Lantern's 'Romeo and Juliet' (1st review)

Teenagers' romance

In the Lantern's first production of Romeo and Juliet, director Charles McMahon presents Shakespeare's story exactly as it ought to be: as the meeting, wooing and untimely death of two impulsive teenagers.

Alaina Johns

Mar 10, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Shepard's "Fool For Love' in Norristown

Breaking up is hard to do

Sam Shepard's unhappy and self-absorbed couple in Fool For Love grated on my nerves until the denouement, when I discovered the method lurking behind Shepard's misery.

Steve Cohen

Mar 06, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

"Ethel' at Walnut's Independence Studio

Her cup was half-empty

There's a hostile element in Terry Burrell's representation of Ethel Waters that doesn't quite ring true to the beatific soul I remember.

Jackie Schifalacqua

Feb 28, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

"Big River' at the Arts Bank

And you thought the Civil War was over

Big River, an adaptation of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, paradoxically shows how Americans can be entertained while being completely humiliated by our nation's history.

Marshall A. Ledger

Feb 25, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Time Stands Still' in Ambler

Bearing witness vs. getting involved

What's a journalist's first duty— to report the atrocities she witnesses, or to try to prevent them? At a time when journalists are dying in Syria, it's a timely question. It's also relevant even for theater critics.

Steve Cohen

Feb 25, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Of Mice and Men' at People's Light

Ties that bind

In this excellent revival, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men reminds us again that there are worse things than poverty— loneliness, for example.

Bill Murphy

Feb 21, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

Fugard's 'Blood Knot' in New York

Black and white, joined at the hip

After Athol Fugard's racial drama Blood Knot was first performed in South Africa in 1961, he was arrested and his play was banned. To revisit this seminal work today, 18 years after the end of apartheid, is a doubly moving and meaningful experience.

Carol Rocamora

Feb 19, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Charlotte's Web' at the Arden (2nd review)

What hath ‘Sesame Street' wrought?

Children's theater has become the tail that wags the dog for some astute theater companies, like the Arden. Worse things could happen.

Dan Rottenberg

Feb 14, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Tina Howe's "Museum' at Villanova

Please touch

Tina Howe's Museum, her first play, still has legs in Villanova's revival, smartly and effectively staged by Joanna Rotté. If anything, this witty satire is even more relevant to America's commercialized art culture today, especially in Philadelphia. Museum. By Tina Howe; Joanne Rotté directed. Through February 19, 2012 at the Villanova Theatre, Vasey Hall, Villanova University. (610) 519-7474 or www.villanovatheatre.org.

Robert Zaller

Feb 12, 2012 · Articles · 7 minute read

Anthony Lawton's "The Great Divorce' (2nd review)

Ticket to heaven

Anthony Lawton reprises his one-man tour de force adaptation of C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, which explains to a highly misguided world the right way to get to heaven.

Marshall A. Ledger

Feb 11, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read