I’m retired now as a critic and when I see a play it is generally as a civilian. In days of old, I might see upwards of a hundred fifty plays a year, and the experience was as commonplace for me as swatting mosquitoes or filing lawsuits. It became like going to an art gallery; […]
Rosalind Lacy’s Top 12 shows of 2015
Hispanic theatre bonds me to my family heritage. I was born in Los Angeles, California, with Latino roots that date back to Spain through the American southwest. I grew up in a decade on the brink of the Civil Rights movement in America. It was a time when it wasn’t cool to be Spanish or […]
“A Good Way to Go Out” Jack Marshall ends TACT with a challenge to the future
The American Century Theater (TACT) opened its doors in 1995 with a production of Twelve Angry Men. That’s the teleplay from the golden age of live TV that, like many of the best of those (Marty, Bang the Drum Slowly, Requiem for a Heavyweight), was turned into a memorable film. It was only a matter […]
Twelve Angry Men, American Century Theater’s closing show
What a way for a theatre company to say farewell. Returning, twenty years later, to the play that first brought them into the world, American Century Theater sets the example for bowing out with grace and passion with Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men.
TACT says a musical goodbye with its own Broadway Hit Parade
On a cool April evening in 1996, a professional production of the musical Lady In the Dark lit up a darkened theater and thrilled audiences for the first time since the show’s 1941 run. That 1941 production starred Gertrude Lawrence, introduced Danny Kaye to the entertainment world, and ran for 2½ years in three different […]
Cops tops American Century double bill
America is engaged in an agonizing public discussion of the roles, and prerogatives, of our police force in light of recent deaths in Ferguson, Missouri and New York City. Does American Century Theater’s doubleheader, Terry Curtis Fox’s Cops and William Saroyan’s Hello Out There, advance that discussion, and enlighten the way we think about law […]
UpClose: Bruce Alan Rauscher talks with John Glass
– The following is a rare interview with actor Bruce Alan Rauscher by John Glass, editor of Drama Urge, who granted us permission to re-post it here. – Bruce Alan Rauscher first came on my radar in a big way with The American Century Theater’s production of Visit to a Small Planet by Gore Vidal. […]
The Seven Year Itch at American Century Theater
The Seven Year Itch— that moment when you get bored with your spouse and cheat—is best known as the film that nearly shows Marilyn Monroe’s underpants beneath a billowing white halter dress. But, no such scene exists in the play. And, yes, George Axelrod’s Itch originated on Broadway as a three act comedy in 1952 […]
Being Danny Kaye – Brian Childers on playing the beloved star
“Danny found me. I didn’t find him. And he keeps finding me.” Brian Childers was talking to me about his current —and, it seems, his on-going —role as Danny Kaye. At The American Century Theater (TACT), Childers is performing the solo play An Evening with Danny Kaye. It was at TACT in 2001 that Childers […]
Next season to be the last for American Century Theater
American Century Theater, which, in the past twenty years has produced more than 100 shows, will close its doors in 2015 at the end of what will become their final season. In making the announcement today, the company’s Board of Directors and Artistic Director Jack Marshall emphasized that “the decision to close is not driven […]
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.
Memorable performances make for a chilling Judgment at Nuremberg
The circumstances of World War II and Hitler’s legacy of conquest and persecution plunged many ordinary men and women into a crucible that tested and destroyed lives. Extraordinary events seen through the eyes of an ordinary man lies at the heart of Abby Mann’s Judgment at Nuremberg.