Jeffrey C. Wolf photos by Matthew Dunivan By Marc Miller Back in ancient history, when there were just three networks, everybody got their news from middle-of-the-road Huntley-Brinkley or Walter Cronkite or Harry Reasoner, and extremism was less extreme. Now political zealots dwell within their bubbles of Fox News or MSNBC, and the…
By Julia Polinsky Director Sean Daniels has paced I and You is if it were dishing out social-media instant information, and the two actors who play the high school students blitz through their dialogue at warp speed. That speed may be appropriate for teenagers, but it serves the story badly. All the clues are…
Jeremy Shamos, Kate Jennings Grant, David Furr, Andrea Martin & Campbell Scott By Michall Jeffers Andrea Martin is an actor who can do no wrong. So it comes as no surprise that in Noises Off, she effortlessly leads the company to glorious comic heights, and the audience to a fevered pitch of laugh out…
A Review by Deirdre Donovan Teaser: Kecia Lewis resurrects Brecht’s iconic character with gutsiness and daring at the Classic Stage Company. “Still tough as nails, I see; but that’s what I like about you.” The Cook’s words to Mother Courage in a late scene in Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children might well apply…
Danny Burstein Fiddler on the Roof by Eugene Paul One of the greatest musicals in theatre history and one of the most appealing. Bring tissues. It says, “Anatevka”. We work out the worn Russian letters on the sign as we wait for the show to begin. A man walks on the stage? …
Elmore James, Magda Fishman, Tony Perry, Lisa Fishman By R. Pikser Zalmen Mlotek, Musical Director of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene put together some stirring music and some outstanding performers on the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this year. To set the mood of the performance, connecting the African American…
Photos by Carol Rosegg By Julia Polinsky Directors Milton Zoth and John Pierson, of the St. Louis Actors’ Studio, have done what they can to rise above two of the toughest challenges facing much regional theater: actors who do too much, and budget/space constraints that force them to do everything with nothing. As…
Sara Topham and Christian Coulson by Deirdre Donovan Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling is one wild and wooly play. Part tragedy, part comedy, part suspense-thriller, it’s altogether a Jacobean morality play that will make you gasp with horror—and even occasionally giggle. Jesse Berger, the intrepid artistic director of the Red Bull Theater…
Photos by Carol Rosegg By Julia Polinsky Charming, elegant, confident, delightful, and engaging: pick an adjective that basically says, “How Cool Was THAT,” and it’ll apply to Maurice Hines in Tappin’ Thru Life. At 72, you’d think he could be content to sit back and enjoy the fruits of a long…
Darius de Haas, Betsy Wolfe, Elena Shaddow, Aaron C. Finley, Ann Harada, Greg Hildreth by Deirdre Donovan Kathleen Marshall hosts the 92 Street Y’s Lyrics and Lyricists series and gives the juice on some of Broadway’s classic songs. Love at first write? Hardly. Broadway songs rarely get inked in a blink. Like that…