Friday, January 23, 2015
So, suddenly there's an announcement. Julie Taymor. Anne Hathaway. Grounded. Tickets already on sale, and going fast.Anne HathawayVivien Killilea/Getty Images for PsiffIt's my turn to order …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:11PMThursday, January 22, 2015
The line between elliptical fascination and obscure tedium can be thin, and the current production of A Delicate Balance falls to the wrong side far too often.John Lithgow, Glenn ClosePhoto:…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:28PMSaturday, December 20, 2014
Rebekah Brockman, Tom Pecinka in ArcadiaPhoto: Joan MarcusAaah, the joys of being an online reviewer. I don't get paid, and I often have to buy my own tickets, but I don't have to see shows …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:16PMFriday, December 19, 2014
He's not really the messiah. His mom is Mandy, not Mary. She's certainly not a virgin. For that matter, neither is he. Well, you know the story.It's Monty Python's Life of Brian, only now it…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:36PMThursday, December 18, 2014
In the first scene of Kristen Palmer's Once Upon A Bride There Was A Forest, Josie (Rachael Hip-Flores) tells her boyfriend Warren (Chinaza Uche) that she will finally marry him but fir…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:03PMSaturday, November 29, 2014
Is all really fair in love and war? Not according to the thriller-comedy-love-story-political-commentary Asymmetric, written by the wonderful Mac Rogers, directed by the also wonderful …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:56PMMonday, November 24, 2014
The 1950s and early 1960s masqueraded as an innocent time in the United States, and nowhere was the masquerade more vivid than on television, with its faux perfect white families with thei…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:55AMSaturday, November 15, 2014
Many people consider The Real Thing to be Tom Stoppard's most accessible play, and I suppose that's true--but at what cost? Instead of Stoppard's usual verbal and mental fireworks, and …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:29PMFriday, November 14, 2014
The show is by Tom Stoppard. It takes place in two time periods. In the more recent period, a scholar is trying, with mixed success, to understand what happened in the earlier one. The play'…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:38PMSunday, October 26, 2014
I'm sad to say that the Yale Rep production of Arcadia closed yesterday. It's one thing for me to suggest that you take a train up there to see it and another to suggest a time machine.…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:16PMSunday, October 5, 2014
Bridget Everett, creator and performer of Rock Bottom, has been described as challenging, gutsy, provocative, hard-rocking, raunchy, and raucous, and those adjectives don't even begin to de…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:51PMOn one hand, The Last Ship, music and lyrics by Sting, book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey, has already had a run in Chicago and should be in pretty good shape. On the other hand, it do…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:09PMSaturday, October 4, 2014
By intermission, I found Bootycandy to be an entertaining, occasionally insightful, and random collection of skits. By the end of the play, I realized that Bootycandy is a sma…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:36PMSaturday, September 27, 2014
Next to Normal is a superb musical. Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's depiction of a woman derailed by mental illness and loss, and of the people around her, mixes compassion, humor, insight, and …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:45PMSunday, September 21, 2014
In Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne's charming new piece, The Valley of Astonishment, the titular valley is that uncharted, elusive area where brain metamorphoses …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:09PMI have this theory about plays and movies. If the main character or another character learns something and grows, the piece can last hours. But if the characters remain stuck and learn nothi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:00PMThursday, September 18, 2014
If there is a theatrical heaven whence long-deceased playwrights can watch their work, then I'm certain that George Kelly is thrilled with The Mint's new production of his fascinating play, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:46PMSunday, August 31, 2014
Oh, the joys of a well-made, genuinely funny comedy. Oh, the joys of a solid cast of Broadway stalwarts doing what they do. Oh, the joys of a sold-out theatre rocking with laughter. Oh, the …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:20PMSaturday, August 30, 2014
What happens when people have no options? Specifically, what happens when a pair of women, best friends who met in prison, try to make good lives for themselves in a world that has little us…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:05PMSunday, August 10, 2014
It's a great concept: "the story of a Young Adult paranormal romance writer who accidentally creates a dangerous cult." The cast includes the fabulous Lorinda Lisitza and Hannah Sloat. What …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:37PMSunday, August 3, 2014
If ever a play merited skewering, it's Shakespeare's messy, pointless bloodbath, Titus Andronicus. The delightful Puppet Shakespeare Players skewer it with great glee, fabulous pup…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:34PMThursday, July 31, 2014
I am a big fan of Cirque du Soleil, so it pains me to write the following: Varekai is mediocre and even kind of boring.Octavio AlegriaTo be perfectly fair, I'd like to provide some context. …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:35PMTuesday, July 29, 2014
Bob Fosse was talented, driven, kind, nasty, dedicated, unfaithful, brilliant, limited, addicted, and unhappy. By all accounts, he was also charismatic, seductive, and a great lay. Since the…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:32AMSaturday, July 19, 2014
With its even-handed, honest, and thought-provoking examination of the gray area between sex and rape, The Long Shrift has the makings of an excellent play. However, its execution is no…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:55PMWednesday, July 16, 2014
Derek Ahonen’s The Qualification of Douglas Evans, directed by James Kautz, is the second in the Amoralists' "two play repertory exploring man’s vicious cycles." (The other is Enter at F…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:58PMMonday, July 14, 2014
The people in Mark Roberts' Enter at Forest Lawn, directed by Jay Stull, fall down, squat in frozen crouches, twitch like dying break dancers, sashay, and ooze disjointedly, respectively. Th…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:00PMSaturday, July 12, 2014
Great news: the Pigeoning is back at HERE."The Pigeoning is 70 minutes of pure delight. . . . Do yourself a favor and go."Photo: Richard Termine
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:31PMMonday, June 23, 2014
It's easy to see why The Mint might choose to revive Jules Romains' comedy Donogoo. In its sarcastic skewering of business and ambition, it is as pertinent now as it was in the 1920s. Howeve…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:00PMSunday, June 22, 2014
Watching the revised version of Side Show (book and lyrics by Bill Russell, music by Henry Krieger) at the Kennedy Center is a multilayered experience to fans of the original, part…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:01PMMonday, June 9, 2014
See Hugh Jackman hop. See Hugh Jackman hop some more. Watch minutes pass that could have been devoted to a number from Bridges of Madison County. Wonder why Jackman is stealing a not-in…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:10AMFriday, June 6, 2014
The many productions of Much Ado About Nothing I have seen boasted wonderful Beatrices or wonderful Benedicks, but not since Sam Waterson and Kathleen Widdoes in the glorious AJ Antoon versi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:53PM 
