Rob McClure on playing Mozart in Amadeus

robmcclure2

Rob McClure is a performer who can do it all. He’s a puppeteer – spending many years pulling the strings in Avenue Q. He’s a hysterical physical comedian, leaping around while playing the flaming Carmen Ghia in The Producers and Charlie Chaplin in a new musical. Through March 6th, Rob is playing the manic genius – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre. It’s not surprising to me that critics are raving about his performance as the child-like and annoying Mozart.       [Read more...]

La Candida Erendira

lacandida1

The Innocent Eréndira and her Heartless Grandmother (La Cándida Eréndira)

Abandon all moral judgment and logic to enjoy this erotic fairy tale. A grandmother sells her young granddaughter for rape and sex trafficking. Welcome to the grotesque and mysterious world of Gabriel Garcia Marquez where evil becomes palatable through magical realism. [Read more...]

The Year of Magical Thinking

Dianne Hood as Joan Didion (Photo courtesy of Strand Theater Company)

Writer Joan Didion insists on having the last word. This insistence comes back to haunt her after she has one of those years—you know, the kind where catastrophes become the warp and woof of everyday life and the only thing you can do is hang onto routine until it almost takes on a mystical dimension. [Read more...]

Next season, STC includes controversial O’Neill play

SHAKESPEARE THEATRE’S 2011-2012 SEASON TO FEATURE CONTROVERSIAL O’NEILL PLAY; TWO VERSIONS OF TWO GENTLEMEN

Shakespeare Theatre Company today announced that it will be performing Eugene O’Neill’s controversial Strange Interlude and an adaptation by David Ives as well as four plays from the Bard during its 2011-2012 25th anniversary season. [Read more...]

The Whipping Man

whippingman2

Not a very appetizing title, this.

Matthew Lopez, the playwright, was unknown to me. “Men of a Certain Age” is the TNT hit TV series in which André Braugher co-stars, yet I didn’t know his work. The remainder of the cast, André Holland and Jay Wilkison, were new to me too. [Read more...]

Fuddy Meers

fuddy2

Life is already chaotic and amusing enough when your life is somewhat normal.  Add in a peculiar twist and your day can really take a left turn into the Twilight Zone.  “Good morning.  How are you?  How would you like to get dressed.  You really like this dress.  Would you like to have some breakfast?”  “Yes, thank you.  Oh, what an awful dress.  Do I really like this dress?  By the way, who are you?  And…who am I?”  How would you like it if your day started this way?  What if every day started this way? [Read more...]