In a program note for Daddy Long Legs, director John Caird wonders why the 1912 novel on which the musical is based isn’t considered a great American classic. I wonder the opposite – why its problematic premise has inspired a 16-character Broadway play, at least seven movies and now a two-character Off-Broadway musical, which has […]
Archives for September 28, 2015
At Folger, texts&beheadings/ElizabethR (review)
texts&beheadings/ElizabethR, created and directed by Karin Coonrod, draws on the letters, prayers, and speeches of the queen who reigned in Shakespeare’s time. A fitting choice for the Folger Theatre, whose library of resources provided much of the source material for the play. The production was developed with Compagnia de’ Colombari, an international collective dedicated to […]
Pride and Prejudice at Center Stage (review)
With a silken flow and a keen eye for the realities of 18th century women, Center Stage’s production of Pride and Prejudice is froth with substance.
Phoebe in Winter at Single Carrot (review)
Power. Chaos. Family Loss. Race. War. Colonialism. Gender. These are themes playwright Jen Silverman has packed into her dense and powerful work, Phoebe in Winter. There is something both muscular and very poetic about the terse language and situations that constantly shift the “truth.” You have to be willing to wade in deeply with her […]
The Point at Arcturus Theater Company (review)
Nancy Reagan famously referred to her husband’s lengthy bout with Alzheimer’s disease at “the long goodbye” – a prolonged and painful process of shedding the various levels of one’s memories, one’s very identity as a person.
Princess Margaret at Thelma Theatre (review)
Princess Margaret, by Patricia Connelly, is an emotionally charged journey into the life of a poor young girl in the late 1960s. Eleven-year-old Margaret (Allison Frisch) is caught stealing milk from a small Catholic parochial school in Upstate New York in 1969. Instead of calling the police, the kindly nun Sister Anastasia (Elizabeth Bruce) suggests […]
UpClose: Julia Starr, Women’s Voices Theater Festival
Julia Starr’s new play, The Long Way Around, debuts October 9, 2015 at the Highwood Theatre.