By BILL HIRSCHMAN For even those who only knew Herbert Simpson in passing, likely what they remember was his voice " usually deep and sonorous, a bit scratchy, but brimming with passion. The…
By EDWARD RUBIN Will Arbery's latest play, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, having been extended two times by popular demand, is now running Off-Broadway through Sunday, November 17, 2019 at Pl…
By ANNE SIEGEL It has been a long wait, but the people of southeast Wisconsin finally get to be in the room where it happens. Hamilton has arrived. And what a reception it's getting. The mos…
By EDWARD RUBIN I have often been asked how my plays come about. I cannot say. Nor can I ever sum up my plays, except to say that this is what happened. That is what they said. That is what …
By ROY BERKO Suzan-Lori Parks, Lynn Nottage and Tonya Barfield are noted as emerging African-American playwrights. Another member of that sorority is the award-winning Dominique Morisseau, t…
By ROY BERKO In its off-Broadway production, Shakespeare R&J (which is now on stage at convergence continuum) ran for a year, making it the longest running version of "Romeo and Juliet" …
By JACK LYONS, Desert Local News "Silly is as silly does," could easily be the subtitle following the name of the current comedy/farce romp The Underpants, now on stage at the Old Globe's Sh…
By JACK LYONS, Desert Local News There have been many love stories written about the redemptive power of love in all its art forms:Â poems, songs, odes, sonnets, essays, novels, movies, an…
By ROY BERKO Kenneth Lonergan is noted for writing about decent people who are unexpectedly challenged by issues of ethics. In his Lobby Hero, now on stage at Blank Canvas, the 2016 Oscar wi…
By EDWARD RUBIN There are probably greater painters than Noël. Greater novelists than Noël, greater librettists, greater composers of music, greater singers, greater dancers, greater c…
By EDWARD RUBIN While New York City recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising with much hoopla and an enormous traffic-stopping Gay Pride parade that went on well in…
By HERBERT W. SIMPSON It seems that Geva Theater Center's long devotion to creating a worthy theater piece devoted to the history of Son House has reached a temporarily completed form in thi…
By HERBERT W. SIMPSON Virtually all of our leading contemporary repertory theaters now include non-traditional experimental techniques in staging not only original new work but also " even e…
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI. " A small but energetic theater company, Off the Wall Theatre, has produced a memorable production of one of Tennessee Williams' later works, Small Craft Warnin…
By ROY BERKO Jeanine Tesori (music) and David Lindsay-Abaire (books and lyrics) developed the creative Shrek: The Musical from DreamWorks Animation's film and William Steig's book of the sam…
By ALAN SMASON SAN FRANCISCO " Anyone who has ever seen a Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney film knows that the ills of the world can be transformed by putting on a show, raising needed revenue…
By HERBERT SIMPSON Despite already having knocked people out in splendidly acted versions, this important and enormously appealing play seems to be moving to "National Treasure" status in ev…
By ROY BERKO Susan Hill, author of the book "The Woman in Black," the source of the play of the same name now being staged at the Cleveland Play House (CPH), relates: "The Suffolk coast. Win…
By ROY BERKO God, or a facsimile thereof, in the form of Mike Polk Jr., who in his other life is a local comedian and Fox 8 personality, is appearing on the Beck Center for the Arts stage, i…
By HERBERT SIMPSONÂ I wondered how the old love-rock musical would play these days for an audience of younger folk unfamiliar with Hippie rebellion, flower children, 60s rock music, and a…
By JACK LYONS Ambition supposedly killed Caesar, according to Brutus. However, it also became a two-edged sword that cut both ways. Literature is bursting with characters who are infected wi…
By LOU HARRY A tip of the (ice) cap to Portland, Oregon's Artists Repertory Theatre, which has given E.M Lewis' epic play "Magellanica" a worthy production, even if its cracks show. Set prim…
By HARRY DUKE Musicals are the bread and butter of community theatre. They're usually crowd pleasers and, with their large casts, can bank on a crowd of family and friends to fill a good por…
By HARRY DUKE It's 1648 and the splendiferous Taj Mahal awaits its opening. Humayun and Babur, the two lowliest members of Emperor Shah Jahan's royal guards, are assigned the lowliest duty a…