I will wager, folks, that this year’s Glimmerglass production is the most dramatically sound, compellingly truthful, and emotionally wrenching Madame Butterfly that you will ever see. For my own part, by the time the fragile teenage-bride geisha, a girl known as “Butterfly,” was face-to-face alone with her charismatic if careless, naval officer husband, I was […]
Archives for July 2014
Gidion’s Knot
Gidion’s Knot is a story of irredeemable grief. It is a story about the fragility of childhood, and whether it is the duty of parents to protect their children or to let them flower. It is a tale about artistic freedom, and whether it can have limits, and if so, what those limits are. In […]
The Veil
Is The Veil firstly a ghost story? Hard to say, but it is appareled in those trappings, and some fine creepy moments are conjured, too. Is it historical metaphor? One may be led to believe so, when connections seem to be made between the troubled lives of a family of English landowners and their unseen, […]
I Do! I Do!
At home I have a souvenir program from the 1968 tour of I Do! I Do!. In Rochester, New York, that year, my parents saw Broadway greats Robert Preston and Mary Martin in Tom Jones’and Harvey Schmidt’s chronicle of a lengthy, traditional, upper-middle class marriage. It isn’t fair, in a small theater production, to expect […]
The Mutualistic Melody
When three men’s lives unexpectedly become intertwined due to the suicide of a woman they unknowingly shared, human relationships are suddenly tested in a manner that none of them could have imagined.
Dateline: Macbeth
Dateline: Macbeth is a mashup of the tabloid style of true crime reporting and Shakespeare famous tragedy. Unfortunately this mashup is more of a mishmash of conflicting objectives and styles that strands a talented cast in Hawaii.
An Evening with Danny Kaye
“You know, it took me ten years to become an overnight sensation,” quips the sensational Danny Kaye, the springy curls of his hair bouncing as he waltzes around the stage, kicking and laughing along with the audience.
Homeboy Thanksgiving
Playwright Jose Zaraté and director Rhiannon Cooper debut a masterful production, Homeboy Thanksgiving, at this year’s Fringe Festival.
The Pirates of Penzance
Ceaseless motion, vibrant energy, rampant silliness, and one superb voice among many good ones. These are the substantial merits of the Toby’s Dinner Theatre production of the Gilbert and Sullivan favorite, The Pirates of Penzance.
The Capital City Showcase
Since the entertainers who make up The Capital City Showcase change from production to production, the only useful thing a review can do is address broad themes. The broad themes to The Capital City Showcase are this: DC’s got funny, and DC’s got music. My review is: yeah.
Drop Dead Perfect
Erasmus Fenn is a stage magician turned novelist turned playwright, whose first play, Drop Dead Perfect, has been brought to Theatre at St. Clement’s off Broadway, through the combined auspices of the Peccadillo Theater Company and the Penguin Rep Theatre. Producer Morton Wolkowitz is associated as Producer as well.
The Human Algorithm
You and a close group of friends are out at a dimly lit, divey bar. Or maybe it’s a higher end, cocktail place where you can grab a few classier drinks; nothing too crowded or cluttered with dude bros, but not so empty that you feel awkward about your voice’s volume. You share stories and […]