Theater
2725 results
Page 245
McPherson's "Seafarer' at the Arden (1st review)
The Devil always gets the best lines
In Conor McPherson's new play, The Seafarer, Humanity's Oldest Friend visits four bibulous Dubliners on a Christmas Eve to collect an old debt from one of them. Though the play is flawed, the ensemble work of the all-male cast is as good as anything seen on local stages this season.
Articles
4 minute read
Terry Johnson's "Hysteria' at the Wilma
Fun with Sigmund and Salvador
Hysteria won Terry Johnson the 1994 Olivier Award for best new comedy in London, but this fictionalized account of a meeting between Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali reminds us that the English have always had a different view of what passes for humor.
Articles
4 minute read
"The Producers' at the Walnut
Springtime for Hitler= winter for Wagner
In The Producers, Mel Brooks does to Nazi Germany what the Marx brothers did to Il Trovatore in A Night at the Opera. But Brooks violates the conventional rules of comedy with such glee that you can't help laughing in spite of yourself. The opening number of the Walnut's lavish current production is worth the price of admission alone.
Articles
4 minute read
"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.
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.
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.
Articles
7 minute read
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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?
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.
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.
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.
Articles
5 minute read