6,591 stories from Stage and Cinema
THIS SHOW’S ON FIRE "Ich bin ein Biedermann" isn't what President Kennedy famously said in Berlin in 1963, but it's something playwright Max Frisch might have said while writing Herr B…
BREAKING BETTER He who laughs last laughs best"especially when you overcome an addiction to methamphetamine. So, after recovery, what do you do next? (And I don't mean Disneyland.) You turn …
THE SEAGULL AS AN ALBATROSS At over two hours, it's almost as long as its source. So it's a good thing that Stupid Fucking Bird is more than a parody or it would soon lose its welcome. Aaron…
THE RUBRICS OF FAITH A play as well presented and satisfyingly written as most of Robin Uriel Russin’s new The Face in the Reeds deserves special mention. The Family Holiday Dramedy wi…
A SWORD THAT'S HARD TO SWALLOW The best thing I can say about Kari Floren's new play Voices of Swords is that it seems to be well-intentioned. Unfortunately, sitting through it feels like Ms…
THE GREAT GAY IMPROVISERS You could call it an action meditation on marriage. As if to sum up his own theatrical legacy, as well as 70 years of gay life and love, Terrence McNally's valedict…
A TRAGEDY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS Writing a play of more than 800 pages that takes twelve hours to perform is both an act of hubris and an act of genius. Written and directed by The Hypocrites' …
ALLEY HIGH There are many reasons why some previously produced Broadway musicals are rarely performed: The sheer size of the show makes it prohibitively expensive (The Most Happy Fella, 1956…
SOUR CHERRIES It's been 110 years since The Cherry Orchard premiered. While Chekhov insisted that his play about the fall of Russian aristocracy"and the fallout from the abolition of serfdom…
A REVIVAL WHICH ISN’T FIDDLING AROUND "To Life" indeed. There's a ton of it, not to mention heartbreak and wisdom, in Rudy Hogenmiller's warmly wise revival, Light Opera Works' second …
STRAWBERRY FIELDS I’m not sure what, but it says something about our young writers and aging audiences that the most durable millennial genre is the coming-of-middle-age medical trauma…
A JEWEL OF THEIR SOULS The Gift Theatre's production of Othello " their first Shakespeare, and my first exposure to this company " is a gift indeed. The doubly minimal set, combined with the…
ONE ACT IS COMPANY, SIX IS A CROWD Here’s the thing: an evening of one-act plays always reminds me of those Night of Scenes showcases back in school. It’s a good chance for w…
A TASTY PUNCH NEEDS TO BE SPIKED Flowing dialogue, skillful performances, and Audrey Alford's solid direction make Micheline Auger's banal and predictable Donkey Punch, a play which attempts…
BROADWAY VIA THE CATSKILLS AND THE ACTORS STUDIO I like plays featuring middle-aged guys who did everything right and still can’t figure anything out. So Ron Sossi and Larry Field&…
FLAMENCO FEVER AT THE FORD AMPHITHEATRE Last year, after the thrilling, fiery, and passionate flamenco dancer Manuel Gutiérrez displayed a crackling tap and pedal pyrotechnics the likes of …
DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME Ah Hollywood. Â How it glitters. Â How it glistens. Â How true it is that when you scrape off the layers of tinsel, you find, well, more tinsel. Â This musica…
EVEN WHEN A GENERATION CAN'T HOLD UP, ITS HAIR CAN When Diane Paulus' revival of Hair swooshed into the Pantages in 2012, it felt more like a cause for nostalgic partying than a recreation o…
THE PAGEANT OF THE MASTERS IS ON THE CASE On March 18, 1990, two young men dressed as Boston police officers walked unchallenged into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Some 81 minutes lat…
SWEET, DREAMY Based on the true story of a rabid blue-collar fan whose dream of making friends with her favorite Grand Ole Opry star came true in 1961, Always…Patsy Cline is an enormou…
ETHER IS NEITHER/NOR A dramaturgical mess, Elizabeth Egloff's strangely shapeless historical drama about the mid-19th-century advent of ether as an anesthesia contains a fascinating story bu…
FINDING NEW MOMENTS IN THE WOODS I wondered at the intermission of Fiasco Theater's production of Into the Woods why they hadn't cast amazing singers. Up to this point, the ten-member ensemb…
FOUR PLAY The setting for Ronald Harwood’s 1999 play is a retirement home in England for former opera singers. Three of the residents,  Reginald, Cecily, and Wilfred, try to pers…
AGONY UNVISITED In this play by Tim Livingston, apparently his first, an artist and self-proclaimed protagonist named Joey (played by the author’s brother Joey Livingston) complains in…
GLOBE THEATRE EARNS ITS NAME This play really is the thing. Audaciously assuming that all's well that ends well, the Globe Theatre is celebrating both Shakespeare's 450th birthday and the 40…
