Theater

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A recognizably ordinary family: Novelli and Wood. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

'How to Write a New Book for the Bible' at People's Light

Family ties

How to Write a New Book for the Bible is a fine piece of personal theater and one of the most unusual new works to grace our stages in some time.

Bill Murphy

Articles 2 minute read
Torturing and clinging: Eisenberg and Nayyar. (Photo by Monique Carboni)

'The Spoils' by Jesse Eisenberg

Oh, those millennials

You may think Woody Allen has written the final word on contemporary neurosis and malaise, but wait till you see Jesse Eisenberg’s new play, The Spoils.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 3 minute read
Hoofin’ and sangin’ goin’ on. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

'Memphis' at the Walnut Street Theatre (second review)

Memphis gives an excellent look into pre-civil rights era, showing us that we have come a long way, even though we have a long way to go.
Rhonda Davis

Rhonda Davis

Articles 3 minute read
Belief systems crash. (“Harlem Traffic Accident,” Chester Higgins, 1973; National Archives)

A conversation with director Deb deCastro Braak on 'The River Niger'

“I want people to leave the theater and do something”

Philadelphia director Debra deCastro Braak talks about The River Niger, a Broadway success in 1972 that is rarely performed these days. In post-civil rights era America, Joseph A. Walker’s play shows violence balanced by poetry — “giving voice to those who have been silenced.”
Henrik Eger

Henrik Eger

Articles 5 minute read
Bonetti, Fredrick, and Johnson as Sherlock Holmes, Henry Baskerville, and John Watson — at least at this particular moment. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

'The Hound of the Baskervilles' at Lantern Theater

A lesson in comedy

A comic Hound of the Baskervilles schools us not only in detection, but also in the art of comedy.
Naomi Orwin

Naomi Orwin

Articles 2 minute read
Which is which? McLenigan and Conallen (photo by Alexander Iziliaev)

'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' at the Wilma

Embodying Stoppard

Stoppard is a playwright of the mind. The new production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the Wilma grounds his words in the body. But does it work?
Naomi Orwin

Naomi Orwin

Articles 4 minute read
Disciple and mentor: Galvin and Nielsen. (Photo by Joan Marcus)

'What I Did Last Summer' and 'The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek'

From boyhood to manhood

These two luminous productions now playing side-by-side couldn't be more different on the surface, but at the heart, each of these two wonderful productions offers a deeply moving story about the coming of age of a boy and his country.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 5 minute read
I want to know what love is: Michael, Eisenhower, and Filios. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

Sondheim's 'Passion' at the Arden (first review)

Who deserves to be loved?

As The Bachelor and Bachelorette remind us, love is elusive and hard to find. In Passion, Stephen Sondheim has a lot of thoughts about love, but even in fiction, none of them leads to a happy ending.
Naomi Orwin

Naomi Orwin

Articles 5 minute read

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A powerful voice belying the character's vulnerability: Kimber Sprawl. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

'Memphis' at the Walnut Street Theatre

Solving the racial divide with music

Memphis is fun to watch, even as it offers a simplified lesson in race relations. Set in the South of the 1950s, it seems to say we could all get along if we just learned to sing the same songs.
Naomi Orwin

Naomi Orwin

Articles 3 minute read
"Scooped out like a jack-o'-lantern”: Cook, Ganey. (photo © T Charles Erickson Photography)

'brownsville song' at Philadelphia Theatre Company (third review)

A black grandmother's perspective

The lives of the characters in brownsville song are so parallel to what I have witnessed raising sons, and now a grandson, in Philadelphia that I was brought to tears and knowing laughter as I watched.
Rhonda Davis

Rhonda Davis

Articles 2 minute read