All stories by Bill Marx on BroadwayStars

Monday, September 23, 2024

Theater Review: “Leopoldstadt” — Bearing Witness by Bill Marx

"Leopoldstadt" is one of Tom Stoppard's most heartfelt and expansive works, its poignant storyline inspired by events in his own life.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 04:24PM
Sunday, September 15, 2024

Theater Review: A.R.T.’s “Romeo and Juliet” — What’s Love Got to Do With It? by Bill Marx

Cinematic in inspiration, Diane Paulus's direction whips up terse bursts of adolescent energy, tapping into a cocky hunger for self-destructive combat.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:06PM
Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Theater Interview: Bob Scanlan on Directing “The Arsonists” by Bill Marx

"It’s not just some generic 'evil' "The Arsonists" protests, it is willful blindness to fascist and authoritarian agendas. Denial and hiding behind “bourgeois” comfort is the theme."

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:06PM
Sunday, July 28, 2024

Theater Review: A Warm-Hearted “Winter’s Tale” by Bill Marx

A relaxed, humane kindness shines through this staging of Shakespeare's hymn to reconciliation.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:42PM
Saturday, June 8, 2024

Theater Review: “Yellow Face” — Playing With Reality by Bill Marx

The Lyric Stage Company's production of David Henry Hwang's Obie award-winning play is serviceably absorbing.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:12PM
Thursday, May 30, 2024

Theater Review: “4000 Miles” — Are We There Yet? by Bill Marx

The script is representative of the pitfalls of current theatrical minimalism -- less can so easily be less.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:06AM
Monday, April 22, 2024

Theater Interview: GSC’s Rebecca Bradshaw on “Water’s Rising: Festival of New Climate Action Plays” by Bill Marx

"We need hope in the possibility of change in order to survive what’s coming."

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:24AM
Sunday, February 25, 2024

Theater Review: “Becoming a Man” — Making a Statement by Bill Marx

If only "Becoming a Man"'s pathos were less streamlined, its theatricality more ambitious.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:36PM
Sunday, February 18, 2024

Theater Interview: Dramatist Bernard Pollack on “Little Peasants” — A Holistic View of Union Organizing by Bill Marx

By Bill Marx Must the stage only discreetly charm the bourgeoisie? “I have long argued that theater alone cannot achieve any social change,” posited the Scottish dramatist and director J…

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:54PM
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Theater Commentary: Facing Some Hard Truths by Bill Marx

The time is overdue for a substantial discussion of what is happening (or not happening) in Boston-area theaters. Just don't expect to see anything in our sheepish mainstream media.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:36PM
Sunday, January 21, 2024

Theater Review: “Trouble In Mind” — Taking a Stand Backstage by Bill Marx

Set in New York in the mid-'50s, "Trouble in Mind" is a backstage dramedy that draws on the genre’s interest in the ambiguities of role-playing to condemn racial bias.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:02AM
Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Arts Commentary: More Cultural Coverage — But Less Culture? by Bill Marx

The journalistic value of blathering out weekend tips to the ears of the comfortable in a social media world awash with likes is dubious.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:03PM
Sunday, October 1, 2023

Theater Review: “Fat Ham” — Hamlet at the BBQ by Bill Marx

In "Fat Ham," Black pain and repressed desire are transformed into a celebration of liberation and empowerment -- once the villain de jure, the violent, tyrannical patriarchy, has been dispa…

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 04:33PM
Thursday, September 28, 2023

Theater Review: “Lunar Eclipse” — Stepping into the Light by Bill Marx

Dramatist Donald Margulies seems to be putting his hand on the heart of the heartland -- as well as taking the pulse of a pair of aging boomers.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:03PM
Saturday, September 23, 2023

Theater Commentary: Impressions of Canada’s Shaw Festival 2023, Part Two by Bill Marx

Canada is far enough from New York and Broadway to ignore their siren drum beats.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:07PM
Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Theater Commentary: Impressions of Canada’s Shaw Festival 2023, Part One by Bill Marx

For a semi-Shavian like myself, the Shaw Festival once again proved that it was the place to be.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:55PM
Saturday, July 29, 2023

Theater Review: “Macbeth” — Rousing Mayhem on the Boston Common by Bill Marx

This uncomplicated version of Shakespeare's tragedy comes off as a rousing tale of murder under a starlit Boston sky that obligingly lights Macbeth's "black and deep desires."

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:25AM
Thursday, June 29, 2023

Theater Review: “Photograph 51” — Connecting the Dots by Bill Marx

Anna Ziegler's play is based on a true story that still resonates powerfully: how science (and society) hides uncomfortable truths.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:33AM
Sunday, June 11, 2023

Theater Review: A Sweet-Tempered “As You Like it” by Bill Marx

In the Actors' Shakespeare's Project's likable staging of As You Like It, love looks pretty durable.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 03:13PM
Thursday, June 8, 2023

Theater Review: “The Gaaga” — A Savagely Funny Dream of Ukrainian Retribution by Bill Marx

The Gaaga's humor is driven by rage, anger, and disgust, emotions that are not often found in our domesticated (for easy consumption) theater scene.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:13PM
Monday, March 20, 2023

Arts Commentary/Interview: Some Thoughts on The Climate Crisis and Theater by Bill Marx

How can we create theater that practices critique and empathy in relation to climate change that simultaneously challenges and lifts us, provokes and provides a muscular hope?

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:52AM
Monday, March 6, 2023

Theater Review: “The Wife of Willesden” — Pleasant Bawdy by Bill Marx

If the production sends at least some of the audience members back to the magnificent poetry of The Canterbury Tales, it would have done a mitzvah.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:53AM
Friday, February 24, 2023

Theater Review: “Fairview” — A Room With a View? by Bill Marx

It is refreshing to encounter a script that is so determined to keep audiences off-kilter as it goes about undercutting domestic business as usual.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:53AM
Friday, February 3, 2023

Theater Review: “Made in China 2.0.” — The Art of Taking Risks by Bill Marx

Made in China 2.0 is valuable as an act of theatrical witnessing, the voice of a rebel who is facing considerable challenges from the powers that be.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:53AM
Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Theater Feature: Favorite Stage Productions of 2022 by Bill Marx

Our theater critics pick some of the outstanding productions in a year haunted by COVID.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 06:32PM
Monday, November 28, 2022

Arts Commentary/Interview: The Climate Crisis and Theater — A Playwright’s Perspective by Bill Marx

Do we feel the environment breakdown in our gut? Will people looking back see art that conveyed the existential threat of the emergency?

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:03AM
Friday, October 28, 2022

Theater Review: Bill Irwin’s “On Beckett” — A Splendidly Literate Treat by Bill Marx

In his virtuoso one-man show, Bill Irwin pays adroit homage to the language and vision of Samuel Beckett.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:03PM
Thursday, October 27, 2022

Theater Review: “Let The Right One In” — Me and My Vampire by Bill Marx

The story has the earmarks of YA fiction: a community of dysfunctional adults contribute to the plight of alienated kids who, badgered by persecutors their own age, seek to escape their torm…

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 04:13PM
Sunday, September 18, 2022

Theater Review: “Heroes of the Fourth Turning” — Dear Lord, Pray for Them by Bill Marx

It shouldn't be surprising that Heroes of the Fourth Turning is monotonously ironic. No happy warriors for Christ here.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:07PM
Friday, July 29, 2022

Theater Review: Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s “Much Ado” — “A Giddy Thing” by Bill Marx

Shakespeare's text has been streamlined for easy consumption on a summer's evening -- there's no intermission, lots of physical comedy, and a party vibe.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:54PM
Friday, June 24, 2022

Theater Review: “Screwball” — Laughter’s Saving Grace by Bill Marx

This is an indelibly zany concoction: part homage, part esprit de corps, part mediation on screwball comedy as a form of modest but invigorating cheer.

SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:24PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 15, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic