Wednesday, November 20, 2024
By ELIZABETH SCHABINGER Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived! The six wives of British King Henry VIII are back in Washington, D.C. at the National Theatre, fresh from thei…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 07:23PMBy ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) Thirty-seven years after the scandal-ridden story of televangelists Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker and their popular PTL Club made he…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:31PMTuesday, November 19, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The dark days of the COVID shutdown brought the theatre community to its knees. Unable to perform in front of live audiences or …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:52AMFriday, November 15, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Jamie Lloyd has made a reputation for himself as a visionary minimalist director, winning a remarkable collection of Olivier Awa…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 09:22AMThursday, November 7, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There are a few Off-Broadway shows that rise above the fray even though they are silly in concept or lack the kind of production…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:14AMWednesday, October 30, 2024
By ROY BERKO Bye Bye Birdie, Hair, Grease, Carrie, 13 (The Musical), Dear Evan Hansen and Mean Girls. What do all these Broadway musicals have in common? They placed the spotlight on teen a…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:51PMTuesday, October 29, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Talk about hitting it out of the ballpark. With the Fall Classic being played out in arenas in Los Angeles and in New York, it�…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:24AMSaturday, October 26, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Playwright Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu has said the concept of Pass Over is similar to that of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and tha…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 11:41AMMonday, October 21, 2024
By LOU HARRY Craig Lucas’ play Prelude to a Kiss reached Broadway in 1988, the same year that “Big,” “Vice Versa,” and “18 Again” were hitting movie theaters. Yes, all were bod…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:14PMThursday, October 17, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) When Girl from the North Country premiered on Broadway, there were a number of ebullient reviews trumpeting the musical for its …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:17PMSunday, October 13, 2024
By ROY BERKO “Neither Ruby Dee or Ossie Davis ever appeared in a Karamu House stage production but both had significant presence and impact in the organization and in the lives of Karamu a…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:37PMBy ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critc (“Steppin’ Out“) Whether you loved the board game “Clue” when growing up or, perhaps, enjoyed the Paramount Pictures movie of the same title, …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:21PMThursday, October 10, 2024
By ANNE SIEGEL Just in time for Halloween, Beetlejuice, the Musical arrives as the first offering in the Marcus Center’s 2024-25 Broadway season. The musical plays though October 6 in th…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 07:38AMBy ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) Several noted plays assign multiple roles to single actors in order to emphasize how clever and talented the actors are. Not onl…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:04AMFriday, September 20, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was first mounted in the fall of 1879, so there is little debate that the work could use a bit…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:42PMThursday, September 19, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) It’s been said that the third time’s the charm. Previously, two earlier iterations of Hairspray have graced local theaters. …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:11PMSunday, September 8, 2024
By ALAN SMASON For the past several weeks, I’ve been promoting this weekend as a way for the local theatre community to give back to Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré, the historic theater …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 02:29PMThursday, July 25, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) It has taken nine years for the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans (TWTC) to tackle one of the biggest and most i…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:40PMFriday, July 19, 2024
By ROY BERKO Confession: I am not a big fan of juke box musicals, the now popular Broadway vehicle which is a genre of American musical theatre in which pre-written songs are woven, mostly…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:44AMTuesday, July 16, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) After several decades in development and through various iterations, Empire, the musical that tells the story of the constructio…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:30PMMonday, July 15, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The Public Theater has enjoyed a well deserved reputation as a proving grounds for works that have later found great fame on Bro…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:42AMMonday, July 1, 2024
By LOU HARRY Prior to a performance, most theaters share a short list of expected behaviors. Turn off those cell phones. Unwrap those candies. Note the exits. However, for Hamlet, staged at …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 09:39AMSunday, June 23, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) One of the marketing ploys for The Notebook: The Musical can be found at the merchandising kiosk downstairs at the Gerald Schoen…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:04PMTuesday, June 18, 2024
By ROY BERKO In 1985, “Back to the Future,” the feature film, opened. It starred Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. It quickly became a cult favorite and spun off two sequels ed…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 02:04AMMonday, June 17, 2024
The 77th Annual Tony Awards were held in New York City on Sunday, June 16, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing. Despite snagging 13 Tony nominations – the most f…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:39PMMonday, June 10, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) With the rapid rise of blatant antisemitism in the world today, there is probably no better time than now for the presentation o…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:32AMSunday, June 2, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) James Bartelle, a founding member of The NOLA Project, has written a number of original works for the troupe of young, innovativ…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:44AMFriday, May 24, 2024
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – The Broadway Series at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts concludes its 2023-24 season with a bang. No, this is not a reference to the confetti-spewin…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 02:11AMSaturday, May 18, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) In what may be the greatest bit of casting for a national tour in decades, Rob McClure, the Tony-nominated actor brought his A g…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:13AMWednesday, May 1, 2024
The American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League, sponsors of the Tony Awards for excellence on the Broadway stage, were announced on Tuesday, April 30. The awards will be presented on Sund…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:51AMSaturday, April 20, 2024
By LOU HARRY While many companies have responded to the challenges facing post-lockdown theater by offering minimally cast shows and/or feel-good entertainments, the storied Guthrie Theater …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:33PM 
