4,220 stories from Broad Street Review
American Theater Magazine recently named the Inquirer's Toby Zinman one of the nation's 12 most influential theater critics. How did she reach that lofty plateau? And how did a gentle academ…
David Schulner's An Infinite Ache speeds us through the lives of a man and woman from their first date to their old age in 90 minutes.
What is it about modern Ireland that produces so many playwrights intent on cutting through that charming Gaelic sentimentality to expose the human brutality underneath?
Working for a tyrannical boss is no fun. Neither is Leslye Headland's tired attempt to wring comedy from the situation.
When the Christian polemicist C.S. Lewis meets Sigmund Freud" who considered God an illusion" whom do you root for? Mark St. Germain's imagined meeting between two brilliant men crackles wit…
Jews comprise a large segment of urban theater audiences, so any show with a Jewish theme enjoys a good head start. But even discriminating Jewish theatergoers may gag on this musical celebr…
Having grown up ambivalently Jewish, Abigail Pogrebin embarked on an intriguing project: to interview famous Jews about their Jewishness. The new musical based on her book is equally intrigu…
The beautiful and talented American model and photographer Lee Miller constantly reinvented herself throughout a long and tumultuous life, while repeatedly wangling her way onto the world's …
When The Island was first performed in South Africa in 1973, it represented a courageous attempt to capture the inhumanity of Apartheid. It's still compelling from the relative comfort of a …
Even more than half a century after its Broadway debut, Gore Vidal's The Best Man still has a timely pull. And it's hard not tease out modern resonances in this old-fashioned political drama…
It's time for somebody to say publicly what Philadelphia women have been muttering to each other in the line for years: The ladies' rooms at many Philadelphia theaters are deplorable. Join m…
Keen Company's Off Broadway revival of Painting Churches, Tina Howe's critically esteemed portrait of an artist and her aging parents, is as relevant today as it was when the award-winning p…
Gruesome Playground Injuries is a small play with a large theme: Nietzsche's notion that "Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger." It's an edgy and ambitious two-person play that ultimat…
Why is The Book of Mormon sold out for the next two years? For the same reason, I suspect, that Americans have spent two centuries wondering whether Mormons are harmless children or a threat…
Until recently Philadelphia's theater community seemed mired in edgy plays about alienated 30-somethings in dysfunctional families. But four recent productions" all intelligent, challenging,…
John Logan's Red dramatizes the ageless tension between art and commerce. Yet not every artist was as angry and even paranoiac as Mark Rothko.
What's a brilliant Abstract Expressionist like Mark Rothko to do in an art world overrun by Philistines and pop culture? John Logan's Red, for all its dramatic shortcomings, provides rich an…
This adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank is different from" and better than" the 1955 version you grew up with. Among other things, it's less squeamish about Anne's adolescent awkwardness …
Philadelphia's Arden and Wilma theaters open their seasons this month with large-cast plays populated by local actors. That's a tribute to the growing wealth of local talent available" and a…
As a frequent theatergoer, I find it amusing and vaguely annoying when the only young people in a theater can be found on the stage. But it's no joke: This age disparity is responsible for t…
"Freud's Last Session" " which recently moved to Off Broadway's New World Stages " is spirited, witty, and eminently engaging.
How much freedom is too much? For the great Baruch Spinoza, there could be no limit; but for the community that judged him, there had to be. The lantern Theater's production does full justic…
Unlike its earlier productions, here the harsh words of August: Osage County derive less from anger than desperation; the worst of the characters come across as victims, not monsters. The Ar…
It usually takes a hard heart and a strong stomach to sit through a play written by Adam Rapp. He's as cynical as he is prolific, and as explicit as he is insightful. The yuck factor is alwa…
John Larroquette, Kelsey Grammer, Sutton Foster, and more at the Tonys 'fessed up to the gaffes they'll never forget
