The 39 Steps
March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Karl Marx once said that history repeats itself “occurring first as tragedy, the second time as farce” and so The 39 Steps, now enjoying a limited run at the Warner, can best be seen as a theatrical magic act – a send-up of a great movie. [Read more...]
Dancing at Lughnasa
March 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Dancing at Lughnasa is a study in the fruitless struggle against the collapse of everything. Sweet and melancholy, it is the story of the doomed Mundy sisters, told from the decades-later perspective of the youngest daughter’s son, [Read more...]
James Konicek reads the winning Shakespeare speech
March 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
In his review of Henry V, Tim Treanor stated that the St. Crispian Day speech was the greatest of all of Shakespeare’s speeches. True? We posed the question to some of our favorite Shakespeare scholars around town, then turned it over to our readers in a poll. [Read more...]
Golden Age
March 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Top Pick! — Terrence McNally’s Golden Age is a backstage story about opera singers and their all-too-human egocentric jealousies. It’s also about creating truth and beauty in art. Altogether, McNally pulls off a not-to-be-missed richly-layered masterpiece-in-the-making [Read more...]
Clybourne Park
March 23, 2010 By 11 Comments
1959. In their idyllic suburban house on the outskirts of Chicago, Beverly is seen busily packing her family’s goods for the upcoming move. Her austere husband Russ lounges in his recliner, feet propped on a cardboard box as he digs into a container of ice cream. [Read more...]
Hairspray
March 23, 2010 By 2 Comments
Hairspray is the ultimate feel-good musical because it celebrates what life would be like if we were as wonderful as we could be, instead of being our present self-involved and ungenerous selves. And how would it be, according to the vigorous and joyous production now being staged at Toby’s Columbia? [Read more...]
Porgy and Bess
March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
To consider George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess merely a strand of pearly jazz standards does not do justice to what is considered American grand opera. Concert versions, musical theater stagings, and abbreviated productions abound, and while a night where someone sings “Summertime” can always be considered time well spent, [Read more...]
Little Shop of Horrors
March 21, 2010 By 1 Comment
Ripped from the pages of a 50’s pulp comic, Ford’s Theatre’s Little Shop of Horrors is a colorful explosion of retro humor and sci-fi horror. This delightful production offers a simple, important lesson: whatever you do, “Don’t feed the [alien] plant.” [Read more...]
The Zoo Story
March 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story is the tale of the relentlessly cheerful Peter (B. Stanley), insulated by his upper-middle class breeding and his good manners, while he is under attack from the truth-telling ruffian Jerry (Jerry Herbilla). [Read more...]
Phantom Revisited, The Scottsboro Boys, and The Temperamentals
March 19, 2010 By 1 Comment
Believe it or not, I have a friend who had never seen Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic on Broadway or anywhere else, for that matter. So, as I hadn’t seen it in 20 years, I accompanied him on a recent Thursday evening. [Read more...]
