Thursday, April 14, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The debate over mainstreaming children of special needs has raged in this country for many years with advocates on both sides ma…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 11:04AMMonday, April 11, 2022
By ROY BERKO Shakespeare, in his comedies, writes of trickery, false accusations, restoration of harmony and romance. He uses lots of double entendre and encourages fun and farce as well as …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:36AMSaturday, April 9, 2022
By ALAN SMASON If, as the adage says, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then satire must be the epitome of adoration. Two one-act plays by famed playwright Christopher Durang and …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:03PMWednesday, April 6, 2022
By JACK LYONS, Desert Local News Its springtime in Palm Springs, CA. and love is in the air, especially, on stage at the Palm Canyon Theatre (PCT) where bravado and bragging go hand in hand …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:06AMMonday, April 4, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It’s taken more than two years to finally open the revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite at the Hudson Theatre, a show that w…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:08PMFriday, April 1, 2022
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – The Tony-nominated play Indecent, written by noted playwright Paula Vogel, comes vividly to life in this part of the Midwest. Thankfully, Milwaukee has a pe…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:06PMFriday, March 25, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When Lin-Manuel Miranda was 17, he was exposed to the musical Rent for the first time and he became attuned to the original cont…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:15AMWednesday, March 23, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts announced two years they were mounting The Drowsy Chaperone, there were smiles o…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:31PMTuesday, March 15, 2022
By ROY BERKO The film “Pretty Woman,” with its signature Roy Orbison song, was originally planned to be a tale about class and prostitution, but was re-conceived into a romantic comedy a…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:24PMSaturday, March 12, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There are times when resetting a classic work in an updated time or alternative setting makes sense to breathe new life into sta…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:24AMSunday, February 27, 2022
By JACK LYONS The country’s pandemic hit the Coachella Valley pretty hard. We lost CoyoteStageWorks, one of our multi-award-winning leading professional theatre companies, who after more t…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:09AMSaturday, February 26, 2022
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI. – Next Act, one of the city’s longest-running theaters, opens the new year with an exhilarating, funny and disturbing Wisconsin premiere of Dominique Moriss…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 02:30AMWednesday, February 23, 2022
By EDWARD RUBIN Despite countless closings, postponements, cancellations, empty seats, COVID interventions, and the annoying requirements of having to wear a mask, present proof of a vaccina…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:57AMSunday, February 13, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) One of the most unanticipated closures on Broadway due to the COVID pandemic was the announcement from the Disney Theatrical Gro…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 09:02AMSaturday, February 12, 2022
By ROY BERKO Vickie Bussert, the director of Lizzie: The Musical, an exploration of the Lizzie Borden story, now on stage as a joint production between Baldwin Wallace’s nationally respect…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:50PMSaturday, February 5, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Times have been very busy both together and separately for the composing team of composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michae…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 02:09PMFriday, January 28, 2022
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – Life hasn’t been all unicorns and rainbows for the national tour of Mean Girls, which is playing in Milwaukee January 25-30. Some of its performances in ot…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 07:06AMBy JACK LYONS, Desert Local News Agatha Christie was the queen of the murder mystery genre hands down. The transfer of her novels to the stage and for viewers of the film medium only increa…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:02AMWednesday, January 12, 2022
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) With its current production of Cabaret finally on the boards, the Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts has achieved some m…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:21PMSaturday, January 8, 2022
By JACK LYONS It is said that with age comes wisdom. It is also said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The eyes of today’s beholders are currently in love with “West Side Story�…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:17AMFriday, January 7, 2022
By EDWARD RUBIN Kimberly Akimbo, the newly penned musical with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole, Shrek the Musical) and music by Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home, Caroline, or Ch…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:18PMThursday, December 30, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) If ever there was a city with which a spiritual kinship could be forged with the national tour of Hadestown, there is little dou…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:14AMFriday, December 24, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Crittic (“Steppin’ Out“) Tovah Feldshuh had described herself as a “transformational” actor. Among her previous outings in one-woman shows were Isra…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:57PMSaturday, December 18, 2021
By JACK LYONS, Desert Local News The Desert Ensemble Theatre Company (DETC) of Palm Springs launched its 2021-2022 season in its new home at Theatre # 3, inside the Palm Springs Cultural Cen…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:48AMBy JACK LYONS, Desert Local News Live theaters all over the country are mounting their various holiday versions of Christmas-themed plays and musicals. The Palm Canyon Theatre, the city’…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:24AMFriday, December 17, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Coming just a year after the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and last summer’s massive Black L…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:42PMTuesday, December 14, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Any child of the Sixties or worthy Deadhead would probably bet their monthly Social Security check that Harvard professor Timoth…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:28PMFriday, December 10, 2021
By JACK LYONS, The world of theatre can become a transformative experience for many in the audience as each person views the production through different lenses at the same time. What i…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:11AMTuesday, December 7, 2021
By EDWARD RUBIN Manhattan Theatre Club’s production of British playwright Simon Stephen’s three-generation memory play Morning Sun runs through Sunday, December 19th at New York City Cen…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 07:06PMSaturday, November 20, 2021
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – It may seem unusual for the state’s largest performing arts organization to open its doors after the pandemic with a comedy from the genteel South. Yet, a …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 07:43PMFriday, November 12, 2021
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There is an obvious conversation addressed early in Tootsie, the David Yazbek musical that won Santino Fontana a Leading Actor i…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 11:14AM 
