"Angels in America' at the Wilma

Angels, beyond AIDS

Now that AIDS is no longer immediately fatal, the original theme of Angels in America isn't as shocking. Instead we look to it for broader themes, which Tony Kushner's script fortunately provides. It's funny, too.

Steve Cohen

Jun 11, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

LaBute's "reasons to be pretty' by PTC

Beautiful but miserable

Like its predecessors in Neil LaBute's trilogy, reasons to be pretty throws together four insecure young people with hangups about beauty and their friends' opinions.

Steve Cohen

Jun 11, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Tony Kushner's "A Dybbuk,' by EgoPo

Sympathy for our devils

Tony Kushner's adaptation of The Dybbuk concerns unrequited love among Hasidic Jews in Eastern Europe. But mysticism is only part of this tale: The story works for skeptics as well as for believers, and for non-Jews as well.

Steve Cohen

Jun 11, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Tulipomania' at the Arden (2nd review)

When the present interferes with the past

The intriguing story of Amsterdam's 17th-Century tulip mania somehow got subordinated within a fictitious story set in a present-day pot bar. Michael Ogborn should have let the audience draw its own comparisons.

Steve Cohen

Jun 02, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

"My Fair Lady' at Act II in Ambler

Henry Higgins, male chauvinist no more

Is it possible to improve on Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins? Tony Braithwaite has a youthful spring in his step that renders him more plausibly romantic.

Steve Cohen

Jun 02, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Lantern's "The Island' (3rd comment)

Out of sight, out of mind: Why island prisons don't work

Island prisons like Robben Island and Guantánamo share one notable characteristic: They never solve the problems that created them.

Jackie Schifalacqua

Jun 02, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

"Tulipomania' at the Arden (1st review)

A good investment

Tulipomania concerns greed, not as a deadly sin but as a by-product of market opportunity. For a musical about 17th-Century Holland, it sounds all too contemporary.

Marshall A. Ledger

Jun 02, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

Lantern's "The Island' (2nd review)

Which prisoner is the hero?

Since South African Apartheid no longer officially exists, this 1973 Athol Fugard work might seem merely historical. Yet The Island's relevance transcends its criticism of one particularly cruel and arbitrary state.

Marshall A. Ledger

May 29, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

Shakespeare Theatre's "Titus Andronicus' (2nd review)

Time for dinner!

For once, an audience cheered a Shakespeare play not for its literary style but for its sheer blood-and-guts entertainment.

Steve Cohen

May 26, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Lantern's "The Island' (1st review)

Profiles in courage

When The Island was first performed in South Africa in 1973, it represented a courageous attempt to capture the inhumanity of Apartheid. It's still compelling from the relative comfort of a theater seat in Philadelphia, but nothing like the real thing, as I can attest.

Alaina Johns

May 26, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read