Theater

2712 results
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Edmond, Hoffman, Garfield: Recreating a play, or paying tribute to it? (Photo: Charles Sykes/AP.)

"Death of a Salesman' on Broadway

The way we were, and still are

Mike Nichols's loving production, historically meticulous in every detail, plays curiously more like a museum piece than a fresh, dynamic new exploration of Arthur Miller's 1949 masterwork. It performs a valuable service nevertheless.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 6 minute read
Ivory, Sahr Ngaujah: A mother's love, and polygamy. (Photo: Tristam Kenton.)

"Fela!' at Academy of Music (2nd review)

Not your mother's Broadway musical

Pity the Kimmel season subscribers who arrived at Fela! without advance preparation. This is a political musical with some very discomfiting edges— and that's to its credit.
Judy Weightman

Judy Weightman

Articles 4 minute read
McKenzie finds a new way to do laundry. (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

"Curse of the Starving Class' at the Wilma (3rd review)

The American Dream's last victims

The Wilma's revival of Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class is strikingly relevant to our present Age of Foreclosure, yet dated in its Pinteresque violence. It also suggests the limits of Shepard's notion of the imploding nuclear family as a metaphor for America.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 5 minute read
The real drama begins here.

A few words about ladies' restrooms

A woman's curse (at least in Philadelphia theaters)

It's time for somebody to say publicly what Philadelphia women have been muttering to each other in the line for years: The ladies' rooms at many Philadelphia theaters are deplorable. Join me for a guided tour.
Alaina Johns

Alaina Johns

Articles 4 minute read
Beale, Jennings: Is the pen really mightier?  (Photo: Alistair Muir.)

Stalin meets George III in London

Between tyranny and lunacy

Two plays in London about Stalin, who died nearly 60 years ago? Maybe it's taken that long to appreciate the full measure of Uncle Joe's tyranny — over Russians in general and artists in particular.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 7 minute read
Sahr Ngaujah: Were Fela's wives really so joyful? (Photo: Tristram Kenton.)

"Fela!' at Academy of Music (1st review)

Cardboard hero

Fela Anikulapo Kuti became famous first for his catchy music, then as an advocate for human rights in Nigeria. This manipulative if entertaining tribute strips the real Fela of his flaws and contradictions, leaving us with a show bereft of any real drama.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 3 minute read
Holt as Ella: Eating the pet chicken.

"Curse of the Starving Class' at the Wilma (2nd review)

California surreal

Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class is a fascinating juxtaposition of realism and surrealism. His characters aren't the type I'd hang out with, and their actions are off-putting to the extreme. Yet there's something mesmerizing about their struggles.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 3 minute read

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Hissom as Cyrano: A complex character in a modern idiom.

"Cyrano' at the Arden (1st review)

A Cyrano for our time

The polymath playwright Michael Hollinger has done it again. This time he takes a too-familiar century-old classic tragicomedy and infuses it with new allusions and linguistic flights of fancy suitable for the 21st Century.

Marshall A. Ledger

Articles 4 minute read
Miller  (left), McKenzie: No place left to move. (Photo: Alexander Iziliaev.)

'Curse of the Starving Class' at the Wilma (1st review)

Day of reckoning

Eastern urbanites may scratch their heads over the terminally dysfunctional rural family portrayed in Curse of the Starving Class. But Sam Shepard's caricature offers a profound allegory of the unintended consequences of the opening of the American West, more than a century after there was no more West left to open.
Dan Rottenberg

Dan Rottenberg

Articles 7 minute read
Sean Lally (top), Jake Blouch: Where are the social workers?

Lantern's "Romeo and Juliet' (3rd review)

Our grief counselors are standing by….

The Lantern's straightforward production of Romeo and Juliet got me thinking: What would become of these young lovers today, when instead of turning to a priest they could seek out Dr. Phil?
Jackie Schifalacqua

Jackie Schifalacqua

Articles 3 minute read