Whit MacLaughlin's "Fatebook' at Live Arts Festival (2nd review)

Theater of the future

I approached Fatebook's pre-production preparation with a degree of curmudgeonly skepticism. But I must admit: This show's fashioning of original art out of the newest social media modes of communication is a groundbreaking step into a theater of the future.

Jonathan M. Stein

Sep 26, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Gombrowicz's "Operetta' at Live Arts Festival (2nd review)

1960s Polish bombast

This relic of the Soviet bloc seeks to detonate all ideologies, with uneven results for a contemporary audience that rarely sees such anarchic bombast on stage.

Jonathan M. Stein

Sep 26, 2009 · Articles · 1 minute read

"Nathan the Wise' at People's Light (1st review)

A distant mirror in the Middle East

A modern translation of Gotthold Lessing's Nathan the Wise, an 18th-Century German fable about religious tolerance, receives a charming production at People's Light, with the noted stage and screen actor David Strathairn in the title role.

Bill Murphy

Sep 26, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at the Walnut (2nd review)

Those misunderstood scoundrels

Dan Rottenberg's complaints notwithstanding, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is above all a rejection of serious theater and a spoof of old Broadway musicals. On that admittedly lightweight level, it succeeds amply.

Steve Cohen

Sep 22, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

"Little Shop of Horrors' in Norristown

Something new in a cult classic

The hero of Little Shop of Horrors always thought of his man-eating plant as female. So why has it taken 49 years for a theater company to cast a woman as the plant?

Steve Cohen

Sep 21, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read

"Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' at the Walnut (1st review)

No country for old (con) men

This musical comedy about a pair of con men on the Riviera is plagued by a fatal flaw that no amount of sprightly performances, witty lyrics, energetic music and lavish sets can camouflage: Its characters lack character. There is simply no one to root for or empathize with here.

Dan Rottenberg

Sep 18, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Nuda Veritas' at Fringe Festival

When women just don't get it

Four women pose all the right questions in their quest to explain women's inexplicable behavior. But thanks to their obfuscations, I actually knew less about women when I left the theater than when I entered. Playwright Melissa James Gibson could learn a thing or two from Tennessee Williams, not to mention evolutionary psychology.

Jim Rutter

Sep 13, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Gombrowicz's "Operetta' at Live Arts Festival (1st review)

Satirist without a country, in search of an audience

The Polish émigré satirist Witold Gombrowicz never lived to see the gleeful mayhem of his Operetta onstage. This is a fresh production with some priceless performances, although American audiences may not know what to make of much of it.

Merilyn Jackson

Sep 13, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Berczynski's "Life Is a Dream'

The depths of narcissism

In her latest one-woman exploration of narcissism, the gorgeous exhibitionist Aleksandra Berczynski engages in less complaining and more pondering about the unfortunate aspects of her existence.

Jim Rutter

Sep 13, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Edgar Allan Poe Comes Alive' at Fringe Festival

Poe as Rip Van Winkle

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, and Scott Craig Jones is Poe reincarnated. Too bad he chose to bring Poe into the present, instead of taking the audience back into Poe's past.

Steve Cohen

Sep 08, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read