1,519 stories by "Peter Marks"
As in Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," Darrah Cloud's new play, "Our Suburb," attempts to catalogue the waves of joy, anxiety, hope and loss that lap up in an average American community and, in…
A school of thought has it that "Gypsy" is the greatest American musical of all time. Signature Theatre's riveting revival offers breath-stopping instruction in why. Directed by Joe Calarco …
It drives Diane Paulus nuts, seeing people asleep in their theater seats. Not because she considers it a breach of playgoing etiquette. No, the torture for this Tony-winning director is the …
Can the Kennedy Center dream bigger? For an institution striving to be America's premier showplace for the performing arts, the pressure to be all things to all constituencies has to be enor…
Bolstered by the well-received performances of its stars, Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella, Arena Stage's production of "The Velocity of Autumn" is moving to Broadway. The comedy-drama b…
In suburban Trumbull, Conn., a controversy has been raging for several weeks now, over the plans for a high school production of "Rent" next spring that were summarily cancelled by the princ…
For top honors in this year's contest for most ironic casting decision, I nominate Mikhail Baryshnikov, playing the role of a man who refuses to dance. Would seem a waste of a powerful pair …
When I say that the new stage version of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" is like a Tyler Perry comedy, only better, I do not mean to cast aspersions on the entertainment empire Perry's built …
In Shirley MacLaine's hilltop retreat, a homestead at once serene and spectacular, the walls talk to you. Oh, not in the mystical way the name of this forever spiritually questing actress au…
The longest silence in "The Lyons," Nicky Silver's scathing comedy of familial malevolence, is the one that follows the line: "Let's talk about something pleasant." The Lyons, pieces of work…
It was in Washington, history records, that Stephen Sondheim made the crucial change that sent "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum" to Broadway as one of the pillars of American musi…
Growing up in Riga, Latvia, little Misha was introduced to the world of drama by his culture-vulture mom, Alexandra. "When I was 5 or 6, my mother used to drag me around to the theater," the…
Give thanks this week that the Apples fall among us. They're a variety of family whose grown-up members gather, via playwright Richard Nelson's imagination, in four buoyant and moving plays,…
Who knew Baryshnikov was a theater kid? Growing up in Riga, Latvia, little Misha was introduced to the world of drama by his culture-vulture mom, Alexandra. "When I was 5 or 6, my mother use…
Woolly Mammoth Theatre is one of five recipients nationwide of a major grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation designed to help performing arts institutions navigate changes in the a…
The brainchild of composer Tom Kitt and book and lyric writer Brian Yorkey of "Next to Normal" fame, "If/Then" boasts a number of appealing features, including an earthy star with heavenly p…
Ever buy an appliance with so many working parts that you feel the need to read the owner's manual again and again? A first sitting through "If/Then," the charming and ungainly new musical t…
Spurred by the controversy over Theater J's forthcoming presentation of "The Admission" " a play by Israeli dramatist Motti Lerner that has drawn fire from some local pro-Israel activists " …
"If/Then" is the most entertaining musical I haven't seen.
Allow me to explain: the new musical, starring Idina Menzel and created by the folks who brought you "Next to Normal," has been ru…
"If/Then" is the most entertaining musical I haven't seen. Allow me to explain: the new musical, starring Idina Menzel and created by the folks who brought you "Next to Normal," has been run…
Back in the good old days " well, 2005, anyway " the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington's premier classical theater, mounted a fine holiday production. Lo and behold, it was by Shakespe…
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Sometimes, the rawest ingredients yield the deepest flavors, as the basic instinct-driven power players passionately demonstrate in "Mies Julie," the captivating South African reincarnation …
If there were any doubts that the long-under-used National Theatre is back in the hunt for sought-after fare, the news that it will serve as the local stop for the national tour of Broadway'…
Malvolio's famous words have never rung truer than at this moment in Broadway's Belasco Theatre, where they are gleefully recalled in every priceless audience encounter with Mark Rylance's n…
