Writer
Fern Siegel is a journalist who has written for MediaPost, Huffington Post, The New York Times and BBC Radio. She believes Sondheim and Gershwin make America great.
Steven Skybell and ensemble. Photo: Victor Nechay / ProperPix By Fern Siegel One of the most beloved musicals, Fiddler on the Roof boasts a glorious score and a story that confronts profound themes, even as it breaks your heart. Director Joel Grey and the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene have kicked up the stakes…
Kevin Zak and Jennifer Blood (center) Brennan Caldwell and Morgan Weed. Photo: Jenny Anderson By Fern Siegel Musicals geared to millennials, such as Dear Evan Hansen and Be More Chill — are becoming increasingly popular as that target audience puts theater on its to-do list. (Tony winner Avenue Q kicked…
Joshua Balan and Ruthellen Cheney (Photo: Ted Alcorn) Twelfth Night By Fern Siegel To keep Shakespeare fresh for 21st-century audiences, directors often set the plays in new locales. Whether Shakespeare’s works are grounded in a Nazi-like England (Richard Loncraine’s Richard III) or a prison (Edward Hall’s The Merchant of Venice), it clicks with…
Stephen Rea and Chris Corrigan. Photo: Ros Kavanagh By Fern Siegel Identity is a loaded word, especially as politics shift. In Northern Ireland, that seismic turn, explored in David Ireland’s subversive-absurdist play Cyprus Avenue, becomes a fiery cauldron of emotions that fuels the unthinkable. There is fierceness to paranoia and prejudice…
Sahr Ngaujah Photo: Joan Marcus Mlima’s Tale By Fern Siegel Lynn Nottage explores the cruel backdrop to the secret ivory trade. Though the elephant ivory trade was banned in Africa in 1990, hoping to protect the species, the regulations were and are routinely violated. Even game-park rangers trying to preserve elephants are often…
Nathan Darrow, Marin Ireland Photo: Carol Rosegg By Fern Siegel The dichotomy of human nature — the sacred and profane — fascinated Tennessee Williams, who routinely employed elements of Southern Gothic to explore dysfunctional people ruined by inner demons. Such themes are evident in Summer and Smoke, now at the Classic Stage Company,…
Harry Clarke: Bill Crudup Photo: Carol Rosegg By Fern Siegel Identity is fertile ground for drama, but disassociation kicks it up a notch. Or as our narrator explains: “I’ve gotten on a ride I can’t get off.” And it’s a wild one. The narrator is Billy Crudup — and for 80 minutes at…
The Pot of Broth: Colin Lane, David O’Hara, Clare O’Malley Photo: Carol Rosegg By Fern Siegel There is something primal and poetic in Three Small Masterpieces, at the Irish Rep. That’s thanks to the stellar writers — William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory and J.M. Synge — who capture the pathos of the rural…