Richard III shouldn’t work very well. It looks like a quest narrative, but nothing of substance stands between the anti-hero and his goal, so it’s more like a project narrative. Not much dramatic tension there. It’s true that several people must be stabbed, or smothered, or beheaded, before Richard gets to sit on England’s throne, […]
Archives for February 2014
The Best Man
With midterm elections still months away and the 2016 presidential tilt lurking in the distance, it’s a perfect time to step back and consider the bloodsport that is the American political campaign. In its bracing production of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Keegan Theatre has staged an all-too-real political clash between between two polar opposites […]
Sheldon Harnick in mufti at The York
The York Theatre Company, an attractive beehive producing unit, is buried two levels below the ground in the Citicorp Building on East 54th Street just off Lexington Avenue. In addition to mounting new musicals, doing readings and workshops, it sponsors a program called “Musicals In Mufti” (“mufti” is an army term which means ‘out of […]
Before Sound of Music and Smash – TV musicals, 1944 – 1996
The success of NBC’s live telecast of The Sound of Music last December has sparked interest in the televising of musicals. That interest may only increase now that NBC has announced it is going to do another one next December – this time it will be the venerable Peter Pan, a show that many associate […]
Elaine Stritch: “I had a great time, and I’m very glad it’s over.”
We are honored to have been invited to excerpt this interview with Elaine Stritch, now a year into retirement, which appeared in The New York Times Magazine, January 31, 2014. ——————————– After years of vowing to retire, you gave up your cabaret act at the Cafe Carlyle and your apartment at the Carlyle Hotel and […]
Peter and the Starcatcher
Peter and the Starcatcher is a lot of fun. It’s creatively staged, wonderfully acted, impressively designed, genuinely funny, and anytime it felt as if a little something different was needed, that something was provided.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
You’d never think “Pulitzer Prize-winning drama” to look at How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It’s too unpretentious. Too breezy. Too fun.
Richard III at NextStop Theatre
NextStop Theatre Company’s production Richard III is a rare instance where the operation is a failure, but the patient lives. Look, Shakespeare’s comedies and dramas offer a fertile field for the artistic imagination, and are constantly reinvented and reimagined. I loved WSC Avant Bard’s nude Macbeth; Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Hamlet, in which the title character […]
Michael Kahn discloses STC’s next season, and thoughts on his succession
What can you expect to see at Shakespeare Theatre Company next season? Plays by Shakespeare, of course. However, you will also have a chance to see the work of Stoppard and Cervantes, Molière and Pirandello, David Ives and Alexis Piron. (Alexis who? I’ll explain in a moment.)
Violet
Violet is a musical that’s not big and brassy and flashy. Based on a short story, its concerns, like that form’s, are more with character and local color than with, say, life and death events such as storming the barricades or catching the last helicopter out of Saigon. However, if a musical with a twang, […]
Dyskolos
Rarely does theatre make you feel educationally illuminated and shamelessly entertained at the same time, but such are the charms of Ambassador Theater’s production of the ancient Greek comedy Dyskolos by Menander. Dyskolos feels like a genetically combined blend of Moliere’s The Misanthrope, Italian commedia dell’arte (complete with masks), and The Three Stooges. It is […]
Outside Mullingar
Anthony Reilly and Rosemary Muldoon live on neighboring farms in the Midlands of Ireland. Their story is set in time by author John Patrick Shanley, as “recently”. As played by the perfectly cast Brían F. O’Byrne and Debra Messing, they look very comfortable in today’s clothes, but their attitudes and their lingo speak of a […]
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