388 stories from Theatre Criticsm
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") When Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts announced two years they were mounting The Drowsy Chaperone, there were smiles on many…
By ROY BERKO The film "Pretty Woman," with its signature Roy Orbison song, was originally planned to be a tale about class and prostitution, but was re-conceived into a romantic comedy and o…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") There are times when resetting a classic work in an updated time or alternative setting makes sense to breathe new life into staid wor…
By JACK LYONS The country's pandemic hit the Coachella Valley pretty hard. We lost CoyoteStageWorks, one of our multi-award-winning leading professional theatre companies, who after more tha…
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI. " Next Act, one of the city's longest-running theaters, opens the new year with an exhilarating, funny and disturbing Wisconsin premiere of Dominique Morisseau'…
By EDWARD RUBIN Despite countless closings, postponements, cancellations, empty seats, COVID interventions, and the annoying requirements of having to wear a mask, present proof of a vaccina…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") One of the most unanticipated closures on Broadway due to the COVID pandemic was the announcement from the Disney Theatrical Group tha…
By ROY BERKO Vickie Bussert, the director of Lizzie: The Musical, an exploration of the Lizzie Borden story, now on stage as a joint production between Baldwin Wallace's nationally respected…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Times have been very busy both together and separately for the composing team of composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michael Kori…
By AARON KRAUSE It is frigid these days at Palm Beach Dramaworks (PBD). Therefore, frostbite is a distinct possibility in a part of South Florida. But a warmth also emanates from PBD's stage…
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI " Life hasn't been all unicorns and rainbows for the national tour of Mean Girls, which is playing in Milwaukee January 25-30. Some of its performances in other …
By JACK LYONS, Desert Local News Agatha Christie was the queen of the murder mystery genre hands down. The transfer of her novels to the stage and for viewers of the film medium only incr…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") With its current production of Cabaret finally on the boards, the Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts has achieved some major f…
By JACK LYONS It is said that with age comes wisdom. It is also said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The eyes of today's beholders are currently in love with "West Side Story", ma…
By EDWARD RUBIN Kimberly Akimbo, the newly penned musical with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole, Shrek the Musical) and music by Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home, Caroline, or Ch…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") If ever there was a city with which a spiritual kinship could be forged with the national tour of Hadestown, there is little doubt it …
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Crittic ("Steppin' Out") Tovah Feldshuh had described herself as a "transformational" actor. Among her previous outings in one-woman shows were Israeli Prime …
By JACK LYONS, Desert Local News The Desert Ensemble Theatre Company (DETC) of Palm Springs launched its 2021-2022 season in its new home at Theatre # 3, inside the Palm Springs Cultural Cen…
By JACK LYONS, Desert Local News Live theaters all over the country are mounting their various holiday versions of Christmas-themed plays and musicals. The Palm Canyon Theatre, the city'…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Coming just a year after the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and last summer's massive Black Lives Mat…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Any child of the Sixties or worthy Deadhead would probably bet their monthly Social Security check that Harvard professor Timothy Lear…
By JACK LYONS, The world of theatre can become a transformative experience for many in the audience as each person views the production through different lenses at the same time.   …
By EDWARD RUBIN Manhattan Theatre Club's production of British playwright Simon Stephen's three-generation memory play Morning Sun runs through Sunday, December 19th at New York City Center.…
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI " It may seem unusual for the state's largest performing arts organization to open its doors after the pandemic with a comedy from the genteel South. Yet, a clos…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") There is an obvious conversation addressed early in Tootsie, the David Yazbek musical that won Santino Fontana a Leading Actor in a Mu…
