66 stories by "John Dellaporta"
Last night, I watched something awful. And it wasn't on TV. We'll get to that later. Reviewing the broadcast of Sound of Music LIVE! is actually pretty simple for me, so we'll address that f…
"Tragedy tomorrow, Comedy tonight!" And with that opening refrain comes one of the clearest promises in musical theatre history, and perhaps even theatre history. Tonight, you will laugh. To…
"Charles has run raving into the storm. The irony is breathtaking!" – Oliver Every week, Slings and Arrows pulls a quote from the play it's focusing on that season to reflect the th…
Setting off for L'Enfant Café, I wasn't sure what to expect from my evening with Jeffrey Johnson, Little Edie, and the intimate Adams Morgan haunt currently playing host to both. I had a pa…
And in the 1970th year anno dominum, God created the concept musical. Only in this particular case, "God" would be Stephen Sondheim. Ask any musical theatre nerd, though, and they'll probabl…
"Is work enough, or is there something more?" – Father McTeague Wowzers. LOTS to unpack from that one, folks. Slings and Arrows, rounding the bend in season 3, headed towards its endga…
“Some people don’t handle success very well.” – Anna Anybody else smell the dread in the air? Slings and Arrows, despite being a longform story, has a pretty clear th…
"All you really have to do is connect. With the other actors. Live moment to moment; that's exactly how Macbeth is living." " Geoffrey Your host, John Dellaporta Click for all Slings and Arr…
Geoffrey: “Henry, just a quick note before you go back out… you’re fired.” Henry: “On what basis?” Geoffrey: “Well, I could just say that I don̵…
“Theatre is a war…the actors are the ones on the front line.” – Ellen Your host, John Dellaporta I love the middle of a TV season, especially in serialized shows. The eng…
Henry: “‘It is the bloody business which informs. Thus to mine eyes.’ Now, shall we get along with our own ‘bloody business’?” (company laughs) Oliver: &#…
Geoffrey: “Actors should be frightened for their lives…that’s when they do their best work.” Richard: “Really? That’s just like normal people!” Your hos…
Geoffrey: “Critics are gonna murder us. Jack’s an American movie star, that’s all they care about, right?” Richard: “They can’t ignore what happened on th…
“There is one thing…I just happen to believe this play is the single greatest achievement in Western art. We’ve got that going for us.” – Geoffrey Your host, John D…
May: “Geoffrey just fired Darren.” Anna: “Oh God. I have such mixed feelings about that.” Your host, John Dellaporta Much of this week’s episode of Slings and A…
Your host, John Dellaporta This week’s guests: (see their reactions below) Renee Yancey, Resident Stage ManagerOlney Theatre Center Caitlin Griffin is a Sha…
Your host, John Dellaporta This week’s guest: (see her reactions below) Caitlin Griffin is a Shakespeare aficionado and blogger (her blog, drownmybooks.blogspot.co…
Introducing the first of our weekly visits to Slings and Arrows, where the travails of doing theatre makes great television. Hope you can watch along with us. Your host, John Dellaporta …
Smash, which finished its run on NBC just about a week ago, was certainly a lot of things, and inspired a lot of mixed responses in those who watched the show. Even those who defended it fer…
“C’mon, Karen Cartwright, the show’s over!” And with that line, and a shot of an empty stage, lit to high heaven, with not a drip of applause, we reach the conclusion…
Hello, dear readers! Over the last several weeks, I’ve been very moved by how many people have come up to me, or written, and said something along the lines of, “Well, Smash is d…
First of all, Smash-ers, I'm assuming you've seen this. I'll give it a minute to sink in. Not that it's any surprise to anyone, of course. Smash has been tanking hardcore in the ratings f…
First of all, Smash-ers, I’m assuming you’ve seen this. I’ll give it a minute to sink in. Not that it’s any surprise to anyone, of course. Smash has been tanking h…
My dear readers, I am so, so, so sorry. After my praise of last week’s episode, I have to imagine that a handful of you, or perhaps even one, responded along the lines of, “Oh, h…
So, it turns out, Smash has been sly like a fox this whole dang time. Either there was a serious course-correction paying off here, or I watched tonight the climax of a carefully-laid story …
