Theater
2680 results
Page 246
"Compleat Shakespeare' in Norristown
A little nonsense with the Bard
A play called The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged) may sound pedantic or trivial. But neither is the case in this sparkling comedy, which respects the Bard but finds fun within his works.
Articles
1 minute read
Walnut's "Streetcar Named Desire' (3rd review)
Blanche DuBois' worst nightmare: When the audience roots for Stanley
Streetcar remains a magical piece of theater. But it needs a vulnerable heroine with whom we can empathize. Susan Riley Stevens as Blanche was so robust that she had the audience rooting against her.
Articles
3 minute read
Walnut's "Streetcar Named Desire' (2nd review)
A new standard of bare theatrical truth
Yes, Streetcar is dated: It addressed the social upheaval that followed World War II. But it's also timeless: It concerns what happens to human beings that can't be foreseen.
Articles
3 minute read
Peggy Lee and "Fever' at the Prince
The living, breathing sound of swing
Fever is a smart pairing of a tribute to the late Peggy Lee and a career retrospective for the 82-year-old jazz pianist/singer Buddy Greco. Other shows trade in nostalgia, but this one possesses a rare authenticity. Not only are all the songs from an earlier era, but so are Greco's arrangements.
Articles
2 minute read
"O Captain, My Captain,' at Walnut Studio 3
Walt Whitman's hero
Walt Whitman made a shrewd career move when he hitched his poetic wagon to Abraham Lincoln's star. In O Captain, My Captain, Bill Van Horn hitches his wagon to both Lincoln and Whitman. It's a gimmick, but we're the better for it.
Articles
3 minute read
Walnut's "Streetcar Named Desire' (1st review)
Reality and delusion in the French Quarter
Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski have been going at it for more than 60 years now— and for good reason, as the Walnut's riveting revival of A Streetcar Named Desire reminded me: Given the human capacity for self-delusion, few of us are likely to recognize ourselves in Blanche and Stanley— but we'll surely recognize others we know.
Articles
4 minute read
Mauckingbird's lesbian "Hedda Gabler'
As if poor Hedda didn't have enough problems
Ibsen's reckless Hedda Gabler found herself shunned by proper 19th-Century society. In Mauckingbird's current adaptation, she's a lesbian as well— but strangely, nobody seems to mind.
Articles
4 minute read
Free speech vs. creativity at the Wilma
The ‘Wilma Papers': Free speech vs. the creative process
At the request of the Wilma Theater, Broad Street Review withdrew Jim Rutter's commentary about the reading of a work-in-progress. Did we do the right thing? Does a theater's need to control its creative product trump an audience's right to free expression? The full three-way correspondence file, reprinted here, may shed some light on these issues.
Articles
12 minute read
"In the Next Room' at the Wilma (reading)
A hot ticket: Reactionary post-feminism
Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room is a play that's almost entirely concerned with women's needs for intimacy, their jealousy, awkwardness about asking for what they want, and family neuroses. I loved it, but Ruhl's infantilization of women bears uncanny echoes of Ibsen.
Articles
5 minute read
Lantern's "The Great Divorce'
Anthony Lawton’s one-man, one-act adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s vision of the afterlife is as intelligent and provoking an evening as I’ve spent at the theater in a long time; it’s often devastatingly funny as well.
The Great Divorce. By Anthony Lawton, adapted from the novel by C.S. Lewis. Lantern Theater Co. production through January 4, 2009 at St. Stephen’s Theater, Tenth and Ludlow Sts. (215) 829-9002 or
The Great Divorce. By Anthony Lawton, adapted from the novel by C.S. Lewis. Lantern Theater Co. production through January 4, 2009 at St. Stephen’s Theater, Tenth and Ludlow Sts. (215) 829-9002 or
Articles
3 minute read