"Forbidden Broadway' at the Walnut's Studio 3

Beyond parody

Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits is a musical revue that abounds in faux-witty critiques of Broadway hit shows. The critiques hit their targets often; they're just not very funny or entertaining. And the targets are so easy to hit.

Dan Rottenberg

May 19, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

"Made in China' at the Adrienne

Those loveable Irish gangsters

In their works about violent bumbling gangsters, Ireland's leading contemporary playwrights seem to be taking up where the Three Stooges left off. Mark O'Rowe's darkly humorous and nasty Made in China succeeds only partially.

Jim Rutter

May 19, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

The storm over Caryl Churchill's "Seven Jewish Children'

The power of theater: Eight minutes about Seven Jewish Children

Seven Jewish Children, Caryl Churchill's eight-minute play about January's Israel-Gaza war, has been attacked as a dishonest anti-Israeli rant. But the reactions and counter-reactions may matter more than the play itself. In triggering a global dialogue, Churchill has dramatized the power of theater to respond rapidly to political issues.

Carol Rocamora

May 16, 2009 · Articles · 7 minute read

EgoPo's "Bluebird' (2nd review)

A lesson from the Bluebird (with a little help from Jan Peerce)

Who else but EgoPo would tackle a play like Maurice Maeterlinck's Bluebird? And what other company could lavish so much time on learning and rehearsing such a daunting work, whose language and style are alien to most audiences and to almost all of today's actors?

Steve Cohen

May 14, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Ayckbourn's "The Norman Conquests' on Broadway

The marathon as gimmick

Alan Ayckbourn's very British 1973 trilogy, The Norman Conquests, is still funny after all these years. But there's less to this eight-hour marathon (plus meal breaks) than meets the eye.

Toby Zinman

May 12, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Nagle Jackson's "White Room' at Hedgerow

The wages of materialism: So what else is new?

What happens when a materialistic couple loses all their possessions? It's an intriguing premise, but Nagle Jackson's The White Room offers little dramatic insight aside from reminding us that, yes indeed, materialism is unhealthy.

Jim Rutter

May 09, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

EgoPo's "Bluebird' (1st review)

A child's garden of antidotes (c. 1908)

How should we instruct a child to go forward in life after a tragedy that deprives him of a treasured sibling, his only source of happiness? To answer this question, EgoPo stages an ambitious production of Bluebird, based on Maurice Maeterlinck's similarly titled mythical fable of 1908— a production so rich that it largely disproves Maeterlinck's thesis.

Jim Rutter

May 05, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Lynn Nottage's "Ruined' on Broadway

What did you do in the war, mama?

Lynn Nottage's Ruined is an intense and searing play about the endless civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose primary victims are not soldiers but women. It's filled with robust, individualized characters who— despite their scars, their limps, their deformities— reveal their stamina and their humanity.

Toby Zinman

May 05, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

"Waiting For Godot' on Broadway

Worth the wait

The new Broadway production (the first in more than half a century) of Waiting for Godot, under Anthony Page's rollicky direction and with its surprising casting, works by driving home Samuel Beckett's existential truths with laughter as well as pain.

Toby Zinman

May 02, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Greenberg's "Mother's Brief Affair' in California

Calling all masochists

Richard Greenberg won a Tony for Take Me Out. Several Philadelphia theater companies have staged his comedies. His latest, Our Mother's Brief Affair, recently opened in California. Let us hope it ventures no closer to Philadelphia.

Jim Rutter

Apr 28, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read