Monday, July 15, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Ain't Done Bad" - 7/15/24 by James Wilson

Following in the nimble footsteps of Twyla Tharp and most recently Justin Peck, choreographer and dancer Jakob Karr has turned to the music of a contemporary singer/songwriter to create a na…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 01:20PM

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "On Beckett" - 7/15/24 by Marc Miller

As one who has often found the works of Samuel Beckett to be baffling, boring, or both, I wasn't looking forward to On Beckett. The lecture on and excerpts from the man's oeuvre, returning t…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 01:20PM
Saturday, July 13, 2024

Chicago - "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" - 7/13/24 by Christine Malcom

The Goodman Theatre continues its season with a world-premiere musical, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, an adaptation of the book by John Berendt, with a book by Taylor Mac, music a…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 12:37PM
Thursday, July 11, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Oh, Mary!" 7/11/24 by Howard Miller

Say you had managed to pull off a consummate fusion of talent and good fortune to become the darling of the 2023-24 Off-Broadway season with a queer-centric, campy, and raucous comedy that w…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:41PM
Tuesday, July 2, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "From Here" - 7/1/24 by James Wilson

On June 12, 2016, the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando was (at the time) the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It remains the most violent assault on LGBTQ+ people. Set…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:41AM
Monday, July 1, 2024

Chicago - "Little Bear Ridge Road" - 7/1/24 by Christine Malcom

To close its forty-eighth season, Steppenwolf Theatre Company is presenting the world premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's Little Bear Ridge Road. Under the direction of Joe Mantello, Laurie Metca…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 01:03PM
Friday, June 28, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "N/A" - 6/27/24 by Howard Miller

Tonight, even as the theatrical face-off between presidential candidates Joseph Biden and Donald Trump is unfolding on television, another political theatrical event is opening at an actual …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:02AM
Thursday, June 27, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Sound Advice: "The Gospel According to Heather," Jane Scheckter, and Ann Kittredge - 6/27/24 by Rob Lester

Let's start with a recent Off-Broadway cast recording of a show that takes on religion, relationships, and right wing propaganda. Then it's love's ups and downs taking center stage for two s…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 01:32PM
Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Palm Springs / Coachella Valley - "Ten Questions with Philip Chaffin and Tommy Krasker" 6/25/24 by Robert Sokol

The dynamic duo behind the PS Classics recording label take their project from sounds to stage.

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:57AM
Thursday, June 20, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Isabel" - 6/20/24 by James Wilson

Mark Twain's preface to "Huckleberry Finn" famously states, "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banish…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:16PM

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Appraisal" - 6/20/24 by Howard Miller

They say that wonderful things sometimes come in small packages. Case in point: Appraisal, a thrilling and splendidly performed cat-and-mouse play opening tonight as part of the Brits Off Br…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 08:06PM
Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Blizzard" - 6/19/24 by Howard Miller

Dottie and Dottie could not be less alike. He (let's call him Dottie 1) is a tight-assed neuroscientist whose life is pretty much wrapped up in his research. Not what you'd call a social but…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:16PM

Palm Springs / Coachella Valley - "Ten Questions with Jason Graae" 6/19/24 by Robert Sokol

Ten Questions with Jason Graae. The stage, concert, and television star returns to the Coachella Valley for one night only.

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 08:59PM
Thursday, June 13, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Titanic" - 6/13/24 by Howard Miller

Titanic, the 1997 musical by Peter Stone (story and book) and Maury Yeston (music and lyrics), is about as massive a theatrical endeavor as you are likely to encounter. The cast alone number…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:07PM
Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Welkin" - 6/12/24 by Howard Miller

British playwright Lucy Kirkwood has a propensity for writing big, bold works that draw from real-world events to tackle disturbing subjects in ways that make us consider the larger implicat…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:46PM
Sunday, June 9, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "David" - 6/9/24 by James Wilson

A program note states that New York's AMT Theater in Hell's Kitchen was established for several different purposes, including serving "as a launching pad to Broadway" and presenting "childre…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:58PM
Thursday, June 6, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Home" 6/5/24 by Howard Miller

You might think of Home, a Tony nominee for Best Play in 1980 when it was originally performed on Broadway, as a folk tale with roots in the Black farming community. But it's also a romance …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 06:34AM
Thursday, May 23, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Molly Sweeney" - 5/23/24 by Marc Miller

Everybody, except me, loved Irish Repertory Theatre's previous effort in its Friel Project, Philadelphia, Here I Come! They saw a trenchant examination of stultifying small-town Irish life a…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:02PM
Monday, May 20, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Lonely Few" - 5/20/24 by Kimberly Ramírez

A girl-meets-girl love story takes center stage at the Newman Mills Theater, ready to amp up your summer pride with a vibrant celebration of lesbian love. Presented in the style of a rock co…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:48PM
Thursday, May 16, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Invasive Species" - 5/15/24 by James Wilson

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, an "invasive species" is one that "has been intentionally or inadvertently brought into a region or area. Also called an exotic or non-nativ…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:46AM
Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "All of Me" - 5/14/24 by James Wilson

In the last few decades, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) has made huge technological advances in speech-generated tools, but it is hard to imagine a dramatic love scene prod…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:57PM

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Here There Are Blueberries" - 5/13/24 by Marc Miller

Here There Are Blueberries is surely the right title for this one. It refers to a caption in a photo album, a very special photo album. The phrase evokes a carefree, whimsical quotidian exis…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:58AM
Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Actors" - 5/8/24 by Howard Miller

Never judge a book by its cover, or, apparently, a playwright by his prior works. This certainly applies to playwright Ronnie Larsen, whose oeuvre includes such titles as An Evening with Joh…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 08:05PM
Monday, May 6, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Lucky Stiff" - 5/6/24 by Rob Lester

Maybe the musical Lucky Stiff wasn't enormously lucky the first time around, managing only 15 performances in its 1988 Off-Broadway debut, but it has continued to pop up over the years aroun…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 12:46PM
Sunday, May 5, 2024

Chicago - "Judgment Day" (world premiere) - 5/5/24 by Karen Topham

Jason Alexander is the perfect actor to play a deeply flawed but somehow sympathetic character; after all, he did it for nine seasons of "Seinfeld" as George Costanza. In Chicago Shakespeare…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:53PM
Saturday, May 4, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Fingers and Spoons" - 5/4/24 by James Wilson

Eating disorders, adolescent trauma, motherhood, and managing an acting career are just some of the topics explored in Fingers and Spoons, the one-person show written and performed by Pascal…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 08:33PM
Thursday, May 2, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Message in a Bottle" - 4/2/24 by Howard Miller

When it comes to the art form known as dance theater, the spotlight is definitely shining on Illinoise, which just made a bold jeté from a near sold-out run at the Park Avenue Armory to bec…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 07:45PM
Sunday, April 28, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Staff Meal" - 4/28/24 by Marc Miller

Ever seen a shaggy-dog play? That's a fair description of Staff Meal, Abe Koogler's shape-shifter of a comedy now at Playwrights Horizons. His purpose is hard to pin down, if not impossible.…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:00PM
Thursday, April 25, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Mother Play" 4/25/24 by Howard Miller

Playwright Paula Vogel's brother Carl, who died of AIDS in 1988 and whose story she related in her partly autobiographical 1992 play The Baltimore Waltz, is back on stage, one of the trio of…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:40PM
Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Mary Jane" 4/24/24 by Howard Miller

How do we categorize Uncle Vanya, Anton Chekhov's play about family life on an estate and working farm in late nineteenth century rural Russia? Is it a comedy, a melodrama, an excursion into…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:04PM

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Mary Jane" 4/24/24 by Howard Miller

Don't cry for Mary Jane. Not in front of her, anyway. She hasn't the time for your pity or to feel sorry for herself, as she single-mindedly pours everything she's got into the care of her c…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 11:26AM

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