64 stories by "Neal Newman"
It may take place in rural Georgia circa 1909, but because of today's headlines about the mistreatment of women, The Color Purple is more relevant than ever. The tour of the recent Broadway …
A play by Moliere in the Philadelphia area? Be still my heart! I took a quick unscientific survey in the lobby, prior to the performance, and discovered that not many visitors to The Miser, …
A Thanksgiving musical? We can think of musicals that sometimes involve that observance, but an entire show about how the holiday evolved? Bucks County Playhouse's The New World may be onto …
"To the Bog of Cats I one day will return In mortal form or in ghostly form And I will find you there and there with your sojourn Forever by the Bog of Cats, my darling one." If there ever w…
Every few weeks we read in the news about the death, at 90+ years, of a beloved celebrity or artist. Someone always asks, "Whatever happened to them? I thought s/he was already dead." What d…
Family is everything according to Eugene O'Neill. The relationships you form as a child will haunt and guide all of your future life. Rebellion is a basic of the dynamic, and as much as O'Ne…
What's the most impressive technical production in the area? What's just as astounding as Disney World or any show on Broadway? It's Delaware Theatre Company's Something Wicked This Way Come…
Musical Heaven. Is there a better way to describe the production of Carousel at the Media Theatre? It would be hard to find a better-sung production than that given by the surpassingly yo…
What would you rather see: Fanny Brice singing on a tugboat in New York harbor, or a real live Fanny Brice in the Ziegfeld Follies? Funny Girl, the original 1964 Broadway musical, is a real …
How is theatre superior to film or TV? What special magic is found in live performance? This question is superbly answered in Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins, Ste…
Confederate statues are toppled because they ignite memories of slavery. Colleges are compelled to rename buildings because their namesakes turned out to be slaveholders. Theater companies m…
Warning: You don't have much time left! Nearly one third of Theater With a View's performances of Rabbit Hole have been rained out (including the earlier one I was supposed to attend.) There…
Whenever a musical group has the name "brothers" or "sisters" (as in "Smothers" or "Andrews") you can expect a tight, controlled sound with seamlessly blended harmonies. Close harmony (even …
Six days do not a week make. These famous words of nonsense, uttered by the young wife Cory, will tell all serious theatergoers that they are in the domain of Neil Simon and his oft-performe…
Ten-minute plays are a modern phenomenon. Some critics refer to them as "theatrical fast food" or "audience sound-bites" but this type of play demands a writer who can present exciting ideas…
The summer stock experience has nearly passed away. Half a century ago it was a vacation custom to visit a picturesque village and, after a day of sightseeing complemented by great food, sto…
June 1967. What memories does that bring? Sgt. Pepper, The Rolling Stones, bell bottoms, assassinations, the conflict with '50s conformity, trouble in the Middle East? This is the era summon…
A good American farce is as rare as a diamond. If you can write a crazy comedy that will keep audiences laughing, regional and community theaters will beat a path to your door. Ken Ludwig, o…
Alone. Lonesome. Free. These three words appear often in Paul Osborn's classic Morning's at Seven, now on view at Old Academy Players in East Falls. This play has become a staple of regional…
The Confederate statues have been removed from their pedestals. Some people are disappointed. Their rosy vision of the lost genteel South has been taken away. To them, history has been rewri…
Memorial Day Weekend usually means a trip to the shore, but Steel River Playhouse brought the ocean to Pottstown, with its glorious rendition of Disney's The Little Mermaid. True, the show t…
Are there any award nominators out there? Is so, get down to Act II Playhouse. This superb production of Brighton Beach Memoirs deserves a bundle of them. Much of the production's success…
Adultery, the trespass that has fascinated human beings through the ages, offers many emotional highs and lows. There is the desire that overwhelms all reason. There is the joy of stealing a…
Theatergoers of the 1970s will remember Peter Shaffer's Equus as the ultimate phantasmagorical theater ride. The revolving stage, the omnipresent stage smoke, the blasting music, and the …
Two young black men stumble upon an expensively dressed but badly beaten young white woman in the ghetto. What do they do? If it's Detroit in 1967, you certainly can't involve yourself with …
