Four dancers, a cellist, and a pianist walk into the Sprenger Theater at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. What’s the punch line? Probably not what you’d expect. Or at least not what I was expecting—in the best way possible—when I entered the theater for The Naked Stark’s opening performance of The Importance of Normal.
Archives for July 10, 2016
Medieval Story Man (review)
The only way to make a Fringe show lower budget than this would be to do it without a stage manager. There are no light changes, no sound, nothing but the plain black costume on performer Stephen Mead’s back as he whirls around the bare stage.
Ready to Serve (review)
“Remember the nurses.” That’s a sentence from the last paragraph—more like a footnote, really—from a Baltimore Sun article written in 1917 about the first group of American doctors and nurses from Johns Hopkins sent to France during World War I.
Ain’t That Rich (review)
Like a well-made vodka punch, Kate Robards’ well-made story sneaks up on you. It starts out as a lighthearted account of how she (like Horatio Alger!) overcame her impoverished roots by marrying rich, and ends up as a discomforting meditation on the relationship between money and self-image. Particularly now, as we agonize over issues of […]
Before the Lights Go Up (review)
Shortly after this production began, I couldn’t help but wonder: Has the writer ever seen a play? The plot holes are gaping, the mechanics of its world grating, and the general vibe of the production is: “Let’s do a show about theatre without addressing the way theatre actually works!”.
The Good Death (review)
Set on a stoop in a Staten Island neighborhood, The Good Death covers a lot of ground: Alzheimer’s, caregiving, mental illness, the American Jewish experience, euthanasia, marriage equality, and familiar familial tensions between siblings who will never truly see eye to eye.