All stories by Andrea Simakis on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Possessed by comedy: 'Hand to God' at Dobama Theatre is a perverse delight (review) by Andrea Simakis

Like the Dobama production, the devilish hand puppet Tyrone is rude, lewd and hellaciously funny.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:30AM
Sunday, April 23, 2017

Broadway's 'Bandstand' casts Northeast Ohio native Corey Cott as a Cleveland musician reaching for the brass ring (photos, video) by Andrea Simakis

Corey Cott is poised to break big as Donny, a songwriter and piano prodigy from blue-collar Cleveland whose dreams of musical stardom are derailed when duty calls after Pearl Harbor.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 06:00AM
Thursday, April 13, 2017

'Between Riverside and Crazy' works its profane charms at Cleveland Play House (review) by Andrea Simakis

In Stephen Aldy Guirgis' Pulitzer Prize winning-play, everyone is running some sort of scam to get what they want.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:00AM
Saturday, April 8, 2017

Dobama Theatre's 2017-18 season puts the accent on the homegrown talent of Eric Coble and George Brant by Andrea Simakis

Dobama Theatre's 2017-18 season features artificial intelligence, kid detectives, a female desert warrior and pill-popping lovers.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 11:15AM
Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Great Lakes Theater conjures a 'Hamlet' with Elizabethan charm, postmodern chill (review) by Andrea Simakis

In an ingenious bit of staging, director Charles Fee brings the audience onstage to be members of a jury - witnesses to a prosecution.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:00AM
Friday, March 31, 2017

Great Lakes Theater seeing double, with two actors sharing the title role in 'Hamlet' (preview) by Andrea Simakis

"Hamlet's endless question is, 'Who am I?' And to have two completely different Hamlets . . . is an amplification of that idea."

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 12:30PM

CIFF 2017: 2 filmmakers prove all politics is local with incisive perspectives on activism around Tamir Rice shooting and the RNC (preview) by Andrea Simakis

The films deliver a view of two Clevelands - one whiter and more prosperous, the other, as its mostly black residents describe it, as deadly and ravaged as a war-torn city in Iraq.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 06:00AM
Thursday, March 23, 2017

'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' at Playhouse Square: A thrilling, sensory trip to our shared humanity (review) by Andrea Simakis

The set doubles as Christopher's brain, a singular place filled with minutiae and wonders.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:00AM
Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Cleveland Play House New Ground Theatre Festival features a musical 'Freaky Friday' and a new play by Eric Coble by Andrea Simakis

Edgy and family-friendly works on tap at the 12th annual celebration of new works.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 11:10AM
Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Cleveland Play House's 'How I Learned to Drive' shows that, for women, the past isn't even past (review) by Andrea Simakis

That everything old is new again is a speed bump we didn't expect.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 03:00PM
Friday, March 10, 2017

Playwright Paula Vogel aimed to write a reverse 'Lolita' with 'How I Learned to Drive,' now at the Cleveland Play House (preview) by Andrea Simakis

Despite its unsettling taboo themes, the play, which won a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1998, has the gentle humor of a bittersweet coming-of-age comedy.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 05:30PM
Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Dobama Theatre's 'The Flick' deftly explores the tricky ties between movies and real lives in an American backwater (review) by Andrea Simakis

Funny, moving and unfailingly wise, "The Flick" is one of the most humane pieces of theater on the current American stage.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 01:10PM
Friday, March 3, 2017

Sara Bareilles gives impromptu performance of 'She Used to Be Mine' from Broadway's 'Waitress' in Cleveland (video) by Andrea Simakis

Star stuns crowd gathered the Playhouse Square's State Theatre for 2017-18 KeyBank Broadway Series launch.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:00AM
Thursday, March 2, 2017

Cleveland Public Theatre's "Barbecue" is a ferociously funny send-up of addiction, Hollywood and race (review) by Andrea Simakis

With "Barbecue," playwright Robert O'Hara cements himself as one of the most potent, sophisticated and fearless satirists writing today.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 05:54PM
Tuesday, February 28, 2017

2017-18 KeyBank Broadway Series brings Tony-winners 'Hamilton' and 'Aladdin' to Playhouse Square by Andrea Simakis

Also on tap: 'Waitress,' 'Rent' and 'Love Never Dies,' a sequel to 'Phantom.'

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:09PM
Thursday, February 23, 2017

Great Lakes Theater's pokey 'Wait Until Dark' keeps the audience waiting for the plot to show up (review) by Andrea Simakis

'Wait Until Dark' pits its bind heroine against a trio of very bad men.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 07:30AM
Monday, February 20, 2017

Mean girl breaks good, flies high in Beck Center's 'Bring It On,' the 2012 Lin-Manuel Miranda musical (review) by Andrea Simakis

'Bring It On: The Musical' features the music and lyrics of "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 05:30PM
Sunday, February 19, 2017

Cleveland Play House 2017-18 season targets the topical, from 'Anne Frank' to the racial ring contest 'The Royale' (photos) by Andrea Simakis

'Shakespeare in Love,' adapted for the stage, kicks off the theater's 102nd season.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 05:00AM
Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Cleveland's Musical Theater Project wins a Grammy for tribute to 1921 African-American musical 'Shuffle Along' by Andrea Simakis

The 2016 release 'Sissle and Blake Sing Shuffle Along' wins Grammy gold for best liner notes.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 07:00AM
Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Cuyahoga Arts and Culture weighing changes on how shrinking pool of tax money will go to local organizations by Andrea Simakis

Impassioned debate continues over proposed changes to arts funding in Cuyahoga County

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 02:23PM
Saturday, February 11, 2017
Thursday, February 9, 2017

Russo Brothers join Cleveland team planning immersive theater production based on Eliot Ness and Torso Murders by Andrea Simakis

"Shadow of the Run" brings audiences face-to-face with famed Cleveland police chief Eliot Ness as he searches for the grisly Torso Killer.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 07:30AM
Sunday, February 5, 2017

Great Lakes Theater's 2017-18 season to feature 'Misery,' 'Macbeth' and 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' by Andrea Simakis

Also on tap in 2017-18 -- "Beehive: The '60s Musical," a celebration of the women whose voices helped define a decade.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 06:00AM
Thursday, February 2, 2017

Cleveland Play House's 'Baskerville' is a frothy sendup of Sherlock Holmes - and theater itself (review) by Andrea Simakis

Ken Ludwig's madcap adaption of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" features five actors in nearly 40 roles.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:00AM
Monday, January 23, 2017

Cleveland Public Theatre's Raymond Bobgan honored as top arts leader by Ohio Arts Council by Andrea Simakis

Raymond Bobgan to receive a 2017 Governor's Award for the Arts in Ohio.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 12:25PM
Friday, January 13, 2017

BW's Chris McCarrell to ride the lightning as Percy Jackson off-Broadway this spring (video) by Andrea Simakis

Baldwin Wallace University alum to star in "The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical."

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 12:23PM
Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Former Karamu artistic director Terrence Spivey to lead theater program at Euclid's Shore Cultural Centre by Andrea Simakis

Terrence Spivey, former artistic director of Karamu Theatre, lands on his feet in Euclid.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 03:05PM
Friday, January 6, 2017

Spare, imaginative revival of Stephen Sondheim's 'Into the Woods' on its way into Playhouse Square by Andrea Simakis

'Into the Woods': Fiasco Theater brings the rough magic of its 'joyful production' to Cleveland

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:30AM
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Thursday, December 15, 2016

Cleveland Play House, Cleveland Orchestra and 10 other area nonprofits awarded 2017 NEA grants by Andrea Simakis

The National Endowment for the Arts awards Cleveland-area nonprofits $370,000 in grants

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 02:47PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards