Charlie Brown and the gang is back! Ten years later, the kids are in high school and are ready to address some big questions as they keep on growing up. Linus no longer has his blanket. Marcy and Peppermint Patty are embracing a hard partying, “mean girls” persona. Charlie Brown is, actually, kind of a […]
Archives for October 2019
Review: Day of Absence at Theater Alliance
The Apocalypse. In fiction, the world falls to pieces because some outside force has infiltrated its defenses or some natural disaster changes the whole makeup of the planet causing a systemic crash. Playwright Douglas Turner Ward wrote Day of Absence, a satire about such a cataclysmic crash. It skews minstrelsy and stereotypes. The National Negro […]
Review: Poly-Theist at Charm City Fringe
Theatre and religion have been intertwined since the beginning – the very, very beginning. One of the earliest forms of theatre developed in Ancient Athens with public festivals of music, poetry, and dance held to honor the Greek god Dionysus. Religion has also long served as inspiration for artists’ expression, from Leonardo da Vinci’s painting […]
Review: Crystal Creek Motel from Flying V Theatre
Hotels rooms are one of those things we largely take for granted but are rich fodder for those of us with overactive imaginations who consistently wonder about the other people who have previously inhabited the same spaces as us. Every rented room we’ve stayed in has been occupied by hundreds or thousands of other strangers, […]
Broadway Review: Slave Play. Interracial Role-playing on the Great White Way
I first saw Slave Play Off-Broadway, long before Rihanna made headlines for texting during the show (playwright Jeremy O. Harris publicly defended her; he was the one she was texting); and shortly before it became a cause célèbre among theater people for having been attacked by some black people who hadn’t actually seen it. Recently, […]
Review: Footloose and fun at The Kennedy Center
High school musicals are hot right now, with Broadway hosting everything from the biting Mean Girls to the heart-warming The Prom to the phenomenon Dear Evan Hansen to the zany Be More Chill in the past few months alone. So it’s not exactly surprising that someone thought it was time to bring back Footloose, the […]
Review: Andar sin Pensamiento / Walking without Thinking from Teatro de la Luna
The playbill for Andar sin Pensamiento says the play starts with a tango. At the start, the music played to an empty stage is indeed a tango. You get the sense that director Mario Marcel is trying to bring about an air of seduction. The sense of seduction never quite hits the mark, and we’re […]
Broadway review: Tracy Letts is back on Broadway with Linda Vista
Can an underemployed middle-aged jerk be a babe magnet? That’s a question theatergoers are likely to ask about Wheeler, the central character in Linda Vista, Tracy Letts’ latest play on Broadway. Some women will surely ask the question rhetorically and in disgust; some men, full of hope. Indeed, your ability to get past that question […]
Show-Score New Jersey launched today with a contest to give away $1,000 worth of theatre tickets
Show-Score New Jersey is the first extension of Show-Score.com, the popular fan site for New York City shows. Under the leadership of newly-appointed CEO, Deeksha Gaur, Show-Score has partnered with New Jersey Theatre Alliance to cover all professional theatre companies in New Jersey, it was announced today. To celebrate this first expansion, Show-Score and the […]
Review: Escape to Margaritaville, a predictable buffet of Buffett, amiable and ambling
How shocked must Jimmy Buffett have been when “Margaritaville,” his ode to heartbreak and mid-grade alcoholism, became not just a breakout 1977 hit but a potent lifestyle brand? It’s about wasting away, not chillaxing, yet his parrothead followers apparently longed to be that lonely flip-flopped loser on the beach. Or did they? Maybe what they […]
Review: My Barking Dog. What happens when a coyote shows up with a message
In 2017, the American Psychological Association acknowledged the existence of a new psychological disorder: eco-anxiety. The disease can cause a spectrum of despair in response to the effects of climate change, including substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and chronic stress and fear. However, some psychologists do not classify eco-anxiety as a mental illness, despite many overlapping […]
Home is where the art is. West by God playwright Brandon McCoy
Playwright Brandon McCoy’s world premiere West by God, which he admits is semi-autobiographical, is onstage now at Keegan Theatre through October 20th. We caught up with him to chat about the play, and his first career in stand-up comedy. Care to tell us about yourself? I grew up in Lavalette, West Virginia, just outside of […]