Three operettas from Max Liebman’s spectacular-for-their-time television spectaculars dating back to 1955 have been released on DVD. They have been taken from black-and-white kinescopes and cleaned up quite acceptably, especially when it comes to the soundtrack which is presented in the original monaural with no attempt to “simulate” stereo.
Archives for February 2011
Derek Jacobi as King Lear from NT Live
King Lear, like Hamlet for younger male actors, is a hurdle that challenges and daunts actors aspiring to tackle all the major Shakespeare leads. Sir Derek Jacobi, in his long-awaited accession to the role in Michael Grandage’s intense, intimate production, captured the universality of the play by portraying one man’s personal tragedy. His Lear was […]
Basra Boy
Sometimes you just get lucky. A small theatre, a new play, a young actor, a sleeting night. Going out to theatre can seem a gamble not worth the pains. But tonight it all came together, and audiences who ventured to Keegan Theatre’s world premiere of Basra Boy were treated to the real deal. Both play […]
Oklahoma! is coming back
This morning, Arena Stage announced that their groundbreaking production of Oklahoma! returns to the Fichandler Stage for an extended 3 month run, July 8–October 9, 2011 featuring many of the performers from its original 2010 production.
Jay Landesman has made his final exit
Jay Landesman, cultural original, has died at 91 Irving “Jay” Landesman, whose revolutionary musical played for less than a month on Broadway but set a template for The Fantasticks and other small-orchestra musicals, died Sunday morning at his home in London. The musical was called The Nervous Set, about the beginnings of the Beat Generation, […]
Tether
Can two people overcome racial barriers through simple love and acceptance, or are they insane for even attempting to ignore this most fundamental of societal divisions? Such is the central dilemma of Tether, an exciting new production that follows the simple, arresting tale of biracial twins growing up in 1990’s Los Angeles.
Akiva Fox, Millionaire winner, starts a Durham theatre company
Some days we’re faced with a hundred questions. With rare exception, most of them aren’t that interesting. But one of those exceptions came in mid-November for Akiva Fox, most recently the Literary Manager at The Shakespeare Theatre Company. Given a short series of random questions, Fox landed $100,000 on the ABC game show Who Wants […]
Benched
Benched is three sharply-defined characters in search of a story; half a hundred or so clever or insightful lines looking for a constructive purpose. You know the people you will see in this play – Timby (Liz Mamana), the tightly-wound new mother who has given her career up to raise her child and is having […]
The Great Game – the Pentagon Performances
The Great Game: Afghanistan is a long, long series of plays. Clocking in at some seven-and-a-half hours, the Tricycle Theatre Company’s marathon run through nearly 170 years of Afghan history leaves one at once exhausted, humbled, and oddly invigorated. This tour de force through Afghanistan’s tribulations under British, Soviet, and now American occupation leaves the […]
24, 7, 365
What will it take to make us happy? And why are we confused by the letdown when the dream we wished for on the silvery moon comes true? The two couples in Jennifer L. Nelson’s sweetly woven and funny 24, 7, 365 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center grapple with those questions in a way […]
New musical from In the Heights playwright heads up Arena Stage’s next season
Like Water for Chocolate, a musical adaption of the best-selling Laura Esquivel novel by In the Heights author Quiara Alegria Hudes, in what is being billed as the pre-Broadway run, will lead off Arena Stage’s 2011-2012 season, Artistic Director Molly Smith announced yesterday. The world premiere, which will feature music and lyrics by Paul Cohen […]
The Weir
The Keegan Theatre’s new production of The Weir grabs you from the start, almost before you know it. Bright yet dark, simple yet complex, emotional yet cerebral, Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s beautifully sculpted miniature masterpiece explores, with a deceptively light touch, the darker recesses of the human heart which, as Blaise Pascal observed, knows things […]