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Baltimore and Bulgarian theatremakers meet

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Nathan Cooper, the artistic director and actor for Baltimore’s Single Carrot Theatre, recently returned from the Festival for Independent Performing Arts in Sofia, where he spent four days with Lola Pierson (playwright and founding member of Baltimore’s UnSaddest Factory Theatre Company) on a grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Baltimore, Baltimore Backstage

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Knuffle Bunny pairs a well-meaning Dad with an active, rambunctious pre-talking youngster, and depicts the tender moments of unconditional love as well as absolute bafflement between the two.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Our Reviews Tagged With:

Follies – new Broadway Cast Recording

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Oh, my! What am I to do now? The 2011 Broadway Revival Cast recording of Follies has just come out on PS Classics and now my “desert island” list of recordings I’d want with me if I was shipwrecked has two – count ‘em, two – two-disc sets of the same score. Since the entire concept of a “desert island” list is to bring an unmanageable collection down to its essence, I guess I just have to have hope to be shipwrecked on a larger desert island! (Thank goodness for the ever increasing capacity of hard drives for computers!) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Theatre Shelf

Shakespeare Theatre renames rustics in Much Ado in response to complaints led by Hispanic director

December 19, 2011 By 4 Comments

The Huffington Post announced Saturday that the Shakespeare Theatre has changed the names of Much Ado About Nothing’s Juan Huevos and Jose Frijoles, two of the buffoons featured in Dogberry’s rustic troupe of morons, back to their original names of Hugh Oatcake and George Seacoal in response to a letter-writing campaign launched by Tlaloc Rivas, a Mexican-American Theater Director. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With:

Billy Elliot the Musical

December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The touring production of Billy Elliot, the Musical, now ensconsed at the Kennedy Center Opera House,  is a driving, energetic, and oddly appropriate holiday feast for thoughtful theatergoers. Spun off from the eponymous film version, the stage musical has a less oppressive feel than the original. But it still packs an emotional and political punch, particularly in the context of our current economic doldrums. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Our Reviews Tagged With:

Lysistrata Jones

December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Back in what now seems like the “not so good old days,” each Broadway season seemed to offer at least one fun filled show about athletes (all male then)  and the ladies in their lives.  The package included  melodic scores, topical lyrics and ebullient dancing. The genre slipped away in the post-WWII evolution of musicals, beginning with the more book-oriented Oklahoma! in 1943, the more dance-oriented musicals that  were hinted at in On Your Toes in 1936, developed in On The Town in 1944, established in West Side Story in 1956.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: New York City, NY Theatre Buzz

A Christmas Carol

December 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Paul Morella, backed by the Olney Theatre Center, has done something wonderful with Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. He has taken it back to its roots by returning to the novella penned by Dickens in 1843 and brings it to life in the simplest possible terms. He tells the tale exactly as written, as Dickens himself might have done it, embellished only with the most minimal set pieces, some creative lighting and realistic sound effects that blend effortlessly into the storytelling. The result is delightful. [Read more...]

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Vaclav Havel dead at 75

December 18, 2011 By 1 Comment

“May truth and love triumph over lies and hatred.”

Celebrated playwright Vaclav Havel, whose 1985 play Temptation was produced to great acclaim three years ago by Constellation Theatre Company, died in his sleep this morning, his website announced. He was seventy-five. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News

for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf

December 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The intriguing retro-name of this relatively new company, Colored People’s Theatre, says loads about the group’s unflinchingly honest approach to telling a story.  Their second rendition of Ntozake Shange’s epic choreopoem performed at this summer’s Fringe Festival, reflects the power of unbridled creativity.  [Read more...]

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Carnage

December 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage takes to the screen

There’s a scene late in “Carnage” in which Penelope – the type-A, upper-middle class mother played by Jodie Foster – asks “why is everything so exhausting?” This question applies just as much to “Carnage” itself. This tale of sound and fury, despite sharp direction and a universally-strong cast, ultimately signifies nothing. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Stage to Screen - we go to the movies
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