607 stories by "Peter D. Kramer"
Director Chrissy Colangelo is looking for a juke box to borrow or rent for Blind Brook’s production of “West Side Story.” She would need it March 14-25. If you can help her…
Today’s storm has canceled at least two of the four high-school-musical opening nights planned for tonight. Thursday’s performance of “Urinetown” at Edgemont High Sch…
The show must go on, unless the snow goes on and on. Mother Nature—which has already forced the cancellation of at least a half-dozen rehearsals—could throw a slippery wrench int…
Joshua Roman has acted in musicals before, but never at Edgemont High School. That changes this week, when the 17-year-old senior leads the cast of the quirky and irreverent “Urinetown…
If there was a word to describe Paul, the character Troy Trippiccio played in Harrison High School’s production of “A Chorus Line” last year, he said it’d be “s…
Travis Ramirez has played it serious, as the haunted church organist Simon Stimson in “Our Town.” He played it madcap backstage in “Fiddler on the Roof,” playing all …
Yorktown High School’s Gabby Landicino said the sky is the limit this year, as she tackles one of musical theaters plummest parts: Dolly Levi in “Hello, Dolly!” “You …
Kelsey Baron of Peekskill doesn’t lack for inspiration as would-be nun Maria in Kennedy Catholic’s production of “The Sound of Music,” running this weekend. The sopho…
Playing it straight is no problem for Chae Young Kang, an Irvington senior who said her Korean grandmother runs a tight ship at home. “I feel really connected to Sarah, living in a res…
Alisia Escobar, a senior at Byram Hills, has played some great roles in her school career: Annie in “Annie,” Chava in “Fiddler on the Roof” and Belle in “Beauty…
Bryan Lynch reads from his iPad and rattles off his director’s notes to the cast in rat-a-tat fashion. A set change needs fixing. A line needs a different delivery. What happened to th…
Paul Kite, a guest director who takes the reins of Briarcliff’s excellent theater program from producer Ian Driver, said he chose “Urinetown” for a few reasons: “It&#…
Leading the dozen shows opening on high-school stages this week is a high-school rarity: “Man of La Mancha” at Pleasantville. The musical story of Don Quixote employs the booming…
By any measure, Ben DeMarco’s range of roles in his Rye High School career has been impressive: Snoopy in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” to The Beast in “Be…
The hottest ticket in New York this week may not be on Broadway, but for “Sweeney Todd,” staged in a church basement in Bronxville. The plan was for Bronxville High School to unv…
Exciting news on the Metro Awards front. The Metros and media sponsor The Journal News and lohud.com will collaborate to add a new category this year: student critic. Here’s how it wor…
Last year, Mikael Bucknavage was unrecognizable in a sea of green latex as the title character in “Shrek.” This year, the Rye Neck senior is 17 and decidedly less irritable. In f…
With its PACE program and a tradition of performing arts excellence, Mamaroneck High School is an arts-centric school. But for years, if a Mamaroneck kid wanted to be in a big-book musical, …
Whether on Broadway or at a local high school, theater is full of tradition. Some schools have senior circles where the about-to-graduate cast members bid a tearful farewell at the final cur…
Here’s are glimpses of what I saw at a recent rehearsal at The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, where Chris Briante is filling the considerable shoes of the now-retired M.A. Haskin. When…
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival turns 29 in June, two months after Kate Liberman—its new managing director, named last week—turns 30. Liberman, a Needham, Massachusetts native…
When he was at Mount Vernon High School back in the ‘80s, J.B. Smoove wasn’t a comedian yet. And his name wasn’t Smoove. Back then, he was Jerry Brooks. “I was a hall…
When you’re an all-boys or all-girls school, there are two ways to go when you want to stage a musical. The all-boys Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains recruits actresses …
The plot thickens over the sale of Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre. The owners of Broadway’s tiniest theater, named for Rockland’s most-famous actress, say the time is up: T…
Change has come to the Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls, with more to follow—including a drive to reach one particular audience that rarely feels at home in a theater. The Equity ve…
