage production tells an often serious story without sugarcoating.

Mark Coftaand Illustration by Mike Jackson

Dec 08, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

Paul Kuhn’s wonderfully loopy set. (Photo by Rebecca Gudelunas)

Curio Theatre's 'Bald Soprano'

Logical absurdity

Absurdity doesn’t come easy to modern American audiences — or to theaters, as Curio Theatre Company shows with The Bald Soprano .

Mark Cofta

Dec 08, 2015 Articles 3 minute read

One Pandoran's elaborate headdress. (Photo by Youssef Shoufan; costume by Kym Barrett. © 2015 Cirque du Soleil)

Cirque du Soleil's 'Toruk' in Allentown

Spectacle, plus a story, from Cirque du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil chose Allentown for a tryout of their adaptation of the Avatar story in the most impressive Cirque production so far.

Steve Cohen

Dec 08, 2015 Articles 2 minute read

Tackling race, guns, and ‘Star Wars’: Jain, Close, Childs, Bechtel, Kelly, and Jadico. (Photo by John Flak)

1812 Productions' 'This Is the Week That Is,' 2015 edition

A satirical revue that hasn't lost its bite

Philadelphia's all-comedy theater, 1812 Productions, scores again by skewering today's news stories in the company-created This Is the Week That Is .

Mark Cofta

Dec 08, 2015 Articles 3 minute read

Pre-battle calisthenics: Jade Anouka (left) as Hotspur.

All-female 'Henry IV' directed by Phyllida Lloyd

Same-sex Shakespeare

An all-female Henry IV features stellar performances and agile ensemble work, but what insight does it provide into the play itself?

Carol Rocamora

Dec 07, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

Philadelphia Theatre Company’s ‘Baskerville’ (second review)

A tasty holiday trifle

Instead of the usual December fare (A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker), Philadelphia Theatre Company presents a Sherlock Holmes spoof this month. It will put you in the holiday spirit.

Gary L. Day

Dec 05, 2015 Articles 2 minute read

A pair of pros with excellent diction: Dench, Branagh. (Photo by Joan Persson)

Kenneth Branagh in 'The Winter's Tale'

Is this some kind of Shakespearean prank?

Kenneth Branagh launches a new theater company with one of Shakespeare’s most flawed plays, in a production that will air on local movie screens in HD.

Steve Cohen

Dec 05, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

There’s nothing like a little musical mayhem to clear the mind.” (Photo: Mark Garvin)

Philadelphia Theatre Company’s ‘Baskerville’

Sherlock in Wonderland

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, reason always triumphs over fakery. In this delightfully inventive production of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville, stagecraft trumps everything.