All stories by ANITA GATES on BroadwayStars

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Arts | Connecticut: ‘Macbeth 1969’ at the Long Wharf Theater — Review by Anita Gates

“Macbeth” is fast-forwarded to 1969, but without much success.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:00AM
Saturday, January 28, 2012

Arts | New Jersey: In ‘Boeing-Boeing,’ the ’60s as a Misguided Era — Review by Anita Gates

“Boeing-Boeing” is at the Paper Mill Playhouse. The appeal of the play today is the amusing look at the peculiar customs of a misguided era.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:20PM
Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Theater Review | 'The Picture Box': ‘The Picture Box’ by Cate Ryan at Beckett Theater - Review by Anita Gates

In Cate Ryan’s “Picture Box,” a black man who helped raise a white child was truly considered one of the family.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:36PM
Saturday, December 31, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: New Jersey Repertory Company’s ‘Bakersfield Mist’ — Review by Anita Gates

A piece of art that might be one of Jackson Pollock’s acclaimed drip paintings brings together an unlikely couple in “Bakersfield Mist,” presented by the New Jersey Repertory Company.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:31AM
Saturday, December 17, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ — Review by Anita Gates

Neil Bartlett has adapted “A Christmas Carol” for the stage using only Dickens’s original text; the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey performs it through Jan. 1 at Drew University.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:08PM
Sunday, December 4, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: ‘Irving Berlin’s White Christmas’ at the Paper Mill Playhouse — Review by Anita Gates

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” based on the 1954 movie musical and featuring Lorna Luft in a supporting role, runs at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J., through Dec. 24.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:28PM
Saturday, November 26, 2011

Spotlight | New Haven: Brian Dennehy Takes on Beckett at the Long Wharf Theater by Anita Gates

Brian Dennehy is back at the Long Wharf Theater in a one-act play, “Krapp’s Last Tape,” by Samuel Beckett.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:44PM
Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Lee Pockriss, Composer and Songwriter, Is Dead at 87 by Anita Gates

Mr. Pockriss, who wrote the music for midcentury pop hits like “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini,” also worked in musical theater for decades.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:10PM
Saturday, November 12, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: ‘Mockingbird’ Plays on New Jersey Stage — Review by Anita Gates

The Finch family is back in court for “To Kill a Mockingbird” in Madison.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 08:05PM

Arts | New Jersey: In Madeleine George’s New Play, Love and Anthropology — Review by Anita Gates

Madeleine George’s clever new play, now having its world premiere at Two River Theater Company, opens a window onto what one character in the play likes to call “alternative kinship stru…

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: ‘Phaedra Backwards,’ a Classical Myth in Princeton by Anita Gates

“Phaedra Backwards,” in its world premiere, is Marina Carr’s reworking of the Minotaur legend, starting from the end.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:30AM
Friday, October 28, 2011

Theater Review: ‘Sistas: The Musical’ - Review by Anita Gates

In “Sistas: The Musical” pop songs punctuate the stories of a group of black women.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:22PM
Sunday, October 9, 2011

Arts | Connecticut: In ‘Molly Sweeney,’ Three Characters Blind to One Another - Review by Anita Gates

In the Irish Repertory Theater production of “Molly Sweeney,” the cast of three is focused on surgery that could help a blind woman see.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:32PM
Sunday, October 2, 2011

Arts | Connecticut: Sarah Ruhl’s Take on Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’ Is at Yale - Review by Anita Gates

The playwright Sarah Ruhl used a fresh, “literal” translation of Anton Chekhov’s 110-year-old drama “Three Sisters,” now at the University Theater at Yale.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:07PM
Thursday, September 29, 2011

Theater Review | 'Seed': ‘Seed’ Opens at National Black Theater - Review by Anita Gates

A boy who had a rough start in life captures the attention of a social worker he meets by chance in “Seed,” a play by Radha Blank at the National Black Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:21PM
Monday, September 26, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ at Two River Theater - Review by Anita Gates

A production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” gets the 20th-century treatment at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, N.J.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:34PM
Sunday, September 18, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: ‘Othello’ at the Shakespeare Theater at Drew University - Review by Anita Gates

Not every director of “Othello” has the courage to bring the humor front and center. Bonnie J. Monte dares to do so in the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey’s new production.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:11PM

Spotlight | Hartford: Darko Tresnjak Takes Over at Hartford Stage by Anita Gates

The first season for the new director of the Hartford Stage, Darko Tresnjak, is under way.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:15AM
Friday, September 16, 2011

Theater Review: ‘A Night With George’ - Review by Anita Gates

In “A Night With George,” about an Irishwoman’s “connection” to George Clooney, the title character never appears.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 09:30PM
Saturday, September 3, 2011

Arts | Connecticut: ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ at Westport Playhouse - Review by Anita Gates

Tennessee Williams’s “Suddenly Last Summer,” at the Westport Country Playhouse, has familiar components, including an eccentric Southern woman and intimations of homosexuality.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:10PM
Sunday, August 28, 2011

Arts | Connecticut: ‘The Understudy’ Is at TheaterWorks in Hartford by Anita Gates

All three characters in “The Understudy,” being performed at TheaterWorks in Hartford, have taken jobs they normally wouldn’t.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:49PM
Tuesday, August 23, 2011

ArtsBeat Blog: New York Fringe Festival Report: 'Paper Cut' by Anita Gates

"Paper Cut" is one of those artfully quirky solo performances that make the New York International Fringe Festival worth checking out.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:45AM
Monday, August 22, 2011

ArtsBeat Blog: New York Fringe Festival Report: 'You Only Shoot the Ones You Love' by Anita Gates

Jeffrey Sweet's solo show is like a series of entertaining, compelling, sometimes rambling excerpts from a long talk-show interview.

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ArtsBeat Blog: New York Fringe Festival Report: 'Chasing Heaven' by Anita Gates

"Chasing Heaven" stops short of burning insight, but it is funny, thoughtful, brightly acted and about as timely as a play can get.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:08PM
Sunday, August 21, 2011

Theater Review | Summer Shorts 5 : It Takes a Headless Lady to Cause New Yorkers to Stop by Anita Gates

Series B of the Throughline Artists’ Summer Shorts 5 festival of new American plays is a New York affair.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:22PM
Saturday, August 13, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: Searching for Truth, Under Cover of Lies by Anita Gates

The production of Dario Fo’s “Accidental Death of an Anarchist” by the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey is at Drew University through Aug. 28.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:15PM
Friday, August 5, 2011

Theater Review | 'The Pretty Trap': A Mother’s Familiar Optimism, Without the Familiar Letdown by Anita Gates

“The Pretty Trap,” a slight but intriguing one-act precursor to Tennessee Williams’s “Glass Menagerie,” is being given its New York premiere by Cause Célèbre at the Acorn Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:55PM
Sunday, July 24, 2011

Theater Review | Connecticut: Isolation and Mortality by the Swimming Pool by Anita Gates

Mark Lamos directs the Westport Country Playhouse’s production of “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” Terrence McNally’s 1991 play about two straight couples visiting a beach house on Fire…

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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: The Dumb Blonde With an I.Q. of 172 (No Joke) by Anita Gates

“The Judy Holliday Story,” at New Jersey Repertory, is even and tasteful, but that may not have been the best way to go.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:50PM
Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Theater Review | 'Victory: Choices in Reaction': Puritan Widow Confronts a Randy, Profane King by Anita Gates

Howard Barker’s 1983 play “Victory: Choices in Reaction,” having its American premiere at the Atlantic Theater’s Stage 2, features Jan Maxwell in a tour de force performance.

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Sunday, July 17, 2011

Arts | New Jersey: A Cynical View of Careless Generosity by Anita Gates

Shakespeare’s little-known “Timon of Athens” is at the F. M. Kirby Shakespeare Theater at Drew University through July 24.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 02:26PM

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