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A missed opportunity for transcendence? Kirk Wendell Brown and Peter DeLaurier in the Lantern's “Train Driver.” (Photo by Mark Garvin)

Peter Brook's 'Suit' and Athold Fugard's 'Train Driver'

Apartheid's end

Two different productions look at the effect of apartheid on South Africans, black and white.

Joanna Rotté

Apr 30, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

"Never, never, never, never, never": Lilly Englert as Cordelia and Michael Pennington as Lear in “King Lear”

Michael Pennington's Lear in Brooklyn

An unforgettable Lear and an exemplary life in the theater

Michael Pennington’s elegant, deeply felt Lear — Shakespeare’s most challenging tragic role — is a study in fallibility, vulnerability, and the dignity of a man in defeat.

Carol Rocamora

Apr 26, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

Gangsters and chorus girls evoke the classic "Guys and Dolls." (photo by Paul Kolnik)

'Bullets over Broadway: The Musical'

A crossfire of fun and musical mayhem

Who needs the angst that newer musicals have been offering these days? Bullets over Broadway: The Musical provides all the ammunition required for an evening of nostalgic pleasure.

Carol Rocamora

Apr 22, 2014 Articles 4 minute read

Collette, Hall, Letts: What's the point of talking?

Will Eno’s ‘The Realistic Joneses’ in New York

The playwright who cloned Edward Albee

Nothing much happens in Will Eno’s engaging but enigmatic The Realistic Joneses. So what, then, is this new young playwright trying to say? Maybe something about use — or nonuse — of language.

Carol Rocamora

Apr 21, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Friendly cop Stanley (Brian Cowden) tries to defuse the tensions caused by Nicky's (William Zielinski) anti-immigrant actions.

InterAct’s 'Down Past Passyunk' at the Adrienne

Local flavor

The local story of the Geno's "English only" controversy gets sold short in this uninspired fictionalization.

Gary L. Day

Apr 19, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

Sophisticated and at times masterful performances. (Photo by John Donges)

Quince Productions’ 'Three Days of Rain'

Theater loves its dysfunctional families, but I don’t

I had the rare experience of enjoying a remarkable rendering of a play I’d otherwise dismiss scornfully.

Gary L. Day

Apr 14, 2014 Articles 3 minute read

The future of professional theater criticism: An international view

Journalist critics grab their bullhorns and take theater to the streets. What will be the effect on theater when all that shouting dwindles to a whisper?

Wendy Rosenfield

Apr 14, 2014 Articles 5 minute read

Adrian Lester in 'Red Velvet': little-known theatrical history. (Photo by Tristram Kenton)

'Red Velvet' and 'Raisin in the Sun'

Black in a white world

From a London theater in the 1830s to a Chicago tenement in the 1950s, a black man’s struggle in a white man’s world is being eloquently portrayed on the New York stages this season.

Carol Rocamora

Apr 14, 2014 Articles 6 minute read

'The Light in the Piazza' at Villanova Theatre

The American musical has become a revival show, but the Villanova Theatre’s production of the 2005 Broadway succès d’estime, The Light in the Piazza, tries valiantly to make a case for it as forging a new direction. I’ll still take "Mack the Knife."