It’s taken seven years to bring John LaChiusa and Sibylle Pearson’s musical, based on Edna Ferber’s novel, to fruition. The Dallas Theatre Center has presented it, so has the Signature Theatre in D.C. Each outing has been helpful, and the authors have landed in New York at the Public Theatre in a brave and bold […]
Archives for December 2012
A Killing Game
It takes some special theatre magic to conjure a lot from a little. And just our luck: dog&pony have been playing with some worthy new potions. The company’s name may imply a rickety ruse, but their shows have delivered both whimsy and substance over the past five seasons. This bunch have become one of DC’s […]
Bus Stop
Some seasons back, CenterStage did a delightful job with William Inge’s Picnic, directed with poignancy and joy by then-artistic director Irene Lewis, so a new production of his 1955 play Bus Stop was anticipated with fondness and eagerness.
Chaplin: the Musical
It is a classic good news / bad news situation. Just as the original Broadway cast album of Chaplin: The Musical starts its entry into the music market, the show it documents begins its departure.
It’s true – Rocco Landesman is looking for a prime spot on the beach
For the east coast Landesman household, fireworks this New Year’s Eve will mark more than the incoming year. It will mean that, for the first time in his illustrious career, Rocco Landesman, Broadway producer, theatre owner, and overall pitch man for the arts will wake up the next morning without a job.
Pullman Porter Blues
Pullman Porter stories are legendary in Black communities along the northeast and southern corridors, and are particularly close to home for anyone with roots in South Side Chicago. The Pullman area is architecturally destinct, and the tales and exploits of the porters run through families, friends, loved ones like a locomotive.
Seussical
Doctor Seuss, or Theodor Geisel as he was know to his kin, was a rebellious soul. He fought, tooth and nail, for civil rights and social justice. He was a progressive who understood that adult problems were often caused by ignoring simplicity. In other words, adults create adult problems because complexity seems adult, somehow. He […]
Dreamgirls
How many times can you keep going to see productions of Dreamgirls? If you can catch an incredible cast, spiffy direction, and voices that knock your socks off, I am telling you, keep going. Signature’s production of Dreamgirls hits all the marks, and then some.
You Can’t Get a Decent Margarita at the North Pole
All is not well in paradise. Granted, one may not think of the North Pole as “paradise” per se, however it is the pulsar of merriment, good cheer and free crap for kids who do the dishes on command and choose their school books over their Wi.
A Commedia Christmas Carol
Christmas? Bah, humbug! A Christmas Carol? Humbug-a-lumba, boom bang boom! All of you who object to the sickeningly sweet moral superiority of the Charles Dickens story, not to mention the hypocrisy of showing your love for humanity by elbowing each other to buy electronics on Black Thanksgiving, line up over here to the right. Spread […]