Sunday, January 12, 2020
Originally published in The Opera Critic, the international website for professional musicians. The new production of Wozzeck at the Metropolitan Opera presents a stark contrast with t…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 04:10PMThursday, January 9, 2020
The Band’s Visit, music and lyrics by David Yazbek, book by Itamar Moses. Philadelphia Academy of Music through January 19, 2019. The Band’s Visit is a delicate, intimate show about t…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 06:34PMSunday, December 22, 2019
An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, directed by Rebecca Wright at the Arden Theatre, Philadelphia, through December 15, 2019. One of Philadelphia’s best actors, Mary Tuomanen,…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 08:38AMSaturday, December 21, 2019
Jagged Little Pill, music by Alanis Morissette. Broadhurst Theatre, New York City. Jukebox musicals are everywhere, but very few create original stories focused not on an entire catalog b…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 11:48AMFriday, November 22, 2019
Upon entering the Booth Theater for a performance of Freestyle Love Supreme I overheard a passerby ask an employee what the show was about. The answer, or lack thereof, is one of the main dr…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 12:21PMTuesday, November 19, 2019
Concept albums are having a moment. Hamilton was originally intended to be a concept album and Hadestown was recorded as a concept album nine years before the Broadway album. In a similar pa…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 11:01PMSaturday, November 2, 2019
Mandy Patinkin in concert: Diaries, at Verizon Hall in the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, October 30, 2019. Mandy Patinkin began a 30-city national tour in Philadelphia on October 30. The m…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 03:59PMFriday, November 1, 2019
Buried Child by Sam Shepard. EgoPo Classic Theater, through November 10, 2019 at the Latvian Society, 531 N 7th St, Philadelphia. What’s happened to this family? That’s what these cha…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 02:26PMThe National Dog Show, the annual television tradition that airs on TV on Thanksgiving Day following the Macy’s parade, will be live in the Philadelphia suburbs this weekend. The two-hour …
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 11:46AMWednesday, October 30, 2019
A Small Fire by Adam Bock. Directed by Joanie Schultz. Philadelphia Theatre Company, through November 10, 2019, at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad Street in Philadelphia. A smal…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 06:11PMTuesday, October 29, 2019
Falsettos, music & lyrics by William Finn, presented by 11th Hour Theatre, October 2019 at Christ Church Neighborhood House in Philadelphia. When I recall that William Finn started to…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 11:49AMThursday, October 24, 2019
Come from Away national touring production, at Philadelphia’s Academy of Music through November 3, 2019. This unpretentious musical delighted me when it opened on Broadway early in 2017…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 09:04AMThursday, October 10, 2019
The Height of the Storm by Florian Zeller. Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Samuel Friedman Theatre, 261 W. 47th Street, New York. The essence of this play is ambiguity and uncert…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 05:20PMTuesday, October 8, 2019
In honor of the new production of Ragtime by Arden Theatre (with excellent cast, innovative staging and superb musical direction) we are reprinting this story about the making of Ragtime, fr…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 03:18PMSunday, October 6, 2019
Dot, written and directed by Colman Domingo. Through October 20, 2019 at People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA. A comedy about a person with Alzheimers may seem like an outrage…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 05:39PMMonday, September 9, 2019
And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens, by Tennessee Williams; directed by Lane Savadove, September 2019 at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The surprise hit of the 2019 Philadelph…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 05:59PMSunday, September 8, 2019
An Iliad, performed by Jason Greenfield at Millésimé, 33 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, as part of the 2019 Fringe Festival. This 2012 adaptation of Homer’s story came back to Philad…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 12:32PMTuesday, August 6, 2019
Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Peoples Light, Malvern Pa through August 25, 2019. The new production of Our Town by Peoples Light is unique. The company is using the talents of singer-actor…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 07:25PMThursday, July 25, 2019
Amaluna by Cirque du Soleil, at Oaks, Pennsylvania, through August 25. This Cirque du Soleil production is one of the best ever. It premiered in 2012 but this is its first visit to the Ph…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 04:41PMTuesday, July 23, 2019
Mud Row by Dominique Morisseau at Peoples Light Theater, Malvern, PA, through August 4, 2019. Most critics have characterized this play’s subject as family legacies. That is true. I’d…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 01:15PMFriday, July 5, 2019
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s first collaboration is more than 75 years old—and it’s having a startling rebirth. A country-style production on Broadway just won a Tony as the best musica…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 05:20PMMonday, July 1, 2019
Fiddler on the Roof by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick & Joseph Stein. National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene in New York City. I regret that I waited so long before seeing this wonderful st…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 05:51PMFriday, May 31, 2019
Indecent by Paula Vogel. Arden Theatre, Philadelphia, through June 23, 2019. Indecent is a wide-ranging play that speaks to multiple issues. It covers many decades, moves across continent…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 01:05PMSunday, May 26, 2019
A Number by Caryl Churchill, through June 9, 2019, at People’s Light Theatre, Malvern, PA A Pennsylvania political figure this month disclosed that he recently learned that he has a num…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 01:36PMSaturday, May 25, 2019
Legally Blonde the Musical, music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin; based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the M-G-M motion picture; through July 21, 2019 at the Walnut Str…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 08:29PMWednesday, May 8, 2019
The Temptations are one of the most popular music groups of all-time. They left a huge footprint on the industry, and now they’ve extended to Broadway. Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Time…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 07:44PMOne of the landmarks of Broadway is its constant innovation year after year, and the most innovative show of this season is Hadestown. This musical from composer Anaïs Mitchell started as a…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 07:09PMThursday, April 4, 2019
“Master Harold”… and the Boys by Athol Fugard. Lane Savadove directs for EgoPo Classic Theater through April 7, 2019, at the Latvian Society Theater, 531 N. 7th Street, Philadelphia. �…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 03:25PMSaturday, March 23, 2019
The Few by Samuel D. Hunter, Matthew Decker directing through April 7, 2019, at Theatre Horizon, Norristown, PA The Few starts slowly, and gradually unfolds to reveal an interesting chara…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 06:22PMFriday, March 22, 2019
Miss Saigon by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, and Richard Maltby Jr. Directed by Laurence Connor. Broadway Philadelphia through March 31, 2019, at the Academy of Music, 240 S. Bro…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 09:10PMThursday, March 7, 2019
Rent has reached the status of a classic. The audience at the Merriam Theatre of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia treated it that way as the national touring production opened for a five-da…
SOURCE: theculturalcritic.com at 09:02PM 
