Sunday, March 30, 2025
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Throughout his life, Tennessee Williams knew tragedy. Whether through his sister Rose’s struggle with mental health or the los…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:04AMSaturday, March 29, 2025
By SCOTTY BENNETT There are times in a person’s life when the only rational response to the pressures of daily living is to escape into a different reality. Drugs and alcohol are often the…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 11:09AMBy SCOTTY BENNETT In the moments between daylight and evening, there is a time when it is neither day nor night. It is a time of transition, a liminal state between now and then, a twilight …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:45AMSaturday, March 22, 2025
By ROY BERKO A juke box musical consists of pre-existing songs which are melded into a script to tell a story. The songs, in contrast to lyrics and music, which are specifically integrate…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:17PMBy ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The Hans Christian Andersedn fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea” is the basis for Once Upon a Mattress, the 1959 musical t…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:38PMFriday, March 21, 2025
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carré has removed any doubt about whether it could creatively pull off the first local production o…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 09:46AMSunday, March 16, 2025
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It’s hard to believe, but until three years ago there had never been a revival of Funny Girl on Broadway. The starring vehicle…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:41AMSaturday, March 15, 2025
By SCOTTY BENNETT One of the fascinating things about humans is how easily they mask intense feelings in a cloak of smiles and good humor. Pain, both physical and emotional, can be disguised…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:48PMTuesday, March 11, 2025
By ELIZABETH SCHABINGER The Bedwetter, based on Sarah Silverman’s memoir of the same name, is an intimate look at Silverman’s year as a 10-year-old. In The Bedwetter, Sarah is a fifth …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:39AMThursday, February 20, 2025
By ROY BERKO Parade, which is now on stage at the Palace Theatre as part of the Key Bank Broadway series, is a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 05:40AMSaturday, February 15, 2025
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) As hard to believe as it may be, Mamma Mia!, the ABBA hit jukebox musical is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It cont…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:09AMBy LOU HARRY, Special to Theatrecriticism.com Yes, “Henry IV” is the complete title. Sans the “part 1” and “part 2” that traditionally complete the title of William Shakespea…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:20AMWednesday, February 12, 2025
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Sam Shepard’s powerful play about the toxic relationship between two brothers – True West – is back at the Jefferson Perfo…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 11:39AMMonday, February 10, 2025
By LOU HARRY, Special to Theatrecriticism.com It’s made clear from the first moments of “The Antiquities” that the human race is history. Jordan Harrison’s play, a co-production of P…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:05AMSunday, February 9, 2025
By LOU HARRY I’ve only seen Liza Minnelli once live. That was at a concert with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, where her batteries seemed fully charged and she treated the audience l…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:59AMBy ANNE SIEGEL, Exclusive to Theatrecriticism.com MILWAUKEE – Okay, we’re not Iowa. But when the Broadway national tour of Shucked opened this week in Madison, WI – the Wisconsin state…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 07:45AMWednesday, January 22, 2025
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Capturing the wit and destructive lifestyle of humorist Oscar Levant is a daunting task for any actor attempting to portray the …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 08:13PMMonday, December 23, 2024
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The biggest problem Broadway has with so-called “jukebox musicals” is they always seem to get mired down by the exposition o…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 10:42AMSaturday, December 21, 2024
By ALAN SMASON There are a lot of people capable of taking a beloved film soundtrack and adapting it faithfully into a theatre piece for presentation on the stage. There are also a lot of pe…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 01:07PMThursday, December 5, 2024
By ALAN SMASON Of all the holiday-themed shows that make their way onto stages in December, Elf: The Broadway Musical may be the one most resistant to the Grinch, Scrooge and other humbugs. …
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 12:50PMMonday, December 2, 2024
By SCOTTY BENNETT Consider, if you will, a blizzardlike night, a cozy inn on the brink of closing forever, suddenly brought back to life by the arrival of two very different groups of travel…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 03:37PMSunday, December 1, 2024
By SCOTTY BENNETT Woman on a Ledge is an adaptation by Hershey Felder of harpist Rita Costanzi’s writings about her life. Ms. Costanzi is a world-renowned harpist whose life experiences ha…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 06:31PMBy SCOTTY BENNETT Okuni: The Woman Who Created Kabuki by Ako Dachs is a limited, fictionalized account of the woman who is thought to have created kabuki. It is generally accepted that the d…
SOURCE: Theatre Criticsm at 04:50PMWednesday, 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 11:41AM 
