By ROY BERKO Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist who came to national attention via her long-running comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For." She combined her life story and her comic strip style in…
By ROY BERKO "Guilt, the gift that keeps giving." "Marriage has no guarantees. If that's what you're looking for, go live with a car battery." "Encourage independence in your children by reg…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") With its undercurrent of racism, statutory rape and threatened castration, Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth is not a play for t…
By EDWARD RUBIN OK, so they weren't exactly dancing in the aisles at the New World Stages the night that I attended The Rock & Roll Man. Forget that I said that. What the audience was do…
By ALAN SMASON Polish filmmaker Rafal Zielinski is finally seeing his independent film "Tiger Within" released in theaters today, Friday, July 7. The motion picture released through Menemsha…
By EDWARD RUBIN Little did Andrew Lloyd Webber know when he saddled his most recent musical with the ill-chosen name Bad Cinderella that he was handing theater critics here in New York a cud…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Many fans of Tennessee Williams know of the feelings of anguish he experienced when dealing with his sister Rose Isabel Williams. Rose…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a very funny work. That much has been clearly established in the decade…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Meredith Wilson composed what may have been the most iconic of American musicals with his The Music Man that took home five Tony Award…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") In a town famous for launching its most famous celebration on Twelfth Night, one might think the connection to the self-named Shak…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Aaron Sorkin and Bartlett Sher have made an impressive team. In fact, their partnership has resulted in the greatest box office for a …
(NEW YORK) " The United Palace, the opulent and spectacular movie theater that was once home to minister Reverend Ike, served as the glamorous backdrop for Broadway's night to honor its own,…
By ROY BERKO Doubt: A Parable, which is now on stage at Beck Center for the Arts, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play.  It ran for 525 performances i…
By EDWARD RUBIN Alfred Uhry's musical Parade, co-conceived by Hal Prince with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, is now playing to sell-out crowds and rave reviews, and back on Broadway…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Author Mark Haddon created a best selling novel 20 years ago in Great Britain with "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") There is an adage well known to pharmacists and those familiar with shampoo. The directions "repeat when necessary" come to mind for a…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Despite its having won a Tony Award for scenic design, The SpongeBob Musical appeared to be a lightweight entry on the season for R…
By ROY BERKO The setting in which a musical production takes place, often affects the pleasure one gets from the experience. A perfect case in point is Ain't Misbehavin' presently being …
(NEW YORK) " Tony Awards nominations were announced this morning by Lea Michele and 2022 Tony Award winner Myles Frost. The full list of nominations follows. A total of 38 shows were elig…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Lance E. Nichols has played many roles in his stellar movie and TV career, but the opportunity to emulate playwright August Wilson in …
By ROY BERKO It's always exciting and challenging to see a "new" play script come alive in a staged production, especially by a creditable performance company.  What We Look Like, now …
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") In 1851 in an article written for DeBow's Review that was published in New Orleans, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, a physician, created a pseu…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") Brian Egland wears many hats in the theatrical world " stage and film actor, singer, songwriter, photographer and director among them.…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") If Jersey Boys and Mamma Mia! are examples of "jukebox musicals," then the national tour of Moulin Rouge! might be more accurately …
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic ("Steppin' Out") The final production for the Jefferson Performing Arts Society's 2022-23 season is Misery, the play written by the late scriptwriter W…