Theater
2725 results
Page 246
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.
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.
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.
Articles
3 minute read
"Eggs' at People's Light
Children's theater for grownups
Eggs is children's theater with substance: a touching, compelling adaptation of Jerry Spinelli's novel about a friendship between two lonely misfit children.
Articles
2 minute read
Arden's "Something Intangible' (2nd review)
If it walks like a Disney and talks like a Disney….
By hewing too closely to the true story of Hollywood's Disney brothers, Bruce Graham distracts the audience from an otherwise generally entertaining play. Graham would do better to take his details from his own imagination rather than the historical record.
Articles
4 minute read
Schiller's "Mary Stuart' on Broadway
Dueling diva queens
The acclaimed London production of Mary Stuart arrived on Broadway with its two acclaimed English stars, Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter, supported by an able American cast. But the actors, dwarfed by the huge stage and vast distances between them, make the audience feel removed from these monumental events.
Articles
3 minute read
"Joe Turner's Come and Gone' in New York
Echoes of slavery, generations later
With Lincoln Center's magnificent production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone, August Wilson has tapped us on the shoulder. In director Bartlett Sher's hands, Wilson's evocation of a bygone world filled with operatic longings and grudges mingles with the pots and pans of realism and provides an extraordinary theatrical experience.
Articles
3 minute read
"American Buffalo's "short-con' (3rd review)
American Buffalo's short-con (and the reviewers who fell for it)
Like innocent tourists at a sidewalk shell game, several critics have missed the “pea” in Theatre Exile's production of David Mamet's American Buffalo. If you look and listen closely, that “pea” is friendship and community.
American Buffalo. By David Mamet; directed by Matt Pfeiffer. Theater Exile production through May 3, 2009 at Plays & Players, 1714 Delancey St. (215) 218-4022 or www.theatreexile.org.
Articles
6 minute read
Lantern Theater's "Hamlet' (2nd review)
Why did Hamlet hesitate? (A reply to Robert Zaller)
In his review of Lantern Theater's Hamlet, Robert Zaller raises an interesting point: Why didn't the prince succeed to the throne of Denmark immediately upon his father's death? I have an answer.
Articles
4 minute read
Arden's "Something Intangible' (1st review)
The bad, the beautiful and the cartoonist
Bruce Graham brings a Hollywood insider's knowledge and a flair for dialogue to Something Intangible, now in its premiere production at the Arden. You can't treat Tinseltown without a touch of schmaltz— a trap Graham doesn't escape. But this play about Walt Disney and the making of Fantasia, though overwrought for its theme, provides a diverting two hours. Cast and production are excellent.
Articles
4 minute read