Thursday, March 2, 2023
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When it comes to an old chestnut like “Fiddler on the Roof,” the biggest challenge may be in keeping the Joseph Stein book f…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:40PMFriday, February 24, 2023
By JASON ROBERT BROWN February 22, 2023, Nyack, NY So, the Neo-Nazis. There is a website about the Leo Frank case that is not hard to find on Google. It has been around in some form or other…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:25AMSaturday, February 4, 2023
By ROY BERKO When Hadestown, opened on Broadway on April 17, 2019, it was met with critical acclaim. Reviews contained such terms as “inventive,” “gorgeous, “hypnotic,” “high ene…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:37AMSunday, January 29, 2023
By EDWARD RUBIN Having lived in New York City’s East Village for many decades, I know the very neighborhood where much of the action in Anthony McCarten’s currently running Broadway play…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:32AMThursday, January 26, 2023
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (‘Steppin’ Out“) When A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical opened on Broadway nearly eight weeks ago, there was some bellyaching from fir…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:43AMWednesday, January 18, 2023
By ROY BERKO As the run of the awe-inspiring Hamilton draws to a close at the Playhouse Square’s State Theatre, Beetlejuice, the cult-followed farcical ghostly show appears next door at th…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:24PMWednesday, January 11, 2023
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI. – January temperatures rarely rise above 30 degrees here, so indoor activities are welcomed. Local theatergoers can watch a foot-stompin,’ whooping and holl…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:24AMMonday, January 9, 2023
By ALAN SMASON There are a plethora of plays that have become the basis of successful Broadway musicals. A classic example is Lynn Riggs’ Green Grow the Lilacs, which became Oklahoma. Th…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 11:37AMThursday, December 22, 2022
By EDWARD RUBIN Billed as “A Penetrating Portrayal of A Queer Giant,” performance artist John Kelly’s explosive gay-themed show Underneath The Skin, – bolstered by actor/dancers Hu…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:25PMTuesday, December 20, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot,” considered by many film enthusiasts as one of the greatest movies of all time, would se…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:55PMSunday, December 11, 2022
By ROY BERKO Since 1959, Dobama Theatre has been dedicated to premiering important new plays by established and emerging playwrights in professional productions of the highest quality. The L…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 07:43AMSaturday, December 10, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Tom Stoppard had long established his credentials as One of the 20th century’s leading playwrights and authors, Tom Stoppard w…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:28AMThursday, December 8, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) There’s no more an appropriate time to present Irving Berlin’s ‘Holiday Inn’ than during the festive season of holiday …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 11:19AMWednesday, December 7, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Sharai Bohannon is an activist playwright who doesn’t shy away from tackling issues that some might feel uncomfortable discuss…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:40AMWednesday, November 30, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Taking their regal cues from the likes of pop music royalty Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Avril Lavigne…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:01PMSaturday, November 26, 2022
By EDWARD RUBIN You Will Get Sick, currently playing Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre in New York City through Sunday, December 11, is the most riveting and mind-stretching play that I…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:37AMThursday, November 24, 2022
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – Some funny anecdotes were once relayed by playwright Catherine Trieschmann to Milwaukee Repertory Theater Artistic Director Mark Clements. They initially led…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:54PMWednesday, November 9, 2022
By ROY BERKO Describe the Night, which is now on stage at Ensemble Theatre, is Cleveland Heights native Rajiv Joseph’s 2018 Obie Award winner for Best New American Play. Joseph was named …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:39PMMonday, October 31, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There is probably no more magnificent opening number in Broadway history than “Circle of Life/ Nants Ingonyama” found in Dis…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:41PMThursday, October 27, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It’s taken a minute, but the only play to ever win both an Olivier Award in London and a Tony Award on Broadway has finally ar…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:28PMWednesday, October 26, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It would seem The NOLA Project, those upstarts who came to New Orleans from New York’s Tisch School just prior to the landfall…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:31PMMonday, October 24, 2022
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – With the mid-term political elections just weeks away, one of Milwaukee’s newer theater companies uses that timing to open The Totalitarians, a 2015 politi…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:04AMTuesday, October 18, 2022
By EDWARD RUBIN Sometimes, a gripping story with universal relevance sells big. Such was the case of “The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hossein’s 2003 semi-autobiographical novel which was turn…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:10AMMonday, October 17, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Back when I was still in high school, writer Peter Stone and composer and lyricist Sherman Edwards got together to reimagine a p…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:50PMSaturday, October 15, 2022
By ROY BERKO When Les Misérables last came to Cleveland in November of 2018, in part I wrote: “From the very first time I saw Les Miserables, shortly after its opening in London, to the N…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:42AMThursday, October 13, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It’s taken 16 years since it first bowed at the Public Theatre and 15 years after it became a Broadway smash, but In the Heig…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:12PMSunday, October 9, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There are some classic movies that easily make the transition from the big screen to the stage. Because some have first been ind…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:28AMFriday, October 7, 2022
By ROY BERKO The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, now on stage in the Senney Theater in the Beck Center complex, is a play by Simon Stephens which is based on British writer Ma…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:07AMSunday, October 2, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic It’s not going to reshape your concept of the Founding Fathers through inventive use of choreography and hip hop music. It’s not going to give you …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:57PMSaturday, October 1, 2022
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI. – Race-based violence – especially against young Black men – is not unknown in this Midwest city, although most of the conflicts seen on the local TV ne…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 11:08AMTuesday, September 20, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It wasn’t that long ago when theaters were shuttered and charges were leveled at many theatrical institutions for a perceived …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:12AM 
