Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Les 7 Doigts de la Main is certain to leave a trace, or a blazing trail, with this high-energy, inventive twist on circus arts.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:06AMMonday, August 15, 2011
Kate Fuglei delivers a moving and empowering performance, but the heroine's depressing saga in Ken LaZabnik and Ellen S. Pressman's one-woman musical fails to engage for a full 80 minutes.
SOURCE: Backstage at 02:40AMThursday, August 11, 2011
Michael Greif keeps the early '90s alive in his reinvention of Jonathan Larson's rock epic, and though the set and costumes have changed, the heart of the show still beats.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMWednesday, August 10, 2011
The Festival of New American Plays gives a voice to playwrights, new and established, and in four insightful short productions provides a compelling evening of theater.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AM"Visceral," "intimate," and "intense" don't begin to describe this stimulating and sometimes scarring production of two radically carnal plays that expose the visceral nature of the human …
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMSunday, August 7, 2011
Anna Moench's world premiere play takes nonlinear theater to its hilt, and David F. Chapman's direction cannot make this schizophrenic script comprehensible on stage.
SOURCE: Backstage at 04:00AMMonday, August 1, 2011
This rabblerousing ode to black musical history is sure to delight audiences, but the production needs a little more honing to highlight the show's important historical elements.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:38AMThursday, July 28, 2011
Lawson Caldwell's predictable and slow play attempts to be clever and shocking but suffers from contrived plot twists and two-dimensional characters.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:13AMNCM Fathom and Arts Media Alliance's partnership with Shakespeare's Globe in London allows the Bard's plays to come alive in their original theatrical form in more than 275 movie theaters.
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:52AMWednesday, July 27, 2011
Theatreworks USA's latest show fuses a variety of children's tales and musical devices, and while the trite songs and scenes keep children rapt for 60 minutes, the musical struggles to fin…
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMWith thousands of actors already in New York and many more coming each year, finding a community in this expensive and intimidating city can be daunting, particularly given New Yorkers' no…
SOURCE: Backstage at 04:17AMFriday, July 15, 2011
Director Glenn De Kler showcases female comedians in his barebones production of Tom Stoppard's existential masterpiece, but his single-gender cast feels like a gimmick.
SOURCE: Backstage at 04:34AMWednesday, July 13, 2011
Former understudies, Steel Burkhardt and Paris Remillard get to go on together every night for the 2010–2011 "Hair" national tour, which makes a 10-week stop at Broadway's St. James …
SOURCE: Backstage at 02:00AMTuesday, July 12, 2011
Director Kathy Curtiss takes Shakespeare's mistaken identity comedy to Little Italy, and the casual comedy succeeds with its lighthearted nature and impeccable casting of the central twins.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMSunday, July 10, 2011
This riotous romp through "Silence of the Lambs" turns horror into humor, making for a pleasing parody that deliciously highlights the story's most gruesome moments.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:25AMThursday, July 7, 2011
Two powerhouse performers turn Karoline Leach's otherwise tepid drama into an acting master class that all aspiring actors should witness.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:05AMPeter Brook's minimalist, abridged reimagining of Mozart's penultimate opera intends to bare the work's raw, passionate soul, but his central lovers lack the needed fervor to completely ac…
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:22AMThursday, June 30, 2011
This delightfully light and entertaining comic contemplation of modern philosophy lovingly mocks and challenges six figure's groundbreaking ideas without reducing their scope.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:14AMTuesday, June 28, 2011
Director Will Pomerantz firmly holds the reigns of Victoria E. Calderon's slow-moving drama, but a looser grip might have allowed the somewhat contrived material to breathe.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMFull of rich voices, J.C. Hanley and James Olm's new musical feels like a high school play or a church production, and its easy-listening score would be more at home as an inspirational al…
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMMonday, June 27, 2011
Director Daniel Talbott's lighthearted open-air production succeeds with its casual and improvised nature, though the poor sound amplification makes it difficult to enjoy at times.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:12AMFriday, June 24, 2011
The heart of "Some of Our Parts" beats fervently as these seven profound and affecting 10-minute plays disable preconceived notions about the human experience.
SOURCE: Backstage at 12:57PMMonday, June 20, 2011
These supposedly "unproduceable plays" prove to be imaginative and produceable, but the production's time constraints impede their effectiveness. These budding works need more time to germ…
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMTuesday, June 7, 2011
This 1950s-style drama fails to deliver on its enticing premise. Director Hillary Spector struggles to emphasize the central conflict, while playwright Paul Manuel Kane never explains the …
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:09AMMonday, June 6, 2011
This misguided screwball comedy misses the mark, and the unruly number of clichés paints a horrible picture of writers everywhere and proves that some of them should probably remain d…
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMFriday, June 3, 2011
This touching portrait of the sex industry in the Spanish Caribbean evokes sympathy and introspection, but Roy Arias' deeply personal performance ultimately fumbles its execution.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:49AMThursday, June 2, 2011
Snapshots of love fill Lucas Kavner's moving drama, whose out-of-order scenes don't fit together perfectly, just as the remains of a broken heart never quite mend completely.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMWednesday, June 1, 2011
"H4," a mixed-media adaptation of both parts of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," struggles to reach its lofty ambitions, but "Shakespeare's Slave" proves to be an exciting new play about the Bard.
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:15AMThursday, May 26, 2011
Lookingglass is the fifth Chicago-based company to receive the Regional Theatre Tony Award. What started as eight acting students rebelling against the Establishment has grown into a 22-mem…
SOURCE: Backstage at 02:54AMWednesday, May 25, 2011
Celebrities may have taken over the Great White Way, but the effect on theater actors is up for debate.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:10AMFriday, May 20, 2011
Crystal Skillman's poetic dialogue suffuses this moving new play, which expertly explores deep human issues while chronicling the petty problems of reality television stars and writers.
SOURCE: Backstage at 04:14AM 
