Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Ever wonder what happens to the inhabitants of Anatevka after they are driven from their village at the end of “Fiddler on the Roof”? We know that some of Tevye’s family will be stayin…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 11:47AMFriday, March 15, 2019
There is some real good acting on display these days at New Jersey Repertory Company. Not only do the three cast members of “The Source,” Jack Canfora’s trippy excursion into the world…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:19PMWednesday, March 6, 2019
Criticizing a play for being too wordy might seem counter-intuitive. Character dialogue, after all, is words. But unlike narrative stories or essays, plays need to balance telling with showi…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 01:36PMThursday, February 28, 2019
I am a charter member of the Spoilers Avoidance Association, but it is impossible to write about “Merrily We Roll Along” without revealing – to those not already aware – that the 198…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:32PMWednesday, February 20, 2019
Something funny happened to “The Play That Goes Wrong” on the way from Broadway to off-Broadway. Fear not; everything that was funny during its nearly two-year run in the 922-seat Lyceum…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:07PMTuesday, February 12, 2019
My memories of seeing Nina Simone perform in Philadelphia and Atlantic City jazz clubs in the late 1950s/early 60s are soft-focus, because, well, do the math. What does remain sharp, though,…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:28PMWednesday, February 6, 2019
To describe a play or musical as ‘dated’ might indicate that the piece is no longer relevant by virtue of evolved social or moral standards. (You won’t see Neil Simon’s play about th…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:15PMTuesday, January 22, 2019
One can imagine the Two River Theater staff meeting to select a catch-phrase for their “Noises Off” advertising campaign. It is fitting that they settled on “One of the funniest plays …
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 04:23PMWednesday, January 16, 2019
At one point in E. M. Lewis’s “Apple Season” at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, one of the play’s several contemporaneous ‘Rolling Premiere’ productions, Lis…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 05:04PMSaturday, January 12, 2019
A couple kissing in front of Macy’s in Herald Square is hardly newsworthy, but one at last year’s Thanksgiving Day Parade actually marked a milestone in live TV – and was also a spoile…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:05PMThursday, December 20, 2018
[Some of what follows was originally posted a few years ago. This holiday season, I invite new readers and returnees to share the memories.] Like many a New York actor back in the day, I dro…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 04:26PMThursday, December 13, 2018
The term ‘bromance,’ referring to a close, non-sexual relationship between men, had not been coined when French playwright Yasmina Reza wrote “ART” in 1994, but a bromance fuels her …
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 08:41PMWednesday, December 5, 2018
“American Son” premiered in 2016 at Barrington Stage in Massachusetts and was staged at George Street Playhouse in New Jersey in February 2017. In those recent years, its theme of racial…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 12:30AMThursday, November 29, 2018
The musical now officially titled “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn” is based on the 1942 movie “Holiday Inn,” which was updated on screen as “White Christmas” in 1954, which in tur…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:14PMMonday, November 19, 2018
In the play running through December 16 at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ, a 35-year old African-American woman defends her decision to terminate her pregnancy in an impassioned speech. �…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 04:01PMMonday, November 12, 2018
With a few minor (and one not-so-minor) modifications, producers Andrew De Prisco and Jess Levy and director/choreographer Al Blackstone have given “Annie” a fresh appearance without sac…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 05:39PMTuesday, November 6, 2018
You are unlikely to ever see the theatrical title “I’m Not a Comedian…I’m Richard Pryor.” Or George Carlin. Or Chris Rock. Or Sarah Silverman. But appending the name Lenny Bruce is…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 12:49PMWednesday, October 31, 2018
It is generally true that the decline into dementia is a gradual process. From early symptoms – forgetting names or dates or where one left the keys – to a failure to connect with the re…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 12:12PMMonday, October 22, 2018
Line readings are a generally under-valued (and under-credited) facet of the actor’s craft. As many times as you see “Hamlet,” for example, is how many different readings of the “To …
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:14PMFriday, October 5, 2018
In 2017, Elizabeth Marvel appeared as Marc Antony in the Free Shakespeare in Central Park “Julius Caesar.” In 2018 women are playing Caesar as well as Antony and Cassius at the Stratford…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 04:59PMWednesday, September 26, 2018
While some introductory background is a de facto requirement in a review of the “Phantom” musical that does not append “of the Opera” to its title, be advised upfront that the produc…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:28PMWednesday, September 19, 2018
With eight musicians and a cast of fifteen, “Pamela’s First Musical” is the most elaborate musical produced by Two River Theater Company over its illustrious twenty-five years. The Ste…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:44PMFriday, September 14, 2018
“I don’t think I know the difference between sexual harassment and flirting” might not seem like a ground-breaking admission, but as spoken by Charlie in Catya McMullen’s outstanding…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 04:14PMThursday, August 30, 2018
Near the end of “Getting’ the Band Back Together” the (fictional) mayor of (real) Sayreville, New Jersey asks “Who would have thought at the beginning that the Battle of the Bands wo…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:00PMWednesday, August 22, 2018
Considering the running time of some I’ve seen, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s “Blithe Spirit” comes in at a relatively compact two and three-quarters hours, including inter…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 09:13PMTuesday, August 14, 2018
The six actors appearing at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch have amassed thirty-five Broadway credits among them, with six Tony Award nominations (and a win) to boot. Lured to th…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:42PMMonday, August 6, 2018
There is so much about the The Public Works Shakespeare in the Park’s musical adaptation of “Twelfth Night” to praise, it’s hard to know where to begin. Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina T…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 05:45PMSunday, July 29, 2018
More people are killed in Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus” than in his Scottish play and Danish plays combined. “Titus” also preceded “Sweeney Todd” in the bad-guy-pie departme…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 05:35PMWednesday, July 25, 2018
The phrase ‘less is more’ is never more apt than when applied to Irish Repertory Theatre’s musical productions. Artistic director Charlotte Moore’s thirty-year old company, devoted t…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 11:23AMFriday, July 6, 2018
Theater-goers who venture to Stratford, Ontario for the Shakespeare might want to check out the “supporting” plays and musicals as well. While both “The Tempest” and “The Comedy of…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 08:55AMSunday, June 24, 2018
You’ll know how “Half Time” ends about five minutes in. So what; getting there is the fun part. And “Half Time” is fun. Its premise is simple enough (even to a fault, but anyway): …
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:32PM 
