by R. Pikser In the early 1960s Martin Duberman culled historical records of both Blacks and whites. With this information, he wrote a play about the Black experience in the United States: In White America. His selection of materials and how he arranged them, made those records live. It must have been gratifying,…
by Marc Miller When Dames at Sea was announced for the Broadway stage, the main worry was: Would bigger be better? The formerly off-Broadway musical by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller (book and lyrics) and Jim Wise (music), a 1968 hit that first got Bernadette Peters noticed, satirizes the large Warner Brothers Busby…
Photo: Getty Images By Michall Jeffers Trip of Love is a recreation, through music, of a particular moment in the history of our country. When the audience enters the theater, the very walls throb with psychedelic images of mushrooms and ephemera, all done in neon shades of blue, purple, red, and pink. The…
by Eugene Paul Sixty plus Mattie (Susan Pellegrino) all adither, frightened delight on her face, waves ditherishly out the huge windows at someone, then skitters off. Seventy plus Norton (Ray Baker) comes down the front stairs, looks around, darts into the living room and climbs to his favorite spot up the library…
Sandra Mae Frank and Austin P. McKenzie photos by Joan Marcus by Deirdre Donovan You’ve got to hand it to Deaf West Theatre for reviving the rock musical Spring Awakening on Broadway this season. After all, the memory of Steven Sater’s and Duncan Sheik’s 2006 Spring Awakening, which snagged 8 Tony Awards and launched…
Amar Ramasar and Megan Dickinson of Kathryn Posin Dance – photo by Lois Greenfield By R. Pikser Both Kathryn Posin and Momchil Mladenov have worked extensively internationally and the quality of their work shows why. Mr. Mladenov, former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Bulgaria and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet has brought dance artists…
Betsy Morgan, Barbara Walsh, and Caissie Levy . Photo Credit: Joan Marcus By Michall Jeffers There is real brilliance in Michael John LaChiusa’s First Daughter Suite, but it’s not always easy to take. For anyone who’s been enmeshed in a difficult mother/daughter scenario, for anyone who shares a sisterhood that teeters between love and rivalry,…
If you like neat, tidy plays that lay out everything in an easy to digest manner, with a comfortable resolution, don’t go to this play. If you relish seeing a play that strikes out for unknown territories, that disturbs and provokes in equal measure then make a beeline to the play in question. This wide-ranging…
Robert Cuccioli as Mayer Rothschild by Eugene Paul In a rich and moving reworking of the well remembered Bock/Harnick musical, The Rothschilds, new ground has been plowed which gives book writer Sherman Yellen reason to make positive changes in his original book, the astounding story of that family, baring the bite that was carefully…
by Deirdre Donovan If you think going to a classical concert is a snooze, you missed the recent program Cirque De La Symphonie with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra at NJYPAC. On October 17th Cirque De La Symphonie teamed up with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for an unforgettable evening in Newark. Since 2006,…