Deirdre Donovan

Writer

Journalist Deirdre Donovan has written for the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, among others. Her theater writing has been published in The Brooklyn Paper, Our Town, West Side Spirit, Curtainup, Theaterscene, and Offoffonline.

Reviews by Deirdre

  • Heartbreak House

    Derek Smith, Raphael Nash Thompson, Karen Ziemba, Tom Hewitt, Lenny Wolpe, Kimberly Immanuel, Jeff Hiller, and Alison Fraser, Photo Credit CAROL ROSEGG                                              by Deirdre Donovan Gingold Theatrical Group’s ambitious new production of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House takes the harlequinade and adds an original framing device that colors it with a World War…

  • Head Over Heels

    Bonnie  Milligan  as  Pamela  (center)  with  Tanya  Haglund,  Samantha Pollino,  Ari  Groover  and  Amber  Ardolino                    photos by Joan Marcus                                         by Deirdre Donovan You don’t have to know a lick about Elizabethan times or the American rock band the Go Go’s to enjoy the new jukebox musical Head Over Heels, which opened at the…

  • The Potomac Theater Project -NYC

    Adam Milano (MAN) Marianne Tatum (Bookseller)                           By Dierdre Donovan Who said New York theater snoozes during the summer months?  With the Potomac Theatre Project/NYC returning to the Atlantic Theatre Company for its 32nd season with three provocative works–George Tabori’s Brecht on Brecht, a quartet from Howard Barker’s Possibilities, and Caryl Churchill’s BBC…

  • God Bless America – The Music of Irving Berlin

    God Bless America:  The Music of Irving Berlin A Review by Deirdre Donovan Impresario Scott Siegel returns to Feinstein’s/54 Below with an homage to the great American songwriter who had a talent for giving the American people what they wanted. The celebration of Independence Day didn’t end with the Macy’s Day fireworks display over the…

  • Lonesome Blues

                                                     by Deirdre Donovan Following a season with so many musicals suffering from elephantitis, the musical Lonesome Blues is refreshingly intimate.  An homage to the legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson, it breezed into the York Theatre on June 12th and will sojourn there for a brief run. Co-written by Alan Govenar and Akin Babatunde and…

  • Saint Joan

    Condola  Rashad                                                         photos by Joan Marcus                                by Deirdre Donovan George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan is a comedy, tragedy and romance wrapped into one powerful drama. Over the years, it has been staged in strikingly different ways from the raucous to the subdued.  As the Manhattan Theatre Club presents it (at the Samuel J. Friedman…

  • Mean Girls The Musical

    Erika  Henningsen, Ashley Park, Taylor Louderman, Kate Rockwell      photos by Joan Marcus                        by Deirdre Donovan The morphing of the 2004 hit film Mean Girls to a musical is drawing a lot of young millennials to the August Wilson Theatre nowadays.  But if you think that only scrub-faced teens are in the audience, think again. …

  • Lyrics & Lyricists Irving Berlin – American

                              By Deirdre Donovan Whether you are a flag-waving American or not, you would likely have been delighted by Irving Berlin:  American, the latest offering from the 92nd Street Y’s Lyrics & Lyricists series.  Directed, co-written, and choreographed by Noah Racey, the concert was choc-a-bloc with dozens of Berlin’s beloved songs and sprinkled with…

  • Kings

    Eisna Davis,Zach Grenier, Aya Cash                                         by Deirdre Donovan An idealistic freshman congresswoman attempts to clean-up what’s wrong in Washington. It’s time for Sydney Millsap (Eisna Davis) to press the flesh at her fundraiser at the swanky Four Seasons resort in Vail, Colorado.  But the neophyte congresswoman from Dallas hasn’t left her hotel…